Home » Malawi Tanzania » Cycle to the Summit Part 17 - Dar es Salaam to Lilongwe

Highlights of the Dar to Lilongwe stretch of Cycle to the Summit have included some super cycling and World Cup football action. We cycled through Mikumi National Park where we saw elephant, giraffe, zebra and buffalo, before crossing into Malawi to see first hand the famine situation that is featuring in the UK press. We also learned about the increasing problems associated with the AIDS epidemic. We are currently enjoying the hospitality and company of our friend Sutapa in Lilongwe. Over the next few days we will visit WaterAid and plan for the final stages of our journey to the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

Cycle to the Summit Part 17 - Dar es Salaam to Lilongwe

Toby Hammond
2006-06-25 20:12:13

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canyons worn into the pink sandy rock, and decided that this would make a great campsite for the night and a place to watch the setting sun.

6th June 2002 - Nyororo to Chimala - 145km

We all had a terrible night's sleep. It was freezing cold and the ground was too hard to drive in any tent pegs. We drifted in and out of sleep, listening to the tent flap all night in the heavy wind. Owy and Toby slept under the starts and shivered their way through the night. In the morning, kitted out in plenty of warm clothes, we got on our bikes and made good progress, assisted by a strong tail wind. We stopped in Wagingombe at a lively market where people traded everything from cattle to clothes, but we were soon back on our bikes to clock up some more kilometres towards the next TV set, so we would have somewhere to watch the next England game.

7th June 2002 - Chimala to Uyole - 66km

After a morning of uphill cycling, we settled into our ringside seats in the Makasini Bar and Guest House in Uyole to watch England play Argentina. After the excitement of the Beckham penalty in the 44th minute I had to go on a crisps and chocolate mission at half time but was very disappointed as there was none to be had in the whole town. We watched the remainder of the game with an enthusiastic crowd of Tanzanians, and when the full time whistle blew, we felt that cycling anywhere might not be a good idea given the number of beers that had been consumed. We wheeled our bikes into the guesthouse and carried on celebrating England's 1-0 victory.

8th June 2002 - Uyole to Tukuyu - 63km
On the way out of town we stopped at Uyole Hospital for Toby to have a sore foot seen to. While he was being seen by a doctor, Owy went on a mission to find a toilet. "Do you have a toilet I can use?" asked Owy. "Yes. We have a pit latrine. Do you know how to use one?" replied the lady. Owy didn't like to tell her that after six ...