We proceeded, along with the youngsters help, to push Roxy’s bike to the mechanic further on up the road. He knew exactly what to look for as he was familiar with this type of bike. Within half an hour he had cleared the jets in the carb. As he started the bike there was a loud cheer of relief from us and the gathering crowds. We promptly paid the guy (R200) and said our farewells and were eager to get on the road again as we were a bit concerned now about this unexpected delay as we needed to get to the border post before they closed at 6 pm.
Shelter from the pouring rain
We got life 
Once on our way again the weather improved but not the roads.
We came across another construction area where we were instructed to stop. One of the excavating machines was being used to rescue a taxi that had slipped off the road and become embedded in a muddy ditch. Once it was recovered we cautiously followed another huge, heavy vehicle which slowly led the way down this messy area and half way up the other side it also proceeded to get stuck. Often on our trips we were grateful for being on motorbikes, as mentioned before we could negotiate a way around these tricky spots and pop out the other side without a hassle. So once again we slipped and slid our way across to the other side of the road and hurried on our way once again.
There she goes again 
It was with great relief when we finally arrived at the insignificant little border post late in the afternoon. It only took a few minutes, a look of disinterest, a stamp and we departed Mozambique.
We had already prepared ourselves for our entry into Malawi. We had allocated funds for our TIP’s and road tax. We now knew how to do it and were ready for a quick entry into Malawi as we were now running so late and still had another 65 km’s of riding to do to reach our overnight stop. But....it wasn’t to be!!
We promptly filled in the forms and went to the cashier to pay. I had $20 for one TIP and the equivalent in Malawi kwacha (MWK) for the other two TIP’s as well as the 30 000 MWK for the 3x road tax. But now they wanted only dollars, no MWK for the TIP’s. Now we had to find someone to exchange the MWK’s for dollars. They wanted a lot more MWK in exchange but we didn’t have any and after a lot of haggling and begging we managed to find some Mozambique Metical (MT). When the one guy saw our 1000MT his eyes lit up and he tried to snatch it from us. With Roxy’s and Googles assistance we made up the balance of funds and eventually got our damn $40. This bartering and time restraints at border posts was getting too stressful for my liking and there and then decided East Africa on motorbikes was over for me. No longer could I handle all this hassle!!
Eventually our paperwork was over and we entered the busy and dirty village of Chiponde. There was very little riding space making progress slow. We were now really pressed for time as the sun was dipping low creating the dreaded long shadows. Once again we were doing what we had promised ourselves NEVER to do again – riding in the dark!!
To make things worse Roxy’s bike had no headlights..somewhere along the trip, unbeknown to us, they had failed. While we could we made good headway. We were heading to Skinny Hippo on the southern tip of Lake Malawi, shortly after Mangochi. As darkness descended Roxy put on her right indicator, stuck close to dads tail light with mum close up behind her and just to the right trying to shine some sort of light in front of her. We all needed to really concentrate and we worked well together. There was just enough light for us to get an idea of what would have been beautiful view of the southern part of the lake as we carefully worked our way down to the bottom of the pass by which time it was now pitch black. The traffic was now quite hectic as we neared the next town and the going slow.
Eventually we arrived in Mangochi. Without the GPS we would never have navigated our way through it. Again we had to be careful not to get parted from each other. This part of the trip seemed never ending but as we moved away from the town the traffic was less but by now we were exhausted, neck and shoulders tense and eyes battling to focus in the dim headlight. But we had to look on the bright side...we finally had a day that ended with no rain.
We eventually saw the Skinny Hippo sign and followed it for another few kilometers and to our surprise and relief they were still open and had accommodation for us. An added bonus was the open kitchen and much needed pub.
A ride ahead and a bath behind. 
It didn’t take long for us to shed our dirty clothes, admire the rarely seen star studded sky and order our well deserved G & T’s whilst overlooking the 'lake of stars'. It was a relief to be back in Malawi unharmed, safe, still friends and happy!
Topic: SQUARING THE CIRCLE ~ Lake of Stars (Read 8962 times)
