Day 106 Mzuzu Malawi to Chipata, Zambia 412km 16.50°- 25.5° raining

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A breakfast feast
Including chicken gizzards, millie mill porridge, fried plantains, 
Tomatoes and cucumber slices, even here...
I don't think I have ever seen them on an NZ breakfast buffet but they have been ubiquitous on our journey.

Then I spot a tee shirt
Which says
2016/17 Emergency Targeted Food Distributions.

Grevasio, explains...
There is a famine in southern Malawi.
There were floods that washed the planted seeds away, then there is drought
Nothing is growing
There will be very poor, or no harvests  in the south.
All Southern African countries are affected.

On that somber note we leave.
Lastone farewells us.
Like me he was the last one.

We spot a pig going to the market,
Eucalypt forests along the road.
Some have been burned in forest fires, they will regenerate.
The outlook for the burnt conifer forests is not so promising.

It is drizzling as we leave Mzuzu
Cooling drizzle
Soon my 'Draggin' jeans are soon soaking wet.
Nothing for it but to change into my other bike trousers.

Sometimes lightning and thunder brings a deluge.
We stop till it passes.
No sign of overbridges, gas stations, or bus stops for shelter here.

The countryside is lush green
Seedlings have sprouted
Some farmers are growing tobacco and there is a processing plant along the road.

Mango season is in full swing -
For sale on roadside stalls.
Many people are eating the fruit as they walk along.
I wonder if their skin is  bothered by the urushiol in the mango skin.

A little red car seems to be a perfect fit on the tray of a truck. 
How did it get there?
How will it get off?

We stop for petrolat Kachebere
A big public gathering - sounds like a preacher in full swing to me
Our first snacks for the day. A small packet of biscuits.
And one for the boys hanging around.

Off to the border,
Enthusiastic men waving bundles of notes 
Wanting to exchange our money,
They don't believe that we have no Malawian Kwacha.
It was spent at the gas station.

An easy border crossing,
A short ride to Chipata
A wonderful welcome from Lovesome.

 
 


 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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