Malawi

17 km up hill to border crossing #7 Chiponde, Malawi to Mandimba, Mozambique

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Today was a phenomenal achievement by Mike and Emma. On top of what they do almost every day of this journey.

After a night in hiding, having run off from a camping place that felt dodgy – we had driven up to the local important persons house when he wasn’t there. It felt like we had arrived in a lions’ den and the remaining lions were so surprised they hadn’t quite worked out how to deal with this unexpected gift but were prowling in any case. It was the only time I got a bad vibe on the whole trip, beating even the 5 guys walking up to us with machetes. Of course, it may have been entirely in our imagination, nothing happened. They could be very nice lions.

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Dawn and we are already on our way

Anyway, we set off early to be well out the area before people were up and about. Pretty soon we arrived at the biggest hill/mountain, a long twisting and turning 17km uphill. At the bottom Emma says:

“You might as well go to the top, I’ll try and make it.”

I have learnt, when Emma says she’ll try, it means she’ll make it.

17km later, after running and cycling uphill without more than a water and stretch break, Emma and Mike arrive very hungry for breakfast trailing a group of school children. Otherwise they seem pretty cool about their achievement.

I start chatting to the children, moving slowly away from the team, making sure to catch all of the children and draw them away. They are hesitant, initially, but the temptation to talk to me and poke me to see if I am real is much better than just watching a group of strangers. We walk casually and chat about their favourite food (“Mango” in case you are wondering) and other friendly things and quite by chance we have arrived at the school gate, where the teacher ushers them into class. Some of them give me a look like they know what I did.

Back at breakfast, Emma and Mike have eaten twice their usual amount and as Robert was digging out a flat spot for Emma to sleep on, a black snake undulated out. Apparently, it was not a poisonous one.

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Post breakfast snooze time with a curious watcher on the hill

The border crossing itself is straightforward.

Emma and Mike carry on their way for another 40km or so through the heat.

Our evening campsite, complete with scorpions:

Bedtime view
Preparing dinner
Not 3 yards from camp I came across this big guy and then another one and then I went to bed not to get up until the sun rose and sent them home.

*****

Number of Days: 75

Total distance run by Emma: 3204 km, 1991 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.7 km, 26.5 miles

Distance run today: 60.90 km, 37.84 miles

Hidden Talent

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Whenever you dig into the heart of a country you will find hidden talent. Here, in Malawi, whilst Emma was running 26 miles with Mike beside her and Robert was teaching me to scrub clothes, Woocash discovered a young breakdancer in the making:

In case you can’t see the video. Here are a few happy photos of the young man dancing:

Part 1: Entertaining Children

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Before dawn Woocash takes Emma and Mike to the point where they stopped the night before. As dawn is breaking, Emma starts her run and Lukasz has returns to pick us up from the center of the village.

This day held one of my favourite moments of the trip and, of course, it involves children laughing. We had put up a tarpaulin to shelter from the threatening rain clouds but, as the crowds of children gathered, we shifted it to act as a privacy barrier. Emma and Mike had arrived for breakfast stressed from being screamed at by excitable children. A few of the watchers drifted off to school but the less well dressed ones stayed. I am guessing, but may be wrong, that they didn’t have enough money for a formal education. So, in order to enable the team to have some peace, I went out to the children to be their focus and had loads of fun.

The children were sweet and friendly and tolerated my lack of language skills and crazy antics. I taught them how to spin their leg under themselves, did a few yoga moves, sang songs – “heads, shoulders, knees and toes.” And several times I tried to teach them the Mexican wave (they had surrounded me in a circle and I thought it would be fun).

One girl, Margaret, spoke a few words of English and had the confidence to be the first to try things. Thank God for her. Mostly, the children laughed and giggled and looked up at me with shining eyes and smiles. Pushing in to touch me at times then running away squealing when I looked at them.

An old man came up to me and asked, “Why do you do this?”

“Because I like children.” I reply.

He smiles and says, “Thank you.”

He went on his way to the fields to work.

That thank you and smile that went with it and the sound of children laughing, will warm me for the rest of my life.

At last, I saw Mike and Emma setting off on their journey, hopefully at least a little rested,  and disappearing down the road. I could stop, pack up the car, say goodbye to the little crowd and revert to being an introvert. Onwards we go to Mangochi and Lake Malawi.

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Lake Malawi
Mangochi
A view of Lake Malawi whilst looking for a bit of privacy
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Emma in Mangochi. We had a good teamy lunch break. Mangochi is a beautiful town.

*****

Number of Days: 74

Total distance run by Emma: 3143 km, 1953 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.5 km, 26.4 miles

Distance run today: 56.07 km, 34.84 miles

A Crowd of Curious Children or what it’s like to be a celebrity

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In Malawi, villages go on for miles before merging into the next village. As a result, we have to ask permission to camp and are directed to the Chief of the district’s house. Getting to his house involves driving up a narrow dusty path full of busy market stalls. Big car, awkward space, lots of people watching – Woocash takes on the challenge of manoeuvring Cleopatra through.

