Kamphambale – OriginFinancial

Guy on a Bike – Sun 3 June 2018, Day 182

Origin Group — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 07:25:59 +0000

Second rest day at Ngala Lodge, Kamphambale
Distance 6696
Total from Amsterdam 12096

Peter was up well before sunrise and plugged in his headlamp batteries to charge before the electricity goes off. He has taken apart the Whisperlite and followed a utube video to service and clean the burner. The utube guy says ‘you should use white gas, kerosene or jet fuel’ … now where does this oke think we’re going to find these in a tiny village in the middle of Malawi. This village sells diesel or petrol in plastic coke bottles !! There was some leftover poor quality petrol from Egypt left in the tank which he tossed and we’ll have to try and get some paraffin from the factory, Illovo Sugar about 30 km down from here. With all the dettol I’ve smeared on myself for flies and miggies I smell like a hospital. It’s mostly in the morning that they’re out in force. We had a magic fry up this morning of french toast with fried bananas and tomatoes. The Whisperlite is still playing up but we got our breakfast cooked before the burner died on us. A couple of Zim folk came past and the one guy, Graham suggested we just get new fuel.

I finished my book and have started book three of Tami Hoag trilogy, Down the Darkest Road. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two and Peter said book 3 is the best. By now Peter was hungry again so we boiled stodgy spaghetti and had a fruit/salad of mustard leaves (no lettuce in villages), tomatoes, eggs, naartjies, bananas which was great. We got invited by the owners of Ngala Lodge to join them for a braai and were spoilt rotten with fillet, boerewors and yummy chicken. Salads were … green, potato and beans and fresh bread rolls and real butter. ??. It felt as though we were back in SA. Got to meet Patricia’s dad, Mervin who lives two houses from Ngala. He had previously worked in Uganda for two years growing hops but due to draught, the farm closed down. With our tummies full we are in our tent reading and enjoying the last of our lekker caramel suckers. Night all xx

PS Thanks to everyone who drop is a line from time to time, its much appreciated

– Our fry up this morning

– Beautiful Ngala Beach Lodge

– Suckers, our nightly treat

Guy on a Bike – Sat 2 June 2018, Day 181

Origin Group — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 07:24:24 +0000

Rest day at Ngala Lodge, Kamphambale
Distance 6696
Total from Amsterdam 12096

Woke to the call of a fish eagle, turtle doves, cocks crowing and the overlander truck from the Strand (CEY registration) packing up. They only have about six people in the group, all from Europe, and are heading towards Tanzania. None in the group want to go to Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater as it is too expensive and only one person is going to do the trek to see the gorillas, not sure if in Uganda or Rwanda. Had a brisk walk to the ablutions and got there just in time ??. Owners Chris and Sandy have a television with dstv at their house and we watched Chiefs lose to Crusaders. All SA teams having a bye and only play again end of June. Took some pics of the swimming pool and I’ve no idea what I did but my phone took 100 of the same picture and the only way I know how to delete 99 of them is one by one. Walking up from the campsite to the lodge’s lounge area I heard a turtle dove cooing but to me it sounded like ‘mzungu mzungu’.

I should have brought my ipod along to listen to some loud music while cycling. We are now staying three nights here, yayy. It’s quiet, no other people camping, a stiff breeze blowing so no flies parking off on my legs, I’m still working on growing the hair on my calves. Haven’t shaved legs since my hair cut just before leaving Zanzibar ??. Duncan from Orca Industries advised us on how to pull out the steel cable to clean inside the shaft, it worked so now we have the petrol MSR Whisperlite working again, much to Peter’s relief. Washing done and Peter’s tummy is grumbling. Peter nodded off after lunch, and we’re about to go for a swim in the lodge’s swimming pool. Went shopping in the village for supper and I videod the one hifi that was blasting. Had slap chips bought in the village instead of spaghetti but the Whisperlite obviously is still blocked somewhere as it just gave up the ghost halfway through cooking the sauce. Watched a Bones episode and now heading for bed as it’s winter here and a bit chilly. 20h50 and time for bed. Night night xx

– Beautiful Ngala Lodge

– Our campsite with Lake Malawi in the back

– The beautiful gardens at Ngala Lodge

– Initially too chicken to dip a toe into the pool, Peter eventually took the plunge

– A gorgeous lodge, setting, gardens and staff

Guy on a Bike – Fri 1 June 2018, Day 180

Origin Group — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 07:22:21 +0000

Camping at Ngala Lodge, Kamphambale
Distance 65 + 6631= 6696
Average 13.3
Time on bike 4 h 51 m
Total from Amsterdam 12096
Location S12.358648, E34.066081

Chilly last night but slept well and after thanking Tiwanwe for the lovely stay at Kande Horse we rode off at 07h13 with the sun on our backs and a breeze in our faces. I’m convinced the locals still use the bush telephone … shout to one another over vast distances !! I’ve been in a nafi mood the whole day … feeling sorry for myself, weepy, moody and basically just plain moerig. The kids screaming, teenagers laughing at us got to me today and then when we rode down a soft sandy road to check out accomm for the night to find a truck blocking the road that the driver wouldn’t move and no way we could get around. Workers alongside the truck laughing and making fun pee’d me off even more. At the local village a guy came over and stuck his face no less than a foot from mine, smelling of booze, eyes glassy wanting to help me shop for tomatoes and onions when I was standing right in front of a table laden with both ??.

Then a guy shouting at me over and over to ‘pedal hard’ going up another sandy road that tipped me over the edge so I told him to bugger off and next thing we were both swearing at each other … Peter waiting at the top wondering what was going on. We eventually found a lovely campsite which is part of Ngala Lodge, had a warm shower and then battled to get supper cooked. The lodge is owned by Zimbabwean Chris and SA Sandy. The bar, lounge and dining areas are nicely furnished and the place looks well run. Dan and Pat will manage this lodge and owners Chris and Sandy will run the new one they’re building at a nearby game reserve. Our cooking burners, MSR Whisperlite isn’t working at all, Peter can’t even clean it and the MSR Pocket Rocket works intermittently, Grrr. Supper at the lodge is $25 pp … out of the question. We’re heading towards Lilongwe and will hopefully find another burner there to replace these duds. Apologies for the negative diary, I’m sure I’ll have a good sleep tonight and rid myself of this crappy mood I’m in and will enjoy a day of R+R tomorrow. Definitely a day to put behind me and get back into the groove of peddling again on Sunday. Night all xx

PS the day wasn’t all that bad … we got to hear loads of Fish Eagles all along the lake. Bought a lovely avocado from a young girl who interpreted for us, had a great lunch of icy cold Fanta, avo and tomato sandwiches sitting on a bench the locals gave us to use and had fun taking pictures of kids and showing them the pics … and a husband who kept more than a spitting distance from me and knew to let me have a little cry and just let off some steam … love you Darlin’ xx

– The long and winding road home is still a good few thousand kms of peddling

– Cassava plants

– Cassava drying on the road … coarse in front, finer cassava in the middle and right in front rice is also being dried

– Children all seem to be this age/size having fun looking at their picture

– Chris and Sandy, owners of Ngala Lodge for the past ten years