Moni! Moni!

It's rather serendipitous that "morning," "money," and "moni," the word for hello in the local language all sounded the same.  We finally figured out that if people say "moni," they are not really asking for money.  But some kids do shout "give me money."  People in Malawi are very friendly.

We are taking two days off in Lilongwe.  A welcome break from our everyday routines.  On riding days, I usually wake up at 4:30am, pack the tent and get the water bottles filled.  Breakfast is usually at 5:30.  I try to leave camp by 6:30.  Most days, I get to lunch around 10am.  But recently, I've been to lunch as early as 8am!!!  After arriving at camp site, the first thing I do is get out of the cycling gear.  With the recent rain, drying the tent and set up the tent is very important to stay dry.  Rider meeting is usually at 5pm.  Then I go to sleep at 7pm.  Even on rest days, I try to keep the same schedule.

Stage 60 - This is a mando day, second most climbs in one day.  It rained heavily last night.  My laundy was still wet in the morning.  As we left camp, dense fog covered the town of Mzuzu.  The ride was beautiful.  Steep rolling hills all morning.  We were riding in a heavy mist, just like the cloud.  We couldn't go fast on the down hills as we couldn't see very far.  A few kilometers before lunch, the sky started to clear.  We saw some gigantic round rock mountains by the road.  The afternoon ride was less hilly.  I got into camp just a little after 1pm.  Two more days until Lilongwi!

Stage 61 - This turned out to be an easy day, mostly descending from 1500 meters to 1000 meters.  I started early in the morning and rode with the racers until lunch.  I got into camp at 11am!  This almost felt like a rest day.  After taking a shower, I went to town and wondered around.  There are 30 ethnic Chinese living in Kasungu.  I met a shop owner from North East China.  We had a nice chat about my trip and life in Malawi.

Stage 62 - This was a relatively flat day with rolling hills.  Horst went past me and I drafted behind him.  We averaged about 25mph.  Horst is a strong rider.  He qualified for the Race Across America.  After lunch, it was a slow down hill to Lilongwe.  The 134km went by fast!  The sky was also clear all night last night.  It was mostly clear with some high clouds today.  Hopefully this is a harbinger for things to come.