This little group of friends came to laugh and play whilst we were working out where to go

I am pleased to discover that the Chief is Muslim and his wife is Christian. Coming from a mixed religious and cultural background myself, I think they are going to be my kind of people and they are. The Chief is away for the week but his welcoming wife insists that we must stay with them.

The team with the Chief’s wife

As Robert begins setting up the fire to cook, a small crowd of children gather, maybe 20. I find them entertaining but we worry they will fall in the fire. We are constantly saying, “Move back, move back.”

The growing circle of children, there must be 50 now, around us wobbles back and forth as they push each other with excitement. Curious hands reach out to touch, poke and pinch. The naughty pincher is corrected on his behaviour and all the crowd calms down for a bit, they are a little embarrassed by their over excitement, telling each other to behave. When I pull out my camera some hands go up to cover the lens. Half of this group doesn’t want photos the other half are pushing to the front. I put it away as it’s causing more chaos.

Robert has to stay by the fire whilst I wade through the noisy crowd, that, happily, only come up to my shoulder, to fetch ingredients and tools from the car. Being a youth worker, I can’t help myself, and end up chatting with the children, giving them small jobs to keep them entertained. I make the mistake of telling them my name.

Woocash drives back down the market to fetch Emma and Mike. Returning, on his 3rd trip along the lane the stall holders are a little fed up of the giant car bumping her way through, dusting their produce.

Emma is tired and the big crowd of children fascinated by us and wanting our attention takes a lot of energy. Kindly, the Chief’s wife offers us a school room to eat in to escape the pressure and close window shutters on curious eyes.The children surround the room, banging, calling and chanting my name, “Aysha, Aysha”. Typically British, I’m embarrassed by the attention. There must be at least 100 by now. The Chief’s wife says that she doesn’t even know most of the children; they have come from miles around. She does not know how they found out we are there. She tells them off and they quieten a little. Enough so we can eat.

A nice custom across this region of Africa, is that we share food with our host, we win in this, as she brings sweet mangos for us. We talk softly and try to be as boring as possible for the children outside. The time is getting later and we pretend to go to sleep. Eventually, the children go home and I can at last cross the school yard to the toilets on my own.

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That’s Robert cooling off under the tree with Cleopatra. She hasn’t overheated but we are always careful with her, she is 21 and carrying over a tonne of equipment and people.
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Emma airborne and Mike cycling. Lots of people cycle in Malawi.

*****

Number of Days: 73

Total distance run by Emma: 3087 km, 1918 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.3 km, 26.3 miles

Distance run today: 58.39 km, 36.28 miles

Malawi

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Malawi is flourishing green, although sadly all the big ancient forests have been cut down and sold. At 5.30am shops are open and people are busy.

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Tasty tomatoes. Woocash and Robert disappeared off into the surrounding area to hunt out Oofa (Sadza) which has now become a team favourite food. In the meantime, these ladies were lovely and friendly and happy to sell me their produce.

The land of smiles is full of people smiling and waving. Food on the roadside is cheap and delicious. Ripe sweet mangos and home made doughnuts become daily treats. Insects are fluffy and the police are helpful. After a policeman checked our ID at a road block, he sent someone to fetch water for us from his house! A man we met along the way brought us sandwiches on our lunch break.

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In the centre is the kindly man who came searching for us in our lunch break. It took him a while, we were well hidden.

I must take up this habit of being so welcoming to strangers. It’s a pretty incredible experience to be so consistently welcomed in every culture as we travel.

However, fuel is expensive, and I am paying, so camel style we have filled Cleo up in Mozambique and she will have her next drink in Mozambique in 5 days time. I like our mini challenge to make it across a whole (very thin) country with no fuel stops.

Mike back on the bike for a bit
Cooking breakfast at the side of the road
Too many sticks suffocate the fire. And yes, that is a blow torch on the ground. That’s men for you. I like to use a single match if I can. And no, Lukasz doesn’t always look that odd.
Robert swaps in as Emma’s guard.
Many thanks to this kind family for letting us park in their garden.

 

*****

Number of Days: 72

Total distance run by Emma: 3028 km, 1882 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.1 km, 26.1 miles

Distance run today: 59.21 km, 36.79 miles

Border crossing #6 Zobwe: Mwanza Mozambique to Malawi

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Emma! In her hand she is carrying the Garmin to measure her mileage.

Living on a small island, I imagine that all border-crossing offices are back to back. Forgetting, of course that we have sometimes thousand of miles between border points but I have always been in an airplane or boat. Between Zobwe in Mozambique and Mwanza in Malawi is 6km.

The novelty of winding our way around the lush green mountain inhabited by people between the borders, delightfully surprises my brain. However, Emma, hasn’t had breakfast and there are no good places to park up and cook. I worry about her. She needs food. What are the legalities of stopping and cooking breakfast in no-mans land? 100 yards after the Malawi border we set up and wait anxiously. Emma and Mike seem to be taking a long time. I have prepared snacks and am about to take a taxi or something back to find them, when, to our relief, we see them coming through the barriers. Okay, my relief, I am the worrier in the team.

