Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Cape Maclear!
There's great wireless Internet here (Skyband HotSpot), so we've loaded some new photos and updated the Google Earth track.
We left Vilanculos early on the 30th. It was dodging the pothole again for the first 85 kilometers, after that the road improved. Fewer potholes and far apart, but you have to have your eyes on the road all the time, because you don't want to hit one of these craters. We planned to refuel in Save, but the pump was dry. Next filling station was 100 km away. So we had to use our emergency fuel for the first time. We just divided on 10 litre can between the two bikes and easily made it to the next station. The large numbers of South African registered cars on the road have dissapeared. Obviously most of the SA holidaymakers don't get beyond Vilanculos. There was actually very little traffic now. It was very hot. The radiation from the tarmac roads combined with the hot engines made you didn't want to stop. So we pushed on until we reached Chimoio. Some 30 km before Chimoio a back cloud packe up in front of us and we had some very heavy downpour. It went so quickly that we didn't have time to put our rain pants on. So in 5 minutes we got completely soaked. And that was it. As soon as we were out of this cloud it was dry again and by the time we reached Chimoio our jeans had dry up completely.We stayed at a somewhat strange place called the Pink Papaya, where we got beds in the dormitory. There wasn't much to do in Chimoio, so we had a Pizza and went to bed.
Next morning we got up at 6, this is pretty much our routine now, and continued our journey to Tete. The road was badly potholed and for some 30 kilometers there were roadworks. The newly built road was closed, but on the bikes we could easily get onto the half completed road. This means we could easily do 80km/h while all other traffic was crawling through the bush. Most of the traffic on this route are the big Freightliner trucks en route from Malawi to Beira.

To the mountains to the west of us were the border with Zimbabwe. The hight peak there is Mt. Inyanga which Els and I climbed in 1990 admiring the beautiful view over Mozambique below us. That's where we driving now, almost 19 year later.

We reached Tete around noon (about 5 hours after we left Chimoio). Tete is at 160m elevation, so quite hot again. We refuelled and crossed the Zambezi river bridge and decided to push on for the Malawi border.
We learned when we entered Mozambique that you can cross the border is you have some assistance. So we gladly accepted this service again entering Malawi. And all went smooth again. We used our Carnet de Passage for the first time, which is much quicker than having to apply for a Temporary Import Permit. We still had to pay $40 for third party insurance for each bike.In less than half an hour we were across the border.
We continued to Blantyre. Soon we had climed to an elevation of over 1000m, where it was much cooler. We enjoyed the beautiful scenerey of Malawi. Quite different from what we have seen sofar. By the time we reached Blantyre we had done 621 km and spent 10 hours on the bike. Our longest day sofar.
We got a dorm bed at the Doogles lodge. Although it was New Years Eve, not much was happening. By nine we were in bed and fast asleep.

Next moring, January 1st, we got up at 6 and were on the road again before 7. The clouds were all hanging below us in the valleys and the views were stunning. We planned to get to Cape Maclear quickly. The first two hours went fine bu then some very heavy raining started. Villages were flooded and we saw some mud and staw house collapse. We felt really sorry for the villagers. What a way to start a new year.....

By the time we got to Cape Maclear we had left the bad weather behind us. The last 18km were a badly corrugated gravel road. So bad that one of my mirrors broke off.

We are now at the Fat Monkey lodge which is beautifully situated right on the lake. We'll stay here two days. Time to do some small repairs to the bikes and relax a bit.