to Namwiwa: off the pavement again

August 15, 2015

"I wanted to say hello to you, I see that you are new to the area", a local man tells us with a big smile when we have stopped for a break.

Today the rabbit (Javier) will chase the tortoises (us). We start out earlier than Javier, after all he is a Spainard...stay up late, sleep late, and with a different capability and style of cycling will catch us soon. We reach the junction where we turn off the paved road.

At 20 kms, we stop and have a rolex (chapatti and omelet roll), by the second break, we hear behind us "muzungu" and see Javier has caught us. After lunch the three of us continue on. Javier talked with a lady in French and found out the information about the boat we would need to cross a swamp where the road ends. We watch as the thunderclouds build and then finally the rain as we seek refuge under a roof along with the locals.

Reaching the end of the road, we see the dugout canoes, negotiate a price for taking us and the bikes across to the other side where we can pick up the road again. It's a 40 minute float through tall papyrus and reeds, so quiet and peaceful. Except for the pole in the water pushing the canoe and the slap...slap...slap as we all fought off mosquitos. Once unloaded and the gear back on the bikes, it's a short ride to town and we locate the guesthouse.

We've been in worse.

The room is small, the bed questionable. This a time when it's nice to have your own gear and we pitch our tent inside the room. The pit toilet is out back. They provided each of us a bucket of water to wash the road dust away.

We leave the paved road and take the secondary road to Pallisa

We stop for another "rolex". These things are great biking food.

There isn't much large traffic, but this is what happens when a truck passes.

Googlemaps shows a road, but for about five kilometers it is interrupted by a swamo (river). We negotiate a fare and fill up one canoe.

This is the room you can get for $1.50 in Namwiwa. We decide not to chance the mosquito net or bedding and pitch our inner tent in the room as best we could in a small space.

Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 5,599 km (3,477 miles)

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