12, June Wednesday: Chitimba Camp -> Mushroom Farm

the Mushroom Farm. Mom went for a long walk down the Lakes beach. The morning was beautiful, we were right on the Lake and the water was so flat. We saw this black cloud in the horizon of the lake, looking like smoke from a big fire. We later found out that this is in fact Lake Flies buzzing around ontop of the water and come to land for the light. Chris felt better enough to cycle this morning and although Erick is surprisingly not stiff at all, it was just Chris and I on the bike ready to tackle the climb to Livingstonia. Livingstonia is a town located on the top of a mountain range which we could see this morning. Our destination for the night, the Mushroom Farm, is near Livingstonia. We got onto our bikes with positive energy, ready to take on this challenge.

Chris, despite having been sick for the last 4 days, got on his bike and zoomed right past me up the hill. Immediately the gravel road lay at a 25 degree slope and it felt like I was never going to make it. Mom, Deby and Erick drove right behind me, encouraging and supporting me, trying to keep me motivated. At one point I had to get off and push my bike up the hectic slopes and Deby got out, walking with me for support. She made up cheerful songs keeping my mind strong and a postive attitude, she even helped push my bike. After a very tough, hard 5 km, zig-zagging up an incredibly steep climb, I questioned the cycle trip for the time since we started cycling but then, there I saw Chris waiting for me. I drank some Game, caught my breath and was ready to cycle through the next stretch of hill. Ninie sent me a quote she read on her calandar, "perseverance, determination, commitment and courage - those things are real" - Michael Phelps. I had this in mind, determined to get to the top and continued cycling up the rest of the way.

We did get some incredible views from some points on the road, not even able to see the end of the Lake, its so big. The road was terrible, it was so rocky and no railings so the side of the road just looks down to the bottom of the cliff , it was quite scary at parts. Madam (the car) made it all the way up, with the trailer and support team all in one piece. Finally after an hour and 47 minutes later, only having done 11 km, and climbed 900 m, I saw what at the time was the most beautiful sign I had ever seen...the Mushroom Farm welcome sign board. What an achievement, it felt so great reaching the top. There was much excitement as we arrived to our destination and we had a scrumptious lunch at the restaurant with a stunning view of the Rift Valley as well as Lake Malawi, it was spectacular.

We set up our camp on the edge of the cliff with this amazing view and we even had a hot shower!! The Mushroom Farm is a lovely eco-camp where everything is eco-friendly, the food all organic, the toilets are long drops with compost and everything is run on solar. We are in a forest and it reminds me a lot of Hogsback, a very similar environment and style of the camp. All my doubts about why we doing this cycle trip have gone right out my mind and arriving to views like this, makes me forget about all the hard times. Having climbed todays slopes, I have a new sense of determination, giving me the feeling that we can finish this cycle trip.

We are now in the same time zone as South Africa so the sun is going down earlier whereas in Tanzania, we only saw sunset at 18:45. Now, only 18:00 we are sitting in darkness, with a chilly wind, the temperature has dropped to 20 degrees and the Adams coming from Mauritius are all snug in their beanies and gloves. We are going to eat like champions tonight and prepare for the long day to Rumphi tomorrow, but at least it will be back down the hill!

Cycled: 11.13 km

Time: 1:47 hr

Ave speed: 6.2 km/hr

Ascent: 984 m