Another good breakfast set me up for a decent days riding. Not a fan of the hot milk with cereal which is common in Malawi but it went down anyway as I needed the energy for what was going to be another 100 mile day.
I was heading for a place called Nkhotakota which was down the side of the lake but the route ventured inland so I was expecting a few climbs aswell. I had perfect conditions to start the day, good weather, good tarmac and good music. I put both ear plugs in again and felt a bit rude as I couldn't hear a thing the locals were saying. Malawi has been getting on top of me and the locals are saying things whether it be begging or hello, how are you? around every two minutes. When I'm cycling for around 8-9 hours a day sometimes 10, every 2 minutes can get really hard to deal with so I just had to shut them away today.
My tactic today was to take the ride in two chunks of 50. This meant having a decent lunch of egg "flied" rice to keep me going the second half of the day aswell. My tactic worked well, both halves of the day were strong and I didn't have a grump on when I arrived in Nkhotakota.
My extra energy meant I was a little more active and a little more inclined on finding the best place in town. Unfortunately I was left with hardly any option and unless I wanted to cycle off the beaten track to expensive lakeside lodges then I was gifted with a choice of two motels. Neither were any good and both were overpriced for a town like Nkhotakota which is quite frankly, an average at best "town." I ended up negotiating with the manager of Grace Motel to letting me camp on a tiny patch of grass that they had behind a lodge. They agreed to that but it was still overpriced for camping so I asked about toilet and shower facilities. Gordon Ramsey would've had a field day on this place, the restaurant had no power, all the rooms and lodges were empty and they had nothing to sell as I had to give one of the staff some money to buy some water.
How this business was still going I have no idea. I had to pay upfront for food because they had to go to the shop and buy it first. The manager was kind/foolish enough to give me a key to a lodge though so I had a toilet and shower for the evening and following morning. There was nothing stopping me from just sleeping in the lodge! I didn't though, I kept true to my word and stayed in my tent next door to the comfy bed in the lodge that I had the key for. (Who's the foolish one ay?!) I could sense food was going to be terrible and take hours so in the end I asked for my money back and went to the motel next door.
The Motel next door wasn't much better either. The whole place was derelict and their "restaurant" was made into a conference room so I ended up eating my cold rice and beef alone in a dark room along with 30 other chairs in a "C" formation around a flip chart. Nkhotakota was dire to be honest but it was another day and another step closer to my goal.
By the time i had finished my dinner, the town had plunged into complete darkness. No streetlights, no signs and with hardly any power to the nearby buildings it was lucky i didn't have far to walk. I returned back to my lodge and sat out on the porch for a bit but there was nothing to do other than blog or play candy crush. I was back to a standard 100km day tomorrow and I had a couple of route options which I would probably ask the manager about tomorrow.
For today though, an early night and a decent recovery from a long day riding. Nkhotakota, a place i will not lose sleep over if i don't have to visit again!
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