Transaid Cycle Malawi 2022 diary – the final blog from the challenge

I cannot believe it’s been exactly 1 month since we left for Malawi, it’s been a whirlwind for me ever since we returned so maybe that is why it still feels like yesterday even if the pain in the legs and knees is now finally gone.

Here’s a look back at my experience at Transaid Cycle Malawi 2022, written as a diary while we were there.

Day 1 & 2

We left London with 44 designated cyclists on Saturday afternoon and after a brief stop in Abu Dabi we arrived in Malawi Sunday lunch time.

Five minutes on our bus from the airport, it was very visible why Transaid has Malawi as one of its main target countries for help. The poverty is staggering, whereas back home we have flats, houses and estates. Here they have straw roofs with no doors or windows, corrugated iron roofs with wooden planks in place of doors & windows and finally houses with ‘normal’ doors and windows, the latter is extremely rare especially outside the large towns.

Safely arrive in a tourist hotel by Lake Malawi we spent the afternoon getting our bikes sorted, there was a lot to sort as assembling 44 bikes at a half-descent quality AND fully functioning equipment is quite a feat in Malawi – a little anecdote told by our tour leader:

As we cycle along, we often see bicycle repair places at the roadside, usually these are just located in the open under a handy tree that can provide a bit of shade. When these places get a bike in with a puncture, they don’t replace the tube as we often do back home. They don’t normally glue a patch on either as they don’t have glue. Instead, they will pinch the place with the hole in the tube with their fingers and tie it with a bit of string to keep it from leaking too much, and if they don’t have string – which is often the case – they will use a small piece of grass to tie the knot. It is quite common for bikes to be driven around with a dozen or more of these kind of repairs…

We finally got our bikes sorted, though we have continued to have trouble throughout the trip with a huge number of punctures and bike equipment including pedals, cranks and wheels just simply falling apart. Not the organisers’ fault, simply an effect of where we are.

Dinner, then bed in modest but comfortable rooms - they are pampering us before dropping the hammer!

Day 3 – first cycling day

 We set out at 7am to get a good distance done before the heat really got going and everyone went too fast, certain I did. After 50km we were averaging close to 20km an hour in the 2nd group which I was in, something I would pay for later.

At the back they dealt with the first rush of equipment failures. We have two doctors and three mechanics with us on the trip, two of them locals. All of these have their hands full this week.

Local Malawi weather advice that week is “don’t wear woollen clothes”, to us Brits this translates to 37-38 degrees in the shade, with shade being extremely hard to find while cycling as there is hardly any forests left in Malawi.  According to one of my fellow riders this is by some margin the hottest he has ever experienced on a Transaid charity cycle in Africa, and this is his fifth.

After lunch, served at the roadside and sitting under a nearby tree the heat started to really have its effect – plus having started out too fast – and many felt it including me, slowing down dramatically and suffering quite a bit. You drink about 2 pints per hour in this weather, just to keep dehydration at bay, and actually 3 pints is better!

Oh, did I mention, none of the tap water here is drinkable, all water must be brought in large bottles for us spoiled foreigners. The locals are happy to get their water from anywhere they can.

In the end we all completed the 88km that turned to be the actual distance for day 1. Forget all the plans I told people about before leaving, “This-Is-Africa - TIA” is the phrase everyone uses, and all plans not only can change but you can pretty much count on them doing so, often a lot.

We finished in a lodge at the top of a 1km gravel hill where many of us got our first taste of walking our bikes. Good experience for later.

This was a tourist lodge, so most cabins had electricity and running water (air temperature water at all times), the food was good, but the lodge only had enough rooms for about half of us so in tents the rest of us went, no problem except the locals seemed to have their own version of Glastonbury going on next door until 3am. I slept like a log through most of it, but others found it hard.

Day 4 – crossing the range

Day 2 cycling, the same early start and 92km to come.

It started out quite flat and simple with the real experience being the locals, everywhere we went today the adult would look on curiously, sometimes with a comment and a laugh, and the kids would come running out to the road shouting ‘hello hello’. Big smiles and a lot of laughter and singing.

