Trucked Foot

Details

Malawi - 

Published on Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Waking up on the shore of Lake Malawi was stunning, waking up in the mountains was breathtaking! Rising before the sun I could hear the village coming to life around us and decided to go for a walk.

One of the village cooking huts

Anthony practicing his fowl language skills

All dressed up and almost nowhere to go!

The Chief needed to go to Mzimba and, since we were going that way anyway, were more than happy to give him a ride. Once more we all rode at our own pace, stopping at crossroads and turn-offs to make sure we went the same way.

Didn't see Anthony and his bike at first, rode past and reversed to find him surrounded by the village boys

Olifant made a new 4 legged friend while Anthony and I had some fried sweet potato from a roadside vendor

Around 12 we dropped the Chief in Mzimba, stopped for a quick lunch at a local restaurant and continued on to Mzuzu.

The riding had been going great the whole day but close to 3pm I came around a corner, saw a big truck barreling down on me, swerved left to avoid being run over and hit the deep sand next the the road at a bad angle. The bike went over with my foot trapped under the left pannier and I had flashbacks to the last time I broke my ankle. Try as I might I couldn't lift the bike off my foot and, shouting the whole time, it felt like an eternity before somebody showed up to help me. The pain abated as soon as the bike was lifted and we managed to right the bike eventually as well. The whole time the 3 local guys were apologising profusely for me having fallen, after a while I stopped trying to reassure them and just chuckled, which seemed to make them happier. Thanking them I got back on the bike and continued on in first gear, my clutch foot throbbing. After a bit I worked out a way of changing gears that didn't bother the foot too much - once again extremely happy that I was wearing motocross boots!

This little girl (with baby on her back) pumped the bucket full, had to ask a man passing to lift it for her and carried it off on her head - I have to wonder if she's even 10 years old!

The lady on the far left screamed and ran when Anthony came over with his camera - she thought he was carrying a gun!

After a bit I found Anthony waiting at a turn-off, he'd just gotten an sms from Sabine & Puk, they thought they'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and were a bit lost. He raced off to see if he could find them, while I decided to lie down for a bit. Apparently somebody lying in a ditch with their foot in the air is not that much cause for alarm because I had at least 2 vehicles pass without slowing down while waiting for him to return.

Soon Anthony was back, sans the Land Rover, they had found another route and would join us at Mzuzu again. Running out of daylight we went as fast as my foot would allow and reached Mzuzu at deep dusk. Anthony phoned his CouchSurfing contact and soon Milla found us and led us to their home. Welcoming us warmly, they showed us our room and we settled in for the night.