Day Two - Mzuzu to Soccer Field Camp

Distance: 124.0km
Ride time: 6:00
Climb: 1998m

Best shuffled song: Alive by Pearl Jam

Another mando day. Today was probably the easiest mando day for a while. No dirt, no rocks, just a fair whack of climbing. It was pretty nice climbing as well. Up through the something or other Mountains.

There is a lot of hardwood harvesting going on in the mountains. It could well be one of those short-term good, long-term environment disaster deals, but it is nice to ride with the smell of freshly cut timber. Even better, towards the top of the climb it started to rain and a headwind started to blow. Rain and wind make any climb better.

At one point in the climb, I saw a huge mutant dog loping along the road. I thought that finally all my years of preparation for fighting mutants (read: playing Fallout) would pay off. I was about to jump off my bike and start having at it when I realised it wasn't a mutant at all. It was just a big baboon. For my money, these are actually more dangerous than mutants. They have some pretty big teeth and lot kind of strong.

The big news is that another GI sickness is going around camp. With that on top of my not-quite-cured ESS, I am somehow managing to have two different types of sickness at once. I dunno what to do about it really. I'm cutting a lot of the snack foods out and reducing my portion sizes as well. It would really suck to have gotten to this point and not be able to ride because I can't keep my guts under control.

One of the new Indaba guys, G, has started to ride half days. He has to ride on the lunch truck and do lunch in the morning, so he can't do full days. He rode some loaner bikes a couple of times. Today though, he actually rode sweep (the last rider who has to scrape) - in a pair of borrowed bike shorts. He was lightning fast whipping on his baggies as soon as he got into camp. Pretty funny. Every other rider here is pretty used to getting around in bike gear. Some riders take it too far though: bibs are not all day wear.

Camp today is on an oval near a school. In keeping with the Malawi != Ethiopia, the kids seem to be pretty under control. The local village is also celebrating Easter. Most of it seems to involve smoky fires and drumming.

Dan's Camping Tip: You definitely need to bring a sleeping bag liner. Even if it is too warm to sleep in the liner, you should probably sleep on it. A Thermarest that has been all stunk up with rancid, tropical sweat has a very particular, and in no way pleasant, odour.