What a Difference a Country Makes

Riding the Tour D’Afrique, days 79 to 91, Lilongwe to Victoria Falls

Distance Cycled: 7,722km

Meters Climbed: 44,370m

Time on Bike: 300:54:12

Time in Truck: 00:00:00

Even though entering Zambia was our sixth border crossing of the trip, it amazes me every time. Despite crossing lines that were predominantly arbitrarily drawn in an office in London somewhere, the contrasts between neighbouring countries are immediate and Malawi to Zambia was the most evident yet.

Riding as a group is definitely the way to get through 100+ miles days

As may have been deduced from my previous post, my state of mind had been somewhat negative in Malawi. I'm starting to realise that my mood is heavily influenced by my enjoyment of the cycling - perhaps unsurprisingly as I'm spending the majority of my time sat on my increasingly contoured leather saddle. As such I was determined to rekindle my love of riding my bike in this section, primarily by not exhausting myself early on - potentially a difficult task as we were to be averaging about 100 miles a day for the 8 day stretch across Zambia!

The first day involved a morning getting to the border from Lilongwe, with more of the "give me my money" shouts and people constantly lining the rough tar roads. On crossing though, this was to all change in an instant. Suddenly we were on the smoothest road I have ever ridden on, the first shout from a kid I heard was "go, number 1!" and in the first big town we hit, there was a large supermarket, coffee shop and Steers burger joint. We duly took advantage.

The next few days we skirted the Lower Zambezi national park and climbed through some of the most spectacular forested mountains and down to the equally beautiful Luangwa river that forms the border between Zambia and Mozambique. It was a good job too, as the daily mileage was seriously inflating, breaking my max daily record three times in the space of a week. It has been rewarding to reflect that prior to this trip I had only done that sort of distance once, and had been completely broken for a couple of days afterwards! Although I don't think I'm getting any quicker, in fact I'm probably slowing slightly, my ability to just keep going has drastically improved.

Luangwa bridge, eastern Zambia with Mozambique on east bank

Zambian mountains

After five excellent but tough days on the road, we enjoyed a well deserved rest day in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. My stop-over in Lusaka can only be summarised as one of over-indulgence. With an abundance of large western-style shopping malls I hopped from South African chain restaurant to coffee shop to bar and back again.

We've spent a number rest days frequenting such shopping malls, as a place of familiar solace, where they have often felt like an enclave for expats and tourists. In Lusaka, however, there was also clearly a burgeoning Zambian middle class, an encouraging sign for a developing African country. It also helped to feel somewhat less alien in the country.

Aside from the shopping malls, Ed, Anmei and I ventured into to the central markets, which were a more typical African affair. Having done the same in Lilongwe, we're finding that the local markets are a great way to understand the sights and sounds (and smells!) of a city, with each market having its own unique vibe. Although at no point did we ever feel unsafe or threatened, despite very much sticking out like a sore thumb, it seemed unwise to to get my phone out and start snapping away, so unfortunately there isn't too much photographic evidence of our forays into the deepest parts of African cities. Though I did get an excellent haircut..

Soweto market, Lusaka

Getting my hair cut. Soweto market, Lusaka.

Lusaka, with the addition of Kigali (and excepting the hotel we were staying at!) has been fairly unique so far in that there seems to have been a degree of development over the last few decades, in contrast to the decaying colonial-era architecture and facilities of Khartoum, Nairobi and Jinja.

It will be interesting to see if this a common theme in southern Africa as we have firmly transitioned from the east Africa region. Perhaps its only relative, but there is an increasing sense of familiarity here. There is more order, with hotels and restaurants having processes in place and people trained to implement them. No longer do we have the ordeal of battling with staff at hotels when trying to pay the bill at the end of the stay, where the bits of paper that each order had been written on have inevitably been lost or assigned to the wrong tab. No longer do you need to factor in an extra hour or so for you food order to come and for said order to be something different entirely. However, with that, there is less flamboyance and energy. Gone are the bustling, chaotic villages, and there was a certain charm of placing an order not quite knowing what would come in return. There is also less colour. English is now widely spoken, making everything a little easier. But again, with that there are fewer chances for entertaining interactions with limited common language.

What hasn't changed, though, are the local dive bars - Of which Ed and I (Ed in particular) are becoming connoisseurs. Africa is loud. Regardless of whether its 9am or 9pm (or "21" in Zambia - they seem to exclusively use the 24 hour format when talking about time) there will be a bar in every village blaring music so loud that the speaker is distorting. this does, however, make the bars easy to find. Zambians, in particular, can drink. Again, be it 11 or 23, there will be at least one local unable to speak or stand, yet insistent on trying to interact with you. Although there is no longer so much of "give me my money" in Zambia, there is often "buy me a Chibuku?". Chibuku is appetisingly marketed as an "opaque beer", creamy yellow in colour and served by the litre in milk carton-style containers for the equivalent of £0.50. Also known as "shake-shake" due to the action required to mix up all the sediment. I have yet to brave trying this..

Zambian bar. The guy on the right could barely speak. It was 1pm. That's pretty normal.

At the end of this long cycling stretch we have been treated to an extended break at the majestic Victoria Falls, where I popped across to the Zimbabwe side for a couple of days. This, as is typical of rest days, involved eating and drinking probably more than I should. The falls themselves are truly spectacular, with the roar being heard and the rising spray being seen from miles around. The falls are aptly described by their local name "Mosi-oa-Tunya" or "The smoke that thunders".