Staying at Smart GH, Luanga
Distance 61 + 7476 = 7537
Average 16.9
Time 3 h 37
Total from Amsterdam 12937
Location S14.98486, E30.202268
Two night clubs, blasting doef doef one side and screamy noise the other, in competition with each other till 4 am?? While packing up this morning we were watched by a few children and all, but one, were pushy wanting ice cream at 7 am. The little guy was cute, shy, clutching his school bag and being teased by the bigger kids.
We got going by 07h40 and were fooled by a great 10 km downhill but thereafter it was just more of yesterday … lots of hills. At 20 km (08h50) we came across a lonely and wilted sunflower so I gave it a lifeline and watered it. Around 55 km there was a stop/go due to road works and with busses getting impatient behind us, I moved into the left lane and didn’t realise that a steamroller was compacting soft tar resulting in both my tyres getting all bogged up with sticky tar. We had to turn my bike upside down a km up the road and Peter used a screwdriver to scrape excess tar from the wheels, getting a blister in the process. It took almost an hour to do this. I have decided not to smile and wave to children today and have counted ‘how are you’ greetings instead. I counted 88 ‘how are yous’ so X that by +- 10 as one child calls out ‘how are you’ roughly 10 times and there are generally five children per greeting group … 88 x 10 x 5 = 4 400 ‘how are yous’ penetrated our ears today, which is one hell of a lot??
We finally crossed the Luangwa River around noon, had a look at the Kent guest house and on walking through the village came across the Smart GH. It has a clean flush loo compared with the other place whose toilet was a smelly hole in the floor. Rate pd at Smart GH K70 for both of us. Then checked out a few restaurants for chicken and chips, one offered chicken feet ?? but Namajau (Smart’s receptionist) took us to a restaurant that had decent chicken. I felt homesick when I saw a box of oranges from HN Pieterse Boerdery, Groblersdal, SA. Also in the box were TruCape apples. We bought an orange K5 (R6.55) and it was so juicy with no pips like those we get here.
Needed water but could only get 750 ml bottles so bought six to pour into the 1.5 litre bottles that Peter carries. He’s just had 40 winks and arranged a bucket of warm water to wash away yesterday and today’s sweat and grime. There is no electricity here at the GH but they run the generator from 6 pm to midnight so we’ll catch the soccer highlights after the actual games. Supper was three chunks of beef in a sauce and rice for Peter and I had rice and potatoes in a tomato based sauce and dessert was a crunchy South African apple! We are now going to watch Argentina Nigeria game of soccer then get some much needed Zzzzz. Cheers all xx
– No handbag and I don’t miss having one. My bar bag has elastic bands, wet wipes, mozzie and cycle cream, note pad, pen, Anthesan, plastic and sharp knives, sun block, cell phone, specs and of course two SA flags
– One of today’s long climbs with the after effects of people starting small roadside fires
– A thirsty sunflower with not another in sight for a hundred or so kilometres
– This is what happens when you listen to some idiot who tells you to change lanes
– Juicy oranges from Pieterse Boerdery in Groblersdal
