September 12, 2019 – Tete to Lilongwe, Malawi

September 12, 2019 7:03 a.m.

Location: Baobab Hotel

Weather: Clear Temp: 21C

Morning briefing: It is 380kms to the next point in Malawi. We have to reroute because the bridge on our route is closed.
I was dealing with another migraine from our ordeal yesterday and not getting lunch until very late. I decided to spend the morning in the truck. It was a beautiful ride through Mozambique. As we got closer to the border we also climbed higher into a range of lowish mountains. There is lots of life to be seen from the road. Little villages dot the rolling hills and people are selling lots of products such as fresh veggies (cabbages, onions, tomatoes), charcoal, sugar cane, and furniture. Women walk along the roads with water cans on their heads and babies strapped to their backs.Men on the other hand get to ride bicycles!
Wherever we stopped we drew a crowd of mainly children who gaze with awe at the foreigners with their huge motorcycles.

Entry located at: https://www.google.com/maps/@-16.1338863,33.6156535,100m/data=!3m1!1e3

September 12, 2019, 11:19 a.m.

Location: Border at Calomue,

Weather: Partly cloudy Temp: 24C

Notes: Checking out of the country was the easy part as usual. We are a big draw for the children around here. Especially the little boys. They look and tell each other which bike they like best.
Once we had exit docs for the bikes we entered Malawi. The customs and immigration was more or less empty and we were able to get and fill out the visa forms quite quickly. There were charges to pay for the visas, the road tax and the carbon tax. This was collected by our guides and presented to the customs officials all at once. Then it was just a waiting game.
There were vendors selling all kinds of munchies such as hard boiled eggs, peanuts, soft drinks, packages of cookies and other such things. Then there were vendors selling produce, baby chicks and even a couple of live chickens that some guy tried to sell members of our group.
While we waited, two enormous buses arrived pulling trailers. People got off the bus and porters pulled huge amounts of baggage out of the trailers. We wondered where they were from and where they were going. Gary found out by talking to a few of them. They were all running from the violence in South Africa! Apparently South Africans are beating up foreign residents, especially those who own businesses in S
A.. These people were heading back to their home country of Malawi.
We waited for about 3 hours to get all our paperwork completed. Costs;
Visa 150.us
Road access fee 20. Us
Insurance 25. Us
We bought some snacks 5.00Us
Back on the road by 3:15pm but unfortunately Deb had a spill on the uneven dirt road leaving the border post and re-injured her ankle. We stopped to load her bike on the truck before proceeding.

Entry located at: https://www.google.com/maps/@-14.4062154,34.3221873,100m/data=!3m1!1e3

September 12, 2019, 5:36 p.m.

Arrival in Lilongwe, Malawi

Location: Woodlands Lilongwe

Weather:
Partly cloudy Temp: 29C

Notes:
It was a beautiful ride through the countryside. The land was much the same as the other side of the border. It is amazing some of the sights you see on the road- like this pickup truck full of live heifers.
There was an unusually large police presence along the road from the border to Lilongwe . They were pulling all the transport trucks off the road but did not bother the cars or motorcycles.Occasionally we would see a personnel carrier with fully clad, rifle toting soldiers, or a tank tucked away along the roadside. Bill stopped to ask an officer why there were so many police. He told us it was for traffic control. We decided something must be going on, like the president was going to be travelling this road. As it happened we guessed right. Malawi had just had their election and the incumbent had been re elected with just a 2% lead and the opposition were threatening to not let him into the country.(He had gone to Mozambique)
Traffic in Lilongwe was consequently horrible. We arrived at our lodgings well in advance of the truck, so had to do without toiletries and brushes until it arrived. Never the less we showered and changed into the clothes from our back-packs.