The children here look so much happier than most back home, even if clearly extremely poor, there is a positive vibe here which is quite surreal but invigorating.

The last 20km was the experience from a cycling perspective, riding up a long, slowly rising, white gravel road for seemingly miles in the mid-afternoon was well, an experience. Then we came to our first real climbing challenge, going over a 500-meter-high small mountain range to get back over to lake Malawi.

The practice in walking from the day before came in handy as even though these small mountains would have been mostly climbable back in British climate, in the 38 degrees here they were a real challenge and almost all of us had a turn or two walking.

Coming over the top we had a fantastic view rising the winding road down to the lake and a beach dinner.

I got my second night in a tent last night and had no trouble sleeping undisturbed – We had chased the scavenging monkeys away.

Day 5 – the long day

Alarm clocks were set for 5am wake-up on this day scheduled 146km longest day of the challenge, however a rash of equipment issues and a number of people suffering from varying degree of food related maladies meant that most of us did not get on our bikes until 10am, after doing the first stretch on the busses to make up the time.

Still up against time to finish before dark, the tempo was up a couple of notches from day 2 from the start. Through undulating terrain and small villages we went.

By the first stop after lunch it was clear that we were not all going to make it in time to the camp before dark, so we were told that once the 20th rider reached the next scheduled break 25km further on those 20 would carry on to the end. The clear inference was that everyone else would be picked up and would go on the bus to the finish. I did not want to be one of those picked up.

I am circus horse, I know it, and when I smell saw dust, I want to perform, no matter what – meaning show me a cycle race and I will have a go even if my body says no.

This was now indeed a 25km race in the mid-afternoon heat.

Before long we strong out one by one. I am not anywhere near as fast as I use to be, but I can still push myself and my legs got pushed to the limits and little beyond. I only took one short break to change my water bottles around, that was it for the 25km stretch. It worked too, for a while, I was up in the (back half) of the first 10 for most of the distance but then the hammer came. Several people overtook me in the last 5Km, and I was going slower and slower and slower…

Arriving at the break I was cheered in by my mates and it looked like I was number 13 or 14 or 15 or there abouts to arrive, I am still not quite sure of the place I finished in, as by then light were flickering before my eyes and I could not stand up straight. Wobbling I sat down up against a nearby tree and kind of conked out. Next thing I registered was one of the doctors waving her hand before my eyes and telling me no more cycling for you today! I didn’t even have the strength to object and just kind of conked out again. Soon I was being given real drinkable ice water (the first and only such I had on the trip), my top was dripped in the non-drinkable ice our drinks were now carried in – the local team had learned A LOT in just three days – the literally ice-cold top was put back on me and I was put in the bus and fed water continuously along with salt tablets. I had heatstroke.

After a while I became coherent again and found myself in the bus surrounded by others who also did not make the cut and I gradually recovered. That evening the doctor told me that it was up to me whether I wanted to cycle the next day, but she did not expect me to have much strength and so I should stop when it became too much.

It was very scary experience now looking back (I am writing this entry at the end of day 4) and I clearly was very stupid going for it so hard. What can I say… When it comes to cycling, I am a circus horse and probably will always be one, stupid or not. A challenge is fine, I can manage an endurance challenge, a race is a whole other thing.

That evening we were staying in an animal reservation specialising in elephants and local deer, we were spread out over a large area one or two people each in clay huts and tree huts with wilderness in between each small cluster. I tried to take shower in mine but found there was only water for about 30 seconds, and it never came back. When I went to the bathroom around 3am the electricity was gone too and that too never came back. What did come outside around that time was very clearly at least one elephant, I could very clearly see the bushes move A LOT as it moved in the moonlight, and I could hear the noise from it but unfortunately or fortunately it never came out my side of the bushes. I still have not seen any of the big five while here.

In the morning feeling much, much better than the night before I met Pedro the lizard, he was about 15 centimetres long and sat happily on the wall near me, maybe he was the reason I did not get any mosquito bites that night despite not having the energy to sort the net out probably before falling asleep?

