Dar es Salaam was a nice break from the km’s we’d done since leaving Nairobi. A good place to kick back on the beach and enjoy a few cold beers. We also went through the painful experience of getting a Malawi visa for Iza. Not only was it one of the most expensive African visas so far, we also had to endure a few hours of bad jokes from the Malawi consulate representative…

On the way to Malawi the main TanZam Highway passes through Mikumi National Park. The speed limit is reduced to 30 & 50km/hr to make sure you don’t hit the animals that hang about next to the road. We saw plenty of elephants, buffalo and some giraffe.

After two long days of travel, broken up only by a midday siesta, we reached the border of rainy Malawi. We hadn’t seen this much rain for the last six months and it reminded us of our time back in Singapore, when almost every day had thunderstorms, lightning and torrential rain. Its good for the heat, but not great for motorcycle travel.

Our first stop was in Livingstonia, a place set up by the early British missionaries. It’s perched up on a mountain side and has a great view of Lake Malawi below. The missionary influence is still very strong and the only way to buy a beer is “under the counter”.
The series of ‘interesting’ questions has continued, the latest was whether Singapore is in Poland

Malawi is relatively developed (though very poor) and has plenty of tourist oriented accomodation along the lake shore. We try to avoid the busy places and bush camp wherever possible. The locals (inlcuding the cops) are all really friendly and laid back.

Totally drenched we reached Lilongwe. Not a bad place for a capital city, but lacks the atmosphere of the village towns. At the campsite we met a fellow biker - Will. He’s from South Africa and plans to ride his Suzuki TS185 from Cape Town to Cairo and then all the way via Iraq and Afghanistan to Japan, where he plans to settle (although he hasn’t been there before). He travels without any maps (using only a compass/local guidance) and supplements his diet with lizard tails!! He’s an example of the ‘positively weird’ people you meet on the road. Overall a really cool guy

In the next two days we’ll be crossing the border to Zambia and heading for the Victoria Falls.