Tour d'Afrique - Cairo to Cape Town by Bike

• Extremely friendly!  People enjoyed crowding around us, but as per usual for the last while it was simply out of curiosity.  People along the route always went out of their way and stopped their activity to wave and shout greetings.
• Curious, but not intrusive.  Stopped on the side of the road with mechanical problems, taking photos, having lunch or for any other reason, locals would stop and gawk for a little bit, ask some questions if English was in their repertoire, then continue on their merry way.  This was in contrast to some previous countries where locals would hang around for what seemed to be an indefinite period of time hoping to score some sort of hand out.

• I have heard Malawi described as the Switzerland of Africa.  The country's unique feature is the massive Lake Malawi which has some rolling mountains along its shoreline.  This makes for some great riding as the scenery is constantly changing and is absolutely stunning.
• Once away from the lake, the landscape continued to roll through the mountains and ducked through the occasional river valley.
• All of this water of course means that the countryside is extremely green and lush which offered monkey and other wildlife sightings along the road and amazing fruits along the way.

• As mentioned previously, Malawi is known as one of the poorest countries on the continent.  However, from the portion we rode through this was absolutely not evident.  The road (I believe paved by the Chinese) was in great condition, many people carried cell phones and were reasonably dressed, the villages were (only relatively of course) cleanish, and most of all the capital Lilongwe was extremely developed.
• I get the impression that once off of the main route all of this changes drastically for the worse where roads are deteriorated to the point of questionable impassibility, buildings are falling down and local quality of life is diminished.  This is unfortunately second hand information.
• It is for this reason that I am extremely happy that the Tour d'Afrique Foundation donation bicycles will be used in these unpaved areas where motor vehicles cannot easily travel and where the economy is not very strong.

After this quick jaunt through Malawi, we will cruise through Zambia very close to Mozambique and Zimbabwe!

# posted by Andrew @ 4/15/2007 04:15:00 a.m.