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All the ancient trees had been chopped down and sold. Hopefully, the forests will regenerate soon. 

Otherwise the crossing is very easy. Having written down the exchange rate, my calculator can keep up with the swift thinking money men. At the Malawi border, we accidentally pick up a tout pretending to be an official. Fortunately, we figure this out in time. The real border guard is cross when he discovers this and stays by my side to make sure I am not hassled anymore. Clearly, they value their visitors.

At the end of that day, Emma was too tired to move and yet she had run 57 km. I was tired too but you kind of keep quiet about that when someone has run 3000km in 2 and a  bit months. I think we may both have a bug. Its incredible that Emma ran a marathon.

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Fantastic views as I potter around preparing this or that

 

*****

Number of Days: 71

Total distance run by Emma: 2969 km, 1845 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 41.8 km, 26.0 miles

Distance run today: 57.38 km, 35.65 miles

 

Harare!

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We contact Mike and Emma regularly to check they are okay. Sometimes they whisper if it is after dark and they don’t want anyone to hear where they are. We meet them briefly in Chinhoyi before heading down to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, to wait for them.

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They look pretty happy to me

Harare is beautiful.

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I couldn’t decide between that pretty photo or this weird one, so I gave you both:

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Robert disappears to see his family and go back to project work for a few days, whilst Woocash gives Cleopatra a health check. I find the best café with internet and spend a lot of time there: photos, blogs and contacting journalists. Luckily for us, friends of the family, Bobby and Margie, generously put us up which saves a huge amount of money. Harare isn’t cheap. As a thank you, Woocash fixes Bobby’s car and we donate some spare car parts. We do a lot of scrubbing and cleaning kit. We also give a surreal children’s TV interview. Thankfully it is live which means that it will never be seen again. Hooray!

First the monkey now a dog, everyone wants to drive Cleo
At the children’s show
Harare traffic, usually only bad at rush hour

A few days later Emma and Mike arrive:

The team takes a trip to The SEED Project’s office to catch up with Robert and meet friendly Nyasha, who is SEED’s only other full time employee . Driving through the city, Emma photographs stallholders, people start shouting and frowning at us to put the camera away, it’s an uncomfortable moment.

Stunning architecture where The SEED Project is based
Look how clean we are!

Emma and Mike enjoy a couple of days of rest at Joy’s lovely home. Emma fits in an interview with a journalist, from the magazine Out of Africa, who writes a beautiful article. At a delicious dinner, organised by Bob and Margie, Emma meets Mike who decides he would like to join Emma on one of her marathons. Which is great.

“Queen of the Night” flowers one night of the year and it flowered the night Emma arrived!
Thank you Specialized for helping out with Mike’s bike
Emma and I found this chick confidently wandering the streets
Fantastic article in “Out of Africa”

Water

The Water-to-Go bottles are perfect for Harare as otherwise the tap water isn’t safe to drink without being boiled. With the bottles we can simply fill up and er, go out and about on our business in the city!

Visas

We have decided to head on in to Mozambique. Last year there were civil disturbances and vehicles were attacked. But there has been nothing recently and we are avoiding areas that are considered at risk. Rumour tells us we may have to wait 3 weeks to get visas! Rumour turns out to be wrong. It is all sorted within 48 hours by a very organized and helpful lady.

Over at the Malawi embassy, Woocash has to write a letter explaining why he wants to visit Malawi. He does and the lady bursts out laughing when she reads it. We never find out why.

*****

Huge thanks to Bobby and Margie Warren-Codrington for having us to stay in their gorgeous home, loaning us essential kit and arranging for us to meet with someone from the BBC. And perhaps most of all for linking us up with the wonderful Dora in Mozambique who looked after us through two medical emergencies.

Huge thanks to Joy Peacock for having Emma and Mike to stay and for all the help and connections to journalists that you provided.

And thank you to the Specialized workshop in Harare for helping Mike out with his bike.

*****

Day 55 distance run: 56.21 km, 34.92 miles
Day 56 distance run: 52.85 km, 32.84 miles
Day 57 distance run: 53.43 km, 33.20 miles
Day 58 distance run: 32.11 km, 19.95 miles
Day 59 & 60: Rest days in Harare

Number of Days: 60

Total distance run by Emma: 2412 km, 1498 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 40.2 km, 25.0 miles

*****

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Mozambique Travel Warning

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“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all but essential travel to Sofala Province, with the exception of the provincial capital, Beira.

The Government of Mozambique has confirmed that a military operation, targeting the Renamo opposition party’s Santunjira base camp in Sofala Province, took place on 21 October.

The situation in Sofala Province remains tense and on 22 October there were reports of armed attacks in the region, including against a vehicle travelling on the EN1 road. Further attacks can’t be ruled out.”

They have had twenty years of peace and now, now, the country starts to develop civil unrest. Will push the run a little further north, maybe as far as Tanzania, and taking in Malawi. Might have to simplify the challenge to reaching the east coast, to give us the freedom to adjust as we go.

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