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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the people choosing to live in mud and thatched huts along side. The population looked depleted and largely subsistent. Apparently most of the population became refuges during the resent floods and may be dwindled in the process. The nearer we got to the Zambezi the busier the dirt road got with local bikes, Ruth apparently racing one trying to escape the screaming goat strapped on the back rack.
We stayed in the only Hotel in Mutarara, as far as we could see. It was surrounded in more derelict buildings, industrial this time on the bank of the Zambezi. We admired the old steel railway bridge making its way into the far distance over the river and flood plane. I counted over thirty sections but the last few were so far I could be not sure how many there actually were. We watched the sun go down over the river and after some keenness with the cameras we settled down to sample the excellent Mozambique beer. We were dreading the bill in the morning because the three lads could not remember how many bottles had been consumed and none of us new for sure what the exchange rate should be, partly because the number of zeros on the bank notes seemed unintelligible and it seemed the locals dropped differing amounts of zeros and because numbers were being expressed in Portuguese, such as 'cems' and 'mils' loosely translating to more zeros than you can focus your eyes on after a beer.
Wednesday 10-Jul-02 Mutarara to Caia 77km
The railway like the colonial style buildings is now disused. This does leave the bridge free for motor vehicles. The old railway sleepers and track have been collected and reused to make the road decking, lampposts, barriers etc. The bridge is somewhere between 2.5 and 3 km long and although for single lane traffic, there is no traffic control system on it. This does not appear to be a problem, which will give you an idea of how infrequent vehicles are. After crossing the bridge we enjoyed a tail wind pushing us along a well-graded ...