Camping on a school soccer field.....

Beyond the Saddle ....Cairo to Cape Town
Howard Fairbank
Mon 2 Apr 2007 14:13

Position: 12:12.214S 33:40.012E

Camping on the soccer field of a small village about 12km from
Msimba...Probably not on any maps you will have!

Cycled 125km today.

The route was not rolling hills but big dippers! Very tough cycle,
specially the first 70km, as the hills just never stopped and the downhills
seemed so short!

It took us into the timber forrest area of Malawi.....pretty extensive
industry on the go, but then it was back to maize, and bananas!

Scenery had these huge volcanic rock domes or almost remaining volcano
centre plugs of rock popping up all over the place.

The campsite is just full with school kids fascinated with the groups
presence. Not as intrusive as Ethiopia but not far off. I have managed to
set up the tent away from the crowds who lost interest with my single
activities.

Also had some rain around the lunch stop which forced we to revert to my
black bag raingear for a while.

I left early and was first in to camp, just beating the racers (who started
later!), so I was quite pleased with my cycling performance today. (Ruth is
still out there for what will be a long day for her.

Still on track for Lilongwe on wednesday.

Bye for now.