Back on the road to Malawi

Battling to ride more than 20km comfortably without padded shorts I spent the morning trying to track down another pair. Between closed businesses, shops only stocking bike & hardware and a sole, gaudy, short and top set I can to the conclusion it was not meant to be. That delay saw me stopping 50 km up by the road in Chongwe at a cheap guesthouse on the main road. I'd chosen this over slightly nicer residence due to location.
Getting away the next morning I headed to Ramfussa 85km away. The flat tarmacced roads of Botswana gave way to more rolling terrain. And headwind. At 80 km I was cooked. I stuck my thumb out as 5pm approached to cover the final 20km. The first Ute past pulled over up the road. It was a bunch of Ag officials who did climate work returning from a Saturday in Lusaka finalizing budgets.
They determined that it would be better to drop me a further 110 km up the road to take out one of the significant ranges over that distant. As a result I ended up at Launga Bridge Camp at 6.30pm setting up my tent in the darkness. There was no shortage of hills to make up for it over the following day. The Laungwa River serves as the Zambia / Mozambique border. Nothing substantial demarced that, and for all intents it was just opposing river banks.
Having dropped down to the river level of my 300m the next day climbed me back to 1150m with a total ascent of 1100m over there 63km to the summit town of Kacholola in a shadowing of the border. As trucks are not allowed to travel after 9pm Kacholola was a favourite overnight truck stop before the next days screaming downhill, on the road I'd just ascended. A cheap guesthouse was my refuge that night as the loud music blasted through the small town. The 40km to Nyimba held most of the height, or demand no ded it back post descent. At that point I decided to jump a bus for the last 200km to Chipata, the launch point for Malawi. It was also the gateway to the acclaimed South Luangwa Park, a wildlife park reputed to be Zambia's jewel.Read more