Once again we decided that an early start was needed as we had a border crossing to complete. So we were all packed and ready to go by 7am. These early mornings are always beautiful and the roads peaceful before the gang of mad and demented truck and bus drivers are let loose! This morning they beat us to it. No more than 20 minutes after having left the site a line of traffic halted us. Two huge articulated lorries had hit head on at speed at the bottom of a slope and both now lay overturned completely blocking the road in both directions. The blood on the road around the cabs confirmed that one or both drivers were seriously hurt. We rode slowly through the crowds of people who had now left their vehicles in order to inspect the hold up, and with centimetres to spare eased our bikes between the overturned carnage of the hulking frames.

We were looking forward to getting into Malawi and so headed towards Mbeya in order to then get onto the B345 to Llima and the international border post. Leaving Mbeya the road became a ‘bikers paradise’…long sweeping curves winding through stunningly beautiful and dark green foliage. The fantastic road took us higher and higher before it suddenly went into a steep descent leading down into Malawi.

Getting out of Tanzania and into Malawi was no problem and was completed, along with money changing, in about 1 hour. We were now into our 35th country!

Right from the beginning we decided that we liked Malawi – the roads were good, the people very friendly and things were amazingly cheap. We decided to stop fairly early on in the day and reached the small camp at Ngara right on the side of the Lake. This would give us a chance to admire this absolutely huge Lake – more like a sea really. Before even putting up the tent we dumped ourselves in a couple of comfy chairs and ordered two Malawian beers. At 25p for ½ a litre bottle it seemed rude not to. You’ve got to love a country who’s nationally brewed beer is called…’Kuche Kuche’ and yes it is pronounced ‘cooche cooche’

Taking our cue from yesterdays early start, the alarm buzz in our ear at 6am and by 7am we were packed up and taking in the stunning mixture of milky pinks, soft orange and ethereal blues that were making up the sunrise as the Sun crested the distant mountains and the full light hit Lake Malawi. We paid our camping, the whopping sum of 600 Malawian Kwacha (about £3.00 for both of us), and rode the short dirt and rock path back to the main road.

The newly tarmaced road made the riding a pleasure with an easy mixture of fast tight and long drawn out bends dropping effortlessly into one anther. Grin factor 10.

Small roadside villages came and went with a mixture of traditional mud homes and the newer brick abodes dotting the verges. The throng of people coming and going about their business keeping the roadside busy and the brightly printed materials worn by the women kept the eyes engaged.

After all this time we’re still amused as to how easily we turn heads; children, men and women, young and old alike on-mass stop in their tracks, arms hung limp and simply stare as we ride past. Their heads turning to follow our progress. A quick glance in the side mirrors confirms we keep their attention as we zoom out of sight.

The large brown sign read “WELCOME TO MZUZU” as one of Malawi’s Larger towns came into view in the distance. With a few odd glances and looks of disbelief we carefully picked our way down one the rockier dirt tracks off the main road and pulled up in front of a small café. A group of young guys shot of a barrage of questions before we’d even dismounted and seemed happy with our answers. Thanking them for their interest we ducked into the small café. The dirty, once white peeling paint and the dark stains on the ply wood roof all seemed to fit and what would 15 months ago have seemed alarming, now seems very normal. We slowly ate our cooked eggs and sipped on the sweet coffee as our other dinning companions simply starred, not once removing their gaze. Again we have become accustomed to this being the norm.

With the bikes fuelled up we headed out of Mzuzu and made our way back to the road that runs the length of the Lake.

We’d met up with Rianne and Julianna the crew from one of the Acacia trucks who’d suggested that the Chinteche Inn would be a calmer stop off than Kandy beach, which is renowned for its parties. Right now all we want is some Sun and some time to recharge the batteries.

By late afternoon we’d filled in the guest registration card and haggled the reception down from $5 per person to $3 and sited our canvas home in the shade of a large green bamboo clump right on the beach. This is exactly what we needed…thanks Rianne.

Some things are JUSTWRONG! And to be honest me (Simon) in a dress is one of them.

Yesterday afternoon we’d accepted an invitation to join the Acacia truck for a fancy dress party and food, it was one of the clients Birthdays and was going to be celebrated in style…a girls night, which meant everyone including the lads would dolled up as girls, make-up an all.

Long storey sideways…just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The photos say it all. Too much booze courtesy of the truck and not enough sleep. Not a pretty sight!

Tonight, however, was a quieter affair as we enjoyed the good company of Johan and Hilda plus their two children as we sat around the fire and Johan BBQ’d steak. With the lakeshore lapping in the background this was not a bad way to recover from the previous nights excess.

Left Chinteche and headed south to Senga bay, outside Salima and arrived at 12:20pm and quickly set up camp. Another tent pole broke and needed to be repaired before we could actually get the tent up. Once again we camped right on the beach.

By 3pm The roar of a Landy V8’s engine outside the sites metal security gates trumpeted the arrival of Johan and Hilda who’ve set up camp just across from us.

With a walk down to the local fishing village we’ve managed to pick up 4 large local fish and at 500 Kwacha (£2.50) a bargain to boot. Lisa then tackled these 4 huge fish and gutted them with some difficulty armed only with my leatherman. Cooked over the glowing embers of locally gathered hard wood, dinner was a delicious but simple affair.

Met up with Claire, the driver from one of the over-land trucks whom we’d last seen at Rangis in Nairobi and she had some alarming news for us. Apparently our good luck fairy is still with us as 3 days after we left Rangis for Arusha, a gang of armed men stormed the site in broad day-light, held everyone at gunpoint and took everything; phones, personal possession, money the lot. A few of the staff had only just been paid that day. They lost the lot.

Senga, lay on the beach

Senga, lay on the beach-Hilda and Johann left for Zomba.

Senga, lay on the beach

Senga, lay on the beach-bought and cooked fresh fish on the beach again. Just the two of us. Wonderful. Managed to get some stunning photos of the rising Full ‘orange’ moon. They look great.

We left Left Senga early this morning and had a pretty easy ride to Blantyre, all apart from a bird flying into Lisa's helmet at around 70mph.

When your not having to concentrate 100% on not getting killed you have time to notice the odd things around you, things like billboards advertising a soap called 'Giesha' with the wonderfully innaproriate strap line of..."as pure as a mother love"! Brilliant.

Some of our favourites though have been imaginative and colourful names Malawian think up for the business...for example the coffin builders we see all along the side of the raod. We thought ’comfort coffins’ was good, you know cozy in very dead kind of way, however this was beaten by...'The coffine centre', which impressed us more, but our absolute favourite had to...wait for it...'Coffins 'R' Us', who also had a large badly painted sign advertisng their Sale...buy one get one free, You just can't make this stuff up. I mean what a bloody fantastic sale Idea, buy one coffin get one free, C'mon if you'vre just entered into a suicide pact it's just about bloody perfect! By now of course we were having difficulty staying upright on the bikes for laughing so hard, our stomachs hurt and we were crying from the laughing. God we love Malawi.

The single lane plank bridges with the nails coming out we found a little scary and thier were plenty of these to cross as we entered Blantyre!

Tonight we're staying at Doogles Lodge at GPS:

Managed to get Kwacha on our Visa card after much trying. Only had 3,000 left.