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On being asked what was her favourite international cuisine</br>
"I love going to new countries and trying out the McDonald’s" - Mandy Moore (singer)

Dar Es Salaam to Blantyre, Malawi (July 2002)

Roundtheworldbybike
2005-11-18 11:28:03

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I apologise to all my loyal readers for the delay in publishing this update (a lack of computer access). You have both been very patient....

An Englishman’s lot is a depressingly predictable one. The land of dashed hopes and glorious failures. My departure from Dar Es Salaam was delayed for two days by the euphoric post-Argentina match revelry and consequent recovery. Now I sit alone in a deserted hostel in Malawi, too disappointed and regretful (i.e. English) to watch the World Cup final with everyone else.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The road from Tanzania to Malawi has been unusually relaxed and light-hearted [thanks in a large part to the novelty of having music: thanks, Al Horrocks, for the MiniDisc and the selection of your extremely cheesy music collection!]. The Southern Highlands were a joy- giant baobab trees shading small clusters of tiny homes, the road winding precariously upwards towards a forested horizon. In shaded glades beneath the trees ladies walk tall with heavy bundles on their heads, small dirty children stand and stare and men languidly loaf around in contorted postures of intense relaxation. Sleeping in wheelbarrows is a much favoured technique!

It feels good to be free. I am lucky to be free, to lie in the roadside dust and watch huge clouds overhead metamorphosing just for me, the sky a blueprint for eternity, to watch ants sharing my leftover breadcrumbs, to listen to the wind in the yellowing grass and to feel the breeze cool on my sweat.

A huge snake lies decapitated on the road. I lie my bike beside it for scale and take several steps back to fit the whole beast into my camera’s viewfinder. With clear mimes a Masai guy warns me of all the different dangerous animals that I am likely to encounter during my 50km ride through the Mikumi National Park. To reassure him I mime back that I will cycle very fast. His reply is that lions are very, very fast.

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