More adventures

Last week I was looking forward to a quiet weekend in Lilongwe when a friend sent an e-mail wondering if anyone was interested in spending the weekend at the Dzalanyama Forest Lodge. The Lodge is in the middle of the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve along the Mozambican and Zambian border, about 60km southwest of Lilongwe. More specifically, she was wondering if anyone was interested in riding bikes from Lilongwe to the lodge on early Saturday morning, then driving back in the support vehicle (or for the truly intrepid, riding back on Sunday). My reply:

I don't have a bike in Malawi, nor have I sat on a bike in about 6 months, but I never let lack of preparation get in the way of me and a sporting adventure :)

I borrowed my housemates bicycle and we planned an early morning start to avoid riding during the heat and blazing sun of the day. With a 5:00 meeting time we would have time to pack the support vehicle, ride 5 km to pick up another friend at a round-about on the edge of Lilongwe, and the five of us would surely make it to the 60 km to the Lodge well before 10am, allowing time to relax, eat lunch, then go for a bike, go for a swim, and cook dinner.

We met at the guest house at 5:00 am and the bike problems started immediately. My front tire needed air, and when I opened the valve to inflate it the tire it instantly deflated. And, the valve was some kind of Malawian valve that ordinary tire pumps can’t seal. With creative use of a plastic bag we were able to get a good enough seal that we could inflate the tire to about 20 psi, with plans to stop at the petrol station down the road to inflate the tire the rest of the way. Once we started riding I felt the bike creak with each pedal stroke and discovered that the gears only actually change about 1 every 15 gear shift attempts.

The first petrol station didn’t have air; neither did the second at the round-about where we met our friend. My only choice was to ride another 7 km to Likuni, where there was a known bike repairman about 50 meters off the road, on a half-filled tire and a creaky bike. At this repair stop the crew got to work and I got my tire filled, gears adjusted, and chain oiled. S got her handlebars raised and chain oiled, and M got his handlebars adjusted so he didn’t need to steer at a 30 degree angle in order to ride straight. All this was accomplished in about 15 minutes for 500 kwacha!

While it was easier to ride with a full tire, the ride itself did not get much more comfortable.  My bike was beyond words.  At points where my friends were free-wheeling I was pedaling furiously. I kept dropping back (silver lining: I made many new Malawian friends who were riding their locally made bikes piled high with firewood, containers, or with passengers and had the opportunity to practice my rudimentary Chichewa). I know it’s not just me, because M offered to switch bikes with me. It was the best 20 minutes of my day, and when she finally caught up to me she practically threw the bike at me and yelled “This bike is HELL!”

Now the back tire felt low and by the time we made it to the gate to the reserve it was completely flat. Malawians are resourceful and helpful, and we were surrounded by a group of guys eager to help us. Once they got the tire out it was revealed that the entire valve had broken off - our patch kit wouldn’t be much help for this! I gave one guy 300 kwacha to run to the nearest village and buy a new tube, which ended up not being the same size as my tire, but after a couple of wheel swaps and 45 minutes, we were on our way again. According to our map, we were only 20 km from the Lodge! We were a little off schedule, but surely we would arrive by noon.

I don’t know where to begin...we missed a turn, got lost, were riding through the blazing sun, through sand, through lightening and downpouring rain. We ran out of water, food, and our sense of humor.  The last hour and a half I had so much mud wedged between my brake pads and wheels that it felt like riding through concrete. For the last 30 minutes every pedal stroke felt like it was ripping apart my throbbing knees. I was so relieved to see the hand scrawled sign to the Lodge. Time of arrival: 2:45 pm. However, the epic day continued. Our support vehicle hadn’t left Lilongwe until 2:30, so based on the conditions of the roads and distance, was not estimated to arrive until 4:30. Lucious, the caretaker built us a fire and made us some hot tea using the wood stove. We eached scooped about 5 spoonfuls of sugar into our tea as each of us had only eaten an apple, two mini banana muffins, and 1/5 of a Cliff Bar during the 9.5 hours on our bikes.

Two non-cyclists in our party arrived at 4:30, bringing two individual-sized bags of crisps, 3 apples, and a roll of biscuits which we devoured in about 3 minutes. The support vehicle, and the rest of our food and our clean and dry clothes, finally found it’s way at 5:30. A shower and a hot dinner have never tasted so good in my life!

We spent the rest of the evening chatting and playing games around the parrafin lamp and rehashing the days adventure. What a day.

And, because we didn’t get enough on Saturday, we hiked to the top of Dzalanyama Mountain on Sunday. The climb was straight up (no switchbacks in Malawi) and the view was phenomenal: trees, Mozambique, Zambia...