We're now in Mbeya, the 5-th largest city in Tanzania, 100 km from the border with Malawi. Tomorrow we'll be crossing that border, so we'll be in a new country from thursday on.
Everybody has enjoyed the stages through Tanzania very much. It is a beautifull country with very friendly people. We had a lot of luck riding through Tanzania: the rain could have made the off-road stages very tough, but luckily the first drops fell when we were already on the tarmac. Let's not get overenthousiastic though, the rainy season has not yet ended, also in Malawi we can get a lot of water on or heads. My tent has proved to stay dry until now, so let the rains come!
From Iringa we have travelled three beutifull stages with no special things happening. Yesterday we passed the half-way mark, distance-wise. Time-wise we have passed this mark a few weeks ago already: the stages will get longer now, because of the more favourable road-conditions, and we'll be eating up the remaining kilometers faster (with a climax in Botswana: a stage of more than 200 km.)
I have two things to pay extra attention to: my bum is starting to get sore beacuse of the long hours in the saddle. The docter has given me a cream for this, and its works very good, so this will be o.k.
My rear-wheel rim has became dented in the rough stages before Iringa, it needs to be replaced. From Lilongwe (Malawi) on i can use the rear wheel of a sectional rider who will be leaving then, so i need to hold on to my dented wheel for another 6 days. I think this will not be a problem.
We're riding on, i'm ready for Malawi!
