Day 131-135: Mzuzu to North Malawi

February 10, 2025 to February 14, 2025

The M1 north from Mzuzu is being repaired. Some parts are pretty good asphalt, with some wheel swallowing potholes, and some parts are horrid dirt track (around the part where the road used to be). It’ll get better, but for now it's a slog along the road. Pretty good scenery though!

We had an option to turn off and climb some more to the famous ‘Mushroom farm’ guest house. It was a fair bit of steep climbing, and we decided to be kind to the bikes and ourselves and just roll down the hill back to Lake Malawi. Except the road surface got bad and steep and it wasn’t a pleasant roll down on the bikes (apparently a less pleasant rollup if you consider the 5 plus broken down trucks we passed and somehow one that managed to get into a ditch on its way down, a common occurrence we later heard). It was getting pretty dark before we found somewhere to stop. The whole of Malawi there have been places to stop pretty much wherever we needed them – except for today. It was ok in the end, we ended up doing 125 km and >1000 m climbing (and even more descending) and ended up at the lake right on sunset, eyes full of bugs as it was too dark for sunglasses, in the care of the King’s Road campsite. We stupidly didn’t have any food – we haven’t carried much in Malawi because there’s nearly always something available, so the family running the camp site took pity on us and we got their leftovers. Lucky us - a reminder of that South African hospitality we had been so fortunate to receive earlier in the trip. Later we were asked by the family if we had been at the Hungry Lion in Chipata (busted!), seems his daughter recognised our bikes from when they passed through on the same day 2 weeks earlier! Small world.

The campsite was idyllic. We could have camped right on the lake shore. There was a full moon rising over the lake. If we’d messed around, we could have put the tent under a small shelter. Would have made a nice photo. Instead we took an offered room for the same price. We’ve not been camping very often in Malawi. The rooms are cheap, and pretty good. And more than that, the weather is unpredictable this time of year. The sky can be clear in the evening, and then a storm comes through during the night. The tent is not the newest (i.e. we’ve been flooded out a few times this trip) so we’re avoiding camping unless we can get a roof over the tent as well. And the rooms are cheap and good quality – nearly always the price is for the room, not per person, so it’s a bargain for a couple. Although you might only get one pillow, one towel or more often one breakfast, included with the room.

Next day was along the lake. And another great day. Hot in the sun, but the road is great fun to ride along. Enough serious potholes to slow the drivers right down, enough serious potholes that you get to swerve around all over the road. Follows the lake shore, so it’s flat for kilometres. We probably should have camped part way to Karonga, but we took a punt that there would be a storm that night (and there was) so ended up doing another 92 km to Karonga.

Goats get the best view from the top of the truck. Some weren't pleased with the idea.

Karonga isn’t really much of a town. There’s a dinosaur skeleton in a shed (the Malawisaurus - for real) and a handful of restaurants, but we decided to spend a few days here – we don’t want to get to Mbeya in Tanzania before the bits from Germany arrive.

We’ve been searching for replacement tubes now. More bike woes. We brought four new tubes. Stephen normally repairs tubes until the patches are on top of each other. But we’ve suffered from four vales pulling out of the tube. We’ve tried repairing this, but it doesn’t work. Of course, the rims are designed to take Presta vales, and guess what you can’t buy in Malawi. Maybe we’ll get some in Tanzania (hopefully there are two in the box from Germany, but we might need to source a few more if we keep having failures). It’d be really disappointing to have found a way around the chain problem, to need a lift because we can’t fix a tube. The good news is the $3.5 chain is working well. I’m carrying a couple of spare chains now (need to weigh down the bike with something). The busted drive train will keep going for some time. We’re still looking forward to having the new chain ring / chains to use a soon as this one really gives up the ghost.

That’s a long story, but it turns out none of the bike bits we need are in Karonga. Not a great surprise. We did get a few minutes entertainment finding a welder who had a grinder to turn a ¼” screw into a ¼” threaded rod. This was to replace something similar that jumped off on the road (used to attach the camera to the handlebar mount). Some of the speed bumps seem to be perfectly constructed to make the bike shake horribly and the cars just make a ‘brrr’ sound as the fly over them.

Another short section (it’s hot in the sun by the lake!) from Karonga to the border. We could have crossed into Tanzania, but it was hot, and we had just enough money left for a room with aircon (when the power is on) and one last night in Malawi. In general, the food has been pretty good in Malawi, no upset stomachs. This place blemished our otherwise perfect score.

Today's ride: 264 km (164 miles)
Total: 6,789 km (4,216 miles)

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