Staying with Paul and Cornelia Siljeur, Lilongwe
Distance 6996
Total from Amsterdam 12396
Another freezing morning so we won’t leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Paul leaves for work at 07h15 so we plan to get going by 8, latest. Had a busy morning of baking a cake and doing two loads of washing. After hand washing our stuff for months it was a real treat having clean clothes again, thanks to the Siljeur family’s auto washing machine. We were kindly invited join Paul and Cornelia at their neighbours, Catalina and Tim’s house for a farewell lunch. Many of the folk there were ladies from the walking group ‘Walky Talkies’ … and their husbands. I joined these ladies on Friday past for a walk and they go ‘hell for leather’ … they may talk while they walk but they’re serious about walking 3 x a week. A great bunch of people who are from all over the world, most on a contract period of four years. Lunch was also an international affair, from breyani to spicy Indian, Greek and roast fillet and a selection of yummy desserts. My cake was tasty but rather crumbly but with not much left to take home it must have been ok. After lunch Catalina organised a few sporty games … Escom, think it stands for Electricity Supply Company of Malawi said that if a volley ball could be kept going for 20 hits there’d be no power cuts for three months ????.
There were two more events but it will be too long winded to explain so see pics below. We started packing panniers on our return and thank heavens tomorrow’s ride is mostly flat, we have biscuits, another kg of oats, apples and naartjies and padkos from Thenjiwe Mtintso, the High Commissioner of SA … thank you Ma’am. The final of the Sevens Rugby tournament for 2018 was played in France this weekend and SA had to beat England to win the Paris tournament as well as be overall winners for 2018 and I am proud to say we did both, beating England 24 – 14. The Blitzbokke are the World Sevens Rugby Champions for 2018, yayy. Peter was the only one who had some chili con carne as the rest of us were still too full to face any more food. We have been made so welcome here in the Siljeur home which is appreciated and we hope you are able to visit us when next you come to SA. Night all xx
PS … just received this on our Cairo to CT whatsapp group …
”Hello everybody! I’m Mikhail, from Russia. I make a voyage around Africa from Morocco to Cape Town and north to Egypt. Now in Zambia. From Chipata moved to the north-west, through the parks Luangwa and Luamba. Not far from Chama on the forest road was attacked by an elephant. I myself was saved, and my bicycle is crushed. I return to Luanda for the bicycles. Be careful, avoid face-to-face meetings” ….. and Peter was thinking of riding this road, we might just give it a miss ????
– Drinks and snacks at the High Commissioner’s home yesterday
– Sue and her husband are leaving Malawi and this was part of their send off
– Two teams had to roll loo paper around each of them … the best team’s effort at producing a mummy, won
– Paul and Cornelia’s garden. Pity the +- six frangipani trees were not in flower
