Having fled from Nkhata Bay the previous day, we had no option but to wait for Allan’s replacement tyre in Mzuzu… My friends in Lilongwe, Peter Kemp and Grant, were arranging to collect it in Chipata, Zambia, and then use a transport service to get the tyre to Mzuzu on the weekend… It was to be a frustrating few days wait, with nothing much to do but update our journals, drink beer and frustrate the staff of the hotel as much as we could…
Each day, Allan made a similar call to reception at about 3.00pm, and it went something like this:
“Loom service? This is Allan Karl, Newport Beach, United States of America… We have a problem here in Room 203…”
“What is the plobrem, sir…?”
“Well Doctor Ronnie B. of Nelsproot, Republic of South Africa, has just noticed that it is past 3.00pm, and we have no greens (beer) in our room…! Do you have any way of fixing that?”
“We wirr send the maintenance to your loom stlaight away…”
Allan would explain the problem again, until the guy finally understood that our problem was thirst related… Allan made this call with a few variations, each time causing confusion at reception… Clearly the boredom had gotten to both of us…
We were allowed to park our bikes right in front of the main entrance to the Sunbird Mzuzu…
On Friday it rained for 9 hours straight… From 6.00am that morning to just after 3.00pm in the afternoon. The rain bucketed down, knocking the yellow Acacia blossoms off the trees outside our window and onto the immaculate lawns which spread throughout the grounds of the hotel. We spent the day going through our kit and planning the next stage of the journey, which was due to kick off at 8.00am on Saturday, as soon as we had Allan’s rear tyre properly tied down onto his bike…
We sent for a taxi to take us into town, to draw money from the ATM and buy a few provisions for the trip to Dar… Cream crackers, water, energy bars and any other snacks we could lay our hands on… We went to three different “supermarkets” before we were satisfied that we had enough to cover any eventuality that might arise. Dar es Salaam lay 1400km away, and we were determined to make the trip in just two days… We enquired about the condition of the roads and found that while most would be in “pelfect condition”, there was a stretch outside Iringa that contained “many pothores”…
The sun finally came out of hiding, the rain stopped and we decided to get the bikes washed by the staff at the hotel… Afterwards, we rode them back to the entrance from the wash-bay, and again parked out front, where many people stopped to admire them… At the DHL office next to the entrance, we spent some time enquiring about flying the bikes to Dar es Salaam… The manager spent an anxious few minutes trying to dissuade us, but we finally convinced him to work out a price based on 300kg per bike… His calculator did not have a screen big enough to do the calculation, and just as he was about to go to the hotel to look for a bigger one, we advised him that we had changed our minds, and were actually there to apply for a job as delivery boys… We produced our licences and asked him to make photocopies to attach them to our applications… We told him that we had been sent by the Lilongwe office to improve the delivery times as they had been found to be unacceptable… We eventually tired of this game, as the manager was taking us all too seriously…
We try out for the job of delivery boy’s at the DHL office in Mzuzu…
Later that day, Allan received a text message from Peter Kemp, advising him that the tyre did not make it to Lilongwe on time, and would now only arrive in Mzuzu on Sunday morning!!! We were devastated by this news, as we had already lost two days waiting for this damn tyre… I was particularly annoyed at the delay and considered making the run to Karonga on my own, to wait for Allan there… I couldn’t stand the waiting any longer… We were both experiencing more than a little “cabin fever”… I advised Allan that if the weather was clear on Saturday morning, I would be blowing Mzuzu… He was not too happy with this but understood that my time was limited, and I had already made too many changes to my schedule to fit in with his tyre problem…
I went for a walk around the hotel grounds to try and calm down, and to think this whole thing through more carefully… I took a few photos as the shadows began to lengthen, signifying the end of another day here in Mzuzu… While the hotel itself is probably in the “3 star” category with service levels leaving much to be desired, the grounds are beautifully laid out and kept in immaculate condition… Sculptured shrubbery and neatly maintained flower beds are scattered throughout the property. Large shady trees, African Flames, Acacias and Mahogany’s line the walkways and perimeter… Strangely enough, there is no swimming pool, even though there is a large outdoor entertainment area, complete with bar, climbing apparatus for kids, and many thatched umbrellas to relax under… We were told it was too cold in Mzuzu to bother with a swimming pool!!!
I wandered back to our room, still unhappy about the delays, but not sure if I should leave the next morning or not. Travelling with Allan was fun, and I had been able to see and experience more than if I had been cracking along on my own…but still, I had a lot of miles to cover before I turned south for home, and I wanted some quiet time back in S.A. while I decided what path my future should follow… I had attorneys to deal with, and this would take much of my focus in the coming weeks… I needed to consider my tactics going forward, tactics which could determine the way I lived my life from now on, my relationship with my children, my friends and family…
I had also heard that travellers were often hassled at the Tanzanian borders and travelling alone over them would have been more of a risk than being in a group…. I finally decided that it would be better to do this together…
We decided that we would head north along the M1, looking for a place to stay which was closer to the border. Originally we had agreed to spend the last evening in Malawi, in the town of Karonga, which meant that the ride to Iringa in Tanzania would be about 510km… If we left from Mzuzu and rode directly to Iringa, it would mean we would have to travel over 730km in one day, coupled with a border crossing where we both needed to get visas… We would also be losing an hour as we crossed the border, as Tanzania was one hour ahead of Malawi… My destination seemed to be getting further away, the nearer I got to it!!! It was all looking like it would be another day lost… I searched for my gum-guard… I could feel a jaw-clamping session coming on…
The beautifully laid out gardens of the Mzuzu Sunbird Hotel…
Saturday 9th Feb:
Our plans changed again… We received yet another sms from Peter advising us that the tyre would only get to Mzuzu on Tuesday… There had been a foul-up in Chipata, when the guy bringing the tyre from Lusaka had refused to open his offices for Grant’s driver, as he had arrived there an hour later than had been arranged… There was no way we could wait until Tuesday. Allan passed on his DHL account details to Peter Kemp, requesting that the tyre be sent to the DHL offices in Dar es Salaam, where he would collect it the following week… We would leave at 6.00am the next morning, and make the long run directly through to Iringa…
I was relieved… I needed to feel the bike under me again, and I was not going to stand for any more delays… Dar was calling… (Regrettably, not short for Darling…!) We went into town to refuel the bikes, and to draw money to cover our Tanzanian Visas. We drew the cash we needed, and then to our utter amazement, discovered that there was no petrol in town…not a drop at all four garages!!! We had travelled about 160km on our present fuel loads, and needed to work out where we could refuel along the way. We went back to the hotel, packed all of our kit and loaded some of it onto the bikes. I then went through the following day’s route with Allan, working out distances between fuel stops and planning where we could rest up. I tried to impress upon him that there would be no time to mess about with the locals on this run… We estimated it would take us about ten hours to get to the MR Hotel in Iringa… A big day for both man and machine…
I had no idea that my advice was falling upon deaf ears… I should have known by now that Allan was not as “destination orientated” as I was, and would stop for almost any interesting sighting he saw… If I had been able to look into the future, I might have throttled him on the spot…
Allan, in a quiet moment of contemplation in the gardens of the Mzuzu Sunbird Hotel…
© 2008 TBMH
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