Mzungu in Mpulungu

We are in Bujumbura, Burundi. I can’t quite believe it – if you look on the map of our route from the first Africa blog posting, we are more than two-thirds of the distance through our travels! Over the last week, this has actually involved little physical effort on our part, but has involved a bit of physical discomfort.

Since our last blog posting, we spent a few more days in the saddle continuing north up Lake Malawi, including a small jog inland that involved climbing onto a plateau with a rubber tree plantation. Climbing was hard work but meant that we also got to descend about 800m back down to the lake in less than 10km. Wheeee! Luckily, there were bore holes and water pumps quite regularly, so we didn’t have to carry too much water weight up the hills. We have continued to be impressed with all the cycling done without gears, and the heavy loads that people carry on their bicycles, as well as on their heads.

Most people we meet, locals and other travelers alike, think we’re crazy for what we’re doing, but we finally are able to say “you know what’s even crazier?” and tell them about Richard, a really nice guy that we met who is WALKING a similar journey. He started in South Africa, at the southernmost point of the continent and is walking to Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point on the continent, which he will climb before heading home. He started in October and will be finished at the beginning of March. His website is here if you want to check it out: www.richardsrun.co.za

When we arrived in the town of Karonga, at the north end of Lake Malawi, we had to figure out how to get ourselves up several hundred kilometers of dirt (mud) roads with no public transportation back over to Zambia and to the south end of Lake Tanganyika, where we wanted to catch an old ferry boat that may or may not run every Friday or Saturday, according to the best information we could get. In general, we have found things here don’t transpire quite as they would other places we’ve been and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that a journey that we thought would be very difficult was actually logistically fairly simple, even if it wasn’t that easy on our bodies. We were able to strap our bikes on the back or top of several trucks and hitch rides along with the locals. It is amazing how many people can fit in the back of a truck! Every time I thought we were completely full and couldn’t possibly pick up another person, that is exactly what we did. After we reached a point of maximum discomfort , it actually became more comfortable as all the bodies around you held you up and allowed you to just relax, even if you couldn’t feel your feet. In Nelson’s case, he didn’t mind so much since a chicken was pecking at his foot.

Unfortunately, we had jinxed ourselves a few days earlier by marveling about how neither of us had gotten sick, so I also had to find a toilet immediately every time we stopped, which wasn’t quite often enough. Antibiotics didn’t work and three days later when we arrived in Mpulungu, at the south end of Lake Tanganyika, a South African nurse that we met highly recommended take medication for malaria. That seemed to work and I am feeling one hundred percent again. Phew!

We actually arrived in Mpulungu a day ahead of schedule so thought we would wander down to the harbour to see if there just happened to be a cargo boat going up the lake. The problem with the ferry (besides the fact that it may or may not run any given week) was that it was only going part way up the lake, where we would then have to find another boat/bus/truck to take us the rest of the way to Burundi. Well, we arrived at the harbour to find that a cargo boat was leaving in two hours and could take us, so we rushed all over town getting groceries and packing up all our gear, to get back in time to go through customs and immigration only to learn (we should know better by now!) that the boat was now going to leave the next morning. The captain stressed that we needed to be there by 7:30am because we were leaving at 8 sharp. We took that with a grain of salt, but still arrived at 7:30. Of course, by 8am, there was no sign of us going anywhere, so I thought I would run up to the bank and change our extra Zambian kwacha into dollars. When I was leaving the bank and walking back down to the harbour, I heard the ship’s horn blast, so I started running. Everybody I passed shouted “you’re late!”, and as I entered the port, I could see Nelson on the boat looking a little anxious. Apparently, the captain was ready to go about 10 minutes before I arrived and he was saying, “we wait for no one!”. Luckily, he waited for me! Also lucky for the three guys that arrived two minutes after me. Our boat was pulled almost entirely away from the dock and they jumped the gap at our last point of contact just in time!

The boat, the Kizingenza, pulled not just itself, but three other cargo boats as well. It took two and a half days to reach Bujumbura, but we are here now. Apparently, I was mistaken before and we are NOW near the place where Stanley said “Livingstone, I presume?”. So hard to keep track of those guys – they sure did get around.

I have wicked bicycle glove tan lines, by the way, for those who are wondering, and not cycling doesn’t seem to be changing that.

The last photo is for all you birders following our blog. This little guy and his friends are living in the same campground as us. Any help figuring out what it is would be most appreciated!

We are now headed for Rwanda, “Land of a Thousand Hills”. I assume they’re just kidding about that.