After an excellent nights sleep and a top notch breakfast at the Rafiki Safari Lodge, I was ready to make my way into Zambia, only to be told by Sandi (the lodge owner) that I had been unsuccessful in obtaining authority to ride my bike through the Game Reserve...bugger!! This meant that I had to go via Lilongwe, which added another 80 miles and 2 hrs to my days riding, something I could have done without.
To add insult to injury the day just got worse. Firstly I got stuck on the road from Lilongwe to the border in what I believe to be election celebrations where the road at certain points were completely blocked. I felt quite uneasy as I was completely surrounded by 100’s of locals when trying to get through the villages with everyone shouting at me as I pushed my way through, reving the bike engine to get people to move. Finally when I approached the Malawi/Zambian border the heavens opened and I got soaked.
On the plus side the border crossing was pretty painless and only took an hour without any major issues, although I couldn’t understand why I had to pay double the carbon tax because I was transiting through the country.
I made it to the first town Chipatta, within 20 mins of leaving the border and checked into the first decent hotel I came across, where my bike would also be safe overnight.
It wasn’t until; I had changed out of my wet bike gear into dry cloths and left my room to go to the bar that I noticed that someone had walked into the hotel and along the corridor and left filthy great muddy footprints on the carpet. When I looked closer the footprints stopped outside my room. whoops!
After a good nights slip in the Protea Hotel, I managed to get my laundry done, and go into town to get a well needed haircut and also jet wash the bike, before leaving on a long 300 mile journey to Chongwe. The journey started off on long boring straight roads...
However once I had reached. Nyimba the roads became more enjoyable to ride as I rode over the small mountain range. I topped up with fuel in Nyimba before starting the next 200 miles leg, as there would be no fuel stops, towns or hotels on this road.
Half way through the mountain range I came across the Luwangwa Bridge which had a high security/police presence at one end and this bridge was in the middle of no where!
It was now 5pm and I still had a long ride to complete before dark as I had only left Chipatta at mid day. By 6 pm I only had 25 miles to complete to my destination which I thought I should do before dark. Unfortunately luck was not on my side as the clouds darkened, lighting struck and the heavens opened. In fact it got dark very quickly and I still had 16 miles to go. It was raining so hard I could not see the road surface, nor any potholes. I ended up following a taxi, as that was the only way I could see where I was going. What made it worse is there are no street lights so when it is dark in Africa, it is pitch black.
I finally made it to Chongwe but had no idea if there was a hotel here. It was still bucketing down with rain, so I stopped at the first petrol station to get some shelter but also to top up with fuel as my reserve warning light had just started flashing on my dashboard (I now know my bike will cover over 200 miles on a tank of fuel) I asked the petrol attendant if he knew of a hotel near bye and fortunately he directed me to the Chimtunzi Lodge across the road From the petrol station. Perfect I could get out of the rain.
At this point any hotel would have done. It was basic but safe for the bike and gave me the opportunity to dry off before continuing my journey to Victoria Falls.