Home » Malawi Mozambique » Cycle to the Summit Part 18 - Lilongwe to Maputo

Rather than take the popular Tete Corridor the team made their way on worsening roads to the Southern tip of Malawi. Mozambique proved much more undeveloped and remote than expected, often in the early days only passing through one small town a day with very limited supplies. But help and hospitality was at hand, from a much appreciated and unexpected source. The Indian Ocean was reached again after many testing days cycling and with it civilization 'as we know it' was slowly restored.

Cycle to the Summit Part 18 - Lilongwe to Maputo

Toby Hammond
2006-06-25 20:20:17

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Nhchengue to Morrumbene 92km
I can't remember anything about this day so it can't have been very exciting. Ruth was curious what we would miss about Africa on our return to civilisation, as we knew it. Interestingly, Ruth and Owy muttered something about people and smiling faces, where as, Toby and I were more concerned about the availability of lashings of good cheap food and drink. What put a smile on my face, was lunch in a bar in a strange little town. I had two pints of beer a plate of chips and a bowl of soup for less than fifty Metacals that converts somewhere the right side of one pound fifty.

Tuesday 23-Jul-02 Morrumbene to Maxixe 29km

We arrived in Maxixe early in the morning, another town with grand tree lined streets but not so derelict looking here and were signs of economic activity. We visited the bank and Toby and Owy took a boat across the estuary to the regional capital Inhambane, in search of internet access. We stopped the night in the towns municipal looking campsite.

Wednesday 24-Jul-02 Maxixe to Inharrime 84km

The following morning Owy tested positive for Malaria again, but the Chinese medicine that everyone had been recommending in Lilongwe was not available here. The cycling was pleasant helped by tangerines coconut trees and roasted cashew nuts galore along the way and a tail wind We stayed in a hotel, which was only the third time we had had the opportunity since entering Mozambique. The owner, Nixon entertained us most of the evening. Cleverly, he had worked as a miner in South Africa and had returned after the war relatively well off and able to open his own business he called 'Nixon's Kiosk' except that his name wasn't spelt like this but peculiarly. Like many other people we met, Nixon was surprised to hear none of us were married, and then thought it very odd that non of us were interested in making babies along the way if we understood him correctly. ...