Day One - Chitimba Beach to Mzuzu Hotel in Mzuzu

Distance: 130km (per TDA)

Ride time: Unknown

Climb: 1600m (per TDA)

Best shuffled song: The Legend of John Henry's Hammer.

Each day out of rest day seems to be harder than the last. Not the riding, but battling the malaise brought on by the rest day. Something about not riding, sitting around and eating whenever brings on some powerful apathy. Its strange though, because each time I get back on the bike and really enjoy the day of riding.

Today was especially nice. We cruised down the coast of Lake Malawi for 16 or so kilometres then rode up the escarpment. This was only around 600m or so of climb, but it was enough to afford a great view of the shore, the lake and the rivers that feed into it. Like I've said before; a good view can make up a lot of climbing. At one point on the climb today, we could see along the escarpment and watch a couple of waterfalls spilling out of the forested top of the escarpment. There was also a waterfall right next to the road. I saw a few riders taking advantage of it to try and beat the humidity - it is still plenty muggy at the lower altitudes here.

At the top of the climb, we got our reward. An almost too long and too fast descent down to the valley below. Then a super fast 30km or so with a tailwind. I basically got blown all the way to lunch.

After lunch, we had some taller and steeper hills to contend with. We also swung a bit further southwards and picked up a headwind. This was a bit of a downer - instead of gently sailing along I had to work for the kilometres.

The strangest thing about today was that I had no GPS at all. Like Rambo who had to cut away all his high-tech radios when his cord got tangled during his jump. Instead of a parachute malfunction though, I had a laziness attack and forgot to charge my GPS. Or it got turned on in my bag or something. The upshot was that I had no cycle computer all day. I should have been asking people how far we'd gone when I passed them and checking how long it was taking, but I don't have a watch anymore either.

Riding with no idea how far there was to go or how fast I'm going was kind of nice. Normally, I spend heaps of time thinking about how long it is to go till lunch or camp or whatever landmark is next. Today though, I just rolled along at my own pace looking at the scenery and thinking not much at all. I did go slower than usual though. A couple of times after lunch, I saw Rod and Jullianna in the distance. Normally, I think that I would have caught them. Today, no. I wouldn't want to ride the whole tour without a cycle computer - especially on the harder and longer days - but a day is a nice break.

I am having second thoughts about my Malawi == Ethiopia comments. So far, the kids have been nowhere near as crazy as in Ethiopia. Also, I've started to see more schools which seems to be a good sign. On the downside, I've seen a ridiculous number of coffin shops. Like multiple, competing coffin shops per village. It is the kind of thing that if you heard it on a serious documentary narrated by Dame Judi Dench or someone, you'd think that it is terribly sad. If you see it while riding your bike, you'd probably think it is kind of weird and cool.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you have a hole in your Thermarest you should mark it with tape. If you mark it with chalk and then misapply the hot glue and then pull off the patch in a rage then you will take off the chalk as well. Then you won't be able to find the hole again because the glue will plug it for a while. Then you will be in a pretty pickle indeed.