I had almost decided against going to Lake Kariba. It was a detour and when I arrived at the turnoff to Siavonga I was tired and had pretty much made up my mind to skip it, stay on the main road and be at the border soon. There’s usually a small village at road turnoffs like this as was in this case and I stopped and sat down to have a cold drink and some roasted goat. I was lucky to run into a really nice guy who gave me all the information about road conditions that I had been worried about and organized me a place to stay in that tiny village where I would not have expected to find something like a guesthouse.

So I stayed and did go to the lake the next day. Getting there still involved some cursing as is was incredibly hot and I struggled getting up the hill after my 4 week break from cycling but I was rewarded. Being off the main road usually means nicer places and villages to pass through which was the case her as well. So I ended up in Siavonga which is where I wrote the last post about the hippo visits.

And it got a lot better than that once I had crossed the border into Zimbabwe.

I’m back on the road for 3 days and today should be my last day in Zambia, I’m right next to the border and will cross into Zimbabwe tomorrow.

Yes, that means I have changed my mind about the route for the rest of the trip once again. As I have just spent time in Namibia I did not want to return to places I’ve just been to so I went south directly towards Zimbabwe just making a small detour now to visit Lake Kariba.

I’m back in Lusaka after spending the last 3 weeks in Namibia. Not cycling but going around by bus and car. And not alone which made for a nice change with the right company :)

I’ll take another break from cycling for the next 3 weeks. I had to store the bike in Lusaka and take a bus to Windhoek, Namibia to be here in time. That’s 26 hours on the bus in 2 stages but I did see some wildlife (Elephants and Antelopes) along the way which is always even more fascinating than seeing them in a national park. And the other highlight was stopping over at Livingstone for a day to visit Mosi oa Tunya (“smoke that thunders”), also known as Victoria Falls. I’m planning to collect the bike in Lusaka and continue cycling from there in early January.

I met Simon again just before leaving Malawi. Or rather he found me and suddenly stood in my door after somebody had told him where I was staying.

The place we stayed at was funny. Founded by a guy from Denmark who died a few years ago it is now run by his very nice family. They actually assembled and sang for us to wish us a safe journey when we were ready to leave in the morning.

Going back down to the lake I’ve spent some time in Nkhata Bay. I’m now in the capital, Lilongwe and will leave for Zambia tomorrow.

I went up the the Rift Valley mountains – again and it wont have been the last time. I’m in Mzuzu now, taking a break after the steep ascent and feasting on fantastic Koran food at Joy’s place.

I’ve been in Malawi for the last few days.

I was planning to do some hiking in Tukuyu, the last Tanzanian city before the border. It’s way up at around 2000 meters and there are some crater lakes and a natural rock bridge to explore. But it was cold (well, relatively) and foggy there so I wanted to get out of there fast and continued right away.

I’ve climbed from the 770m meters of Lake Tanganyika to almost 2000 meters of altitude near Sumbawanga. Parts of the road from Sumbawanga to Tunduma are still under constructions but even those parts were quite nice to ride. There’s always people around but only very little traffic. This changes after Tunduma. Because of there border crossing to Zambia there are many trucks on the road. I hope to be in Mbeya tomorrow, from there go to Tukuyu and then cross into Malawi.

Here’s a few things I encountered on that roads during the last days riding there:

I went from Kigoma to Kasanga by boat. That ship, the MV Liemba is quite remarkable. Not only is it the world’s oldest passenger ship in regular operation, it was sunk and stayed submerged in the lake for 8 years before being recovered and restored.