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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to enjoy the view and plan a little photography around the next hairpins I touched my front wheel rim and it was so hot I couldn't comfortably keep my hand on it.

Monday 8-Jul-02 Nchalo to Tengani 78km
It was drawn to our attention that our journey is nearing it end (relatively speaking) when we spotted a bus with the destination Jo'burg displayed on the front, even if it was heading in the opposite direction to us. It was presumably heading for the main tarmac route South through Tete. We were in flat sugar plantation land. Flat country has its obvious advantages when cycling but the view tends not to change very much. To pass the time I cycled along side chatting to a one legged local cyclist who seemed to have no problem keeping up. I was making the most of speaking to the locals whilst still in Malawi because English one of their official languages. It was going to be much more difficult in Mozambique were Portuguese is the national language. The road was slowly deteriorating and I had a fairly high-speed incident with a pothole. Unfortunately the join on my rear wheel rim opened up and splayed out. At first I was worried it might prove terminal but I hammered it back into shape and everything is holding together and the important bits still revolving, as I write this.

Tuesday 9-Jul-02 Tengani to Mutarara 101km
With only one day left on our Malawi visas we reached the border with Mozambique at the southern most tip of Malawi. It was the quietest border we had been through yet, with virtually no traffic. There was a very ostentatious 1970s looking customs building on the Mozambique side but it no longer suggested national importance as it looked like it had been derelict for at least twenty years. The office was now in a small semi derelict looking out building, the glazing replaced with cane panelling. Our first impressions of Mozambique were a little depressing, as there were many derelict colonial buildings, ...