The World Wide Web isn't

...world wide, that is!  We have been in the back of beyond a lot of the time but even when we are not Internet access is rare.  So it has been a while and there is LOTS to catch up on in the blog.  It seems like our stay at the fancy lodge at Ngorongoro was a very long time ago; since then, we had 8 days in a row of riding, 6 of them on unpaved "roads".  I will either attach or send separately the   photos of the big trucks and buses wallowing in the mud, which is what we were doing too!  Tough riding, but I actually kind of liked it!  Yes, pavement girl has a touch of mud girl, it seems!  Once you just realize you can't possibly get any wetter or muddier, it makes everything easier.  The rain poured down, the mud squelched up and my biggest worry was that either the lunch truck or the dinner truck would not be able to get through the mud or past the mired vehicles strewn all over and then what would I do with no lunch, no dinner and no tent??  But the amazing drivers are old hands at rainy season driving and all was well, I did not miss a meal and we had our tent to protect us from the downpour overnight.

I have never seen it rain like it does here!  The best part is, you don't get cold and it doesn't seem to ever be a lashing wind-driven kind of rain, then once it stops, you eventually dry because the sun is HOT.  But the humidity is a bit of an factor now, so instead of nice dry tents every morning like it was all the way from Egypt through Ethiopia, we now have to bundle up a soggy tent, fly and ground sheet every morning.  Dew magically appears at dusk, unless it is already raining.  All the moisture kind of adds to the aroma around camp, so I am glad we now have a couple of days off in Lilongwe, Malawi to properly wash some of our well used cycling clothes!

So far, my favorite country to cycle through has been Tanzania.  The land is gorgeous and so varied...nice rolling hills, fun climbs, great long downhills and lovely people.  Our last day in Tanzania was the best - a good climb out of town, then a 20 km downhill through a million banana plants and acres and acres of tea plantations.  Then it flattened out and we were at the Malawi border.  As soon as we crossed the border the temperature seemed to go up about 10 degrees and the humidity might have doubled, if that is possible.  Fortunately, our camp was on Lake Malawi, which just seemed cooler.  Fun fact:  ( although I have not verified this, the guy on the beach trying to sell us hand carved keychains wouldn't lie to me, would he?) Lake Malawi is known as the calendar lake...it is 365 kms long, 52 kms wide and has 12 rivers draining into it.

This was a very short section, we now have 2 rest days here in Lilongwe, then when we start riding on Wednesday, we cross into Zambia.  Today is Easter Sunday, and when we arrived at our hotel and were quaffing a well earned beer, one of our group indignantly noted "Easter here is all about RELIGION, not chocolate!"  But I had ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert so that filled the chocolate requirement for now.  Wayne and I are still diligently working on fattening up - we are a lean and sinewy pair, someone told me today I would have to see about putting some pleats in Wayne's bike shorts to take up the excess material.  We're still healthy and riding every kilometre though which we feel lucky about, quite a few riders are fighting persistent stomach bugs.  I hope that continues

Photo 1: St Patricks Day fun, the three of us on a local's bike, one requirement for the scavenger hunt

Photo 2:  a bit of mud, this was the very first day with mud and it was mild compared with what came later...

Photo 3:  traffic stuck on the muddy road, and this is a MAIN road!

Photo 4:  me in Tanzania, after a ridiculously long day of getting pounded to pieces on rough roads, but I made it.  Sandy and I thought the hard part was over here, hence the big smile, but there was still about 25 kms of smaller climbs left...