Smooth Bumpy Road

Greetings from Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia.  We had some long rides on rolling hill since Lilongwe.  Zambia and Malawi are beautiful.  People are very friendly in both countries.  Although, Zambia seemed to be far more developed than Malawi.   Ever since Kenya, you can see that different religious organizations have penetrated Africa, even in remote villages.  In Malawi, there were a good number of Rastafarian, however.  I even ate at a Rasta restaurant.  The Jehovah's Witness people seemed to have taken a strong hold in Zambia.

We booked a tee time at the Lilongwe Golf Club to celebrate Luke's birthday on our rest day.  Luke showed up in a pair of $300 True Religion jeans.  The club manager would not let him play.  Luke asked for an exemption, but the manager would not relent.  It was the same day that the Malawian national team planned to practice and they would take offense.   Rules of golf are applied everywhere!  Speaking of golf, the Malawians "mow" their grass by hand.  People use a bent metal blade that looks like a golf club and swing at the grass.  We passed a lot of people along the road whacking the grass.  There were even "Men at Work" signs to warn the motorists.

Malawi was very poor, compared with its neighbors Tanzania and Zambia.  Lilongwe was a tiny and dirty capital city.  One of the strangest things I've seen was the long lines at the ATM machines.  No matter the bank or time of day, there seemed to be always a queue at any given ATM.

Stage 63 - After a nice rest in Lilongwe, we set off in the early morning for a long ride to the Zambia border.  Kids screamed extra loud today.  When we give a them a hello or a wave back, they giggled and cheered even more.  After lunch, I rode to the border.  With some extra Malawian Kwachas (currency of Malawi) left, I wanted to exchange for Zambian Kwachas.  When we entered from Tanzania to Malawi, the money changer scammed Dennis.  Instead of giving him 500 Kwacha bills, Dennis got 50 Kwacha bills.  We were extra cautious with the money changers this time.  There were black market money changers, official bank exchanges, and official "unofficial" black market money changers.  After getting the Zambian visa, I went to an "customs and border control" officer's office.  The officer called someone and within minutes a money changer appeared.  Hardy and I changed our Kwachas and quickly left.  We got an OK rate.

Stage 64 - This was the longest day on tour so far 177kms of rolling hills.  The kids in Zambia only yell "how are you?" when we pass them.  We heard that all day from kids of all ages.  I was recovering from a hard push from yesterday.  The afternoon tail wind helped a lot.

Stage 65 - Another beautiful day in Zambia.  We are in the mountainous region of the country, so the rolling hills were tough.   In the afternoon, we rode through a thunderstorm.  It was very refreshing!   I was going about 25mph, and the rain drops hurt at that speed. When I hit camp, there was a well available to take a bucket shower.  The water was just the right temperature.  It was the best shower ever.

Stage 66 - This was a mando day.  It rained most of the night, last night.  It was so hot and humid all night, inside of my tent was 90F + and 100% humidity. Clouds hanged over head threatened to rain all day.  I planned to go at my own pace, as usual.  Because there weren't many Coke stops alonged the way, I decided to push myself.  We had a 2000 meter climb and 1000 meter descend of rolling hills.  In the early morning, I tried to keep up with the race leaders Jorg and Adam.  But they were pushing too hard and too early for me.  After lunch, I felt great and started to push harder.  The road condition deteriorated, the smooth paved road became bumpy pebble sealed road.  Riding through the mountains by myself was very serene.  After arriving at the camp, we had access to another well shower!

Stage 67 - A short ride into Lusaka.  I woke in the middle of the night and saw the wonderful stars again.  The milky way was crystal clear.  I even saw three different satellites passing.  Warner from Germany is very knowledgeable about the constellations and stars.  He showed me the Southern Cross. 

I was very tired from yesterday.  The rolling hills became some what flat going into the city.  I rode hard with the racers for 10km.  They were pushing hard today.  I've been riding with the racers to get in shape.  Lusaka seemed to be a nice city.  I'm in a mall typing this update!