Day 6 – up the mountain (twice)

Alarm set at 6am we had a nice breakfast during which we were told that today would be a 90km ride and the first 25km would be “undulating”.

Here’s a little video from our ride out that morning.

Well, what can I say, our leader Henk is great, but I am not sure about his English, certainly his understanding and mine of the word ‘undulating’ is somewhat different. It turned out that the first 25km included a 12km climb!

Here’s a video from what turned out to be a couple of km from the top.

I had learned a big lesson from the day before, and the doctor was right: my legs hurt like the good old days! Applying the lesson though I frequently took breaks in the shade and scaled my general tempo back several notches. It worked.

The day finished with a 14km climb, the first 6km up to our belated lunch and then another 8km strictly for volunteers, in the mid-afternoon sun, up to our mountain top hotel.

I did not volunteer.

Not after the experience yesterday, I am rather proud of myself tonight though, I made it all the way through this 4th day that in terms of energy expenditure was probably the hardest of the whole week with a total of more than 20km of climbing for me.

Tonight we are in a really nice hotel with running water (well, close enough), working electricity and most luxurious of all – fully working Wi-Fi for the first time since arriving in Malawi. And tomorrow is the final day. I am looking forward to it and kind of regretting it at the same time, this week has been such a fantastic experience.

Day 7 – final cycling day

The final day was 88km, starting at 7am going back down the mountain again – what a great way to start the day – here’s a video from the first part, check out the view.

By today I am feeling fully fit again and coming down the mountain I had to constantly remind myself of what my wife told me before I left “enjoy it, but you better come home in one piece or else…” the temptation to let go of the breaks and just go was enormous… I remained a good boy, for once, and kept my fingers on the breaks.

Nevertheless, after the first break and for the first time this week with a reasonable following wind that both kept us cool and pushed us forward, I could not help myself. Going down a small hill I built up a good head of steam and managed to pass the leading rider, for about 50 meters I was the first of us on the road. That was good for a laugh.

Later on today I was riding alone, as I have been quite frequently through this week, like most of us have. I could see a couple of our people up ahead a few hundred meters and there was more than half of us behind me, but I was alone at the time when I came through a small village and found a small boy riding up besides me. He looked like he was 9 or 10 years old, dressed in rags, riding an adult, single speed, clattering, bike with wooden pedals and he was pacing me. And he talked, asking question after question “where are you from?”, “what should I learn to get to go there?”, “why are you here?”, “what do you do?” it went on and on, all while he was giving me a huge beaming smile – and pedalling like mad.

For 5km we talked, and it was the highlight of the trip for me. The sheer zest for life that little boy had was awe inspiring. Coming from one of the poorest countries on the planet he was aiming for the moon, and just wanted to know how to hit it!

For the first time this week I was sad to see the next break place coming, I wanted to keep talking but it was not on, I did do one thing though, very much against what we had been told – I gave him my last two fruit bars. I just could not help it; he was too full of spirit; I hope some of his dreams come true.

After that break we were into the last 30km and soon came another surreal experience though this one less positive. Suddenly, within a couple of kilometres we went from riding in the near-desert savannah landscape, we had been in all week long, to lush greenness on all sides. There were myriads of sprinklers on all the fields and a huge harvest of tea on them. It was a different world. Asking our guides about it later today we were told that these fields are owned by foreign corporations who can afford to buy the water from the big lake – were the locals cannot – and all the produce, and the money from it, goes abroad. We had witnessed yet another reason why Malawi is so poor.

Then we were into the final 10km and riding as one big group (well, almost) we slowly paraded to the finish line where champaign and medals awaited us. Huge celebrations and hugs all around, it has been a great week with a great group.

Here’s a video of the final ride in.

The final hotel, unsurprisingly, has little or no running water and no wi-fi but by now we are used to this and tonight has been a big celebration with a banquet and a 10pm bedtime for me, exhausted!

Day 8-9 – going home with loads of memories

The trip home was quite uneventful, I tried to get an upgrade to rest my severely swollen, hurting knees better but after going back in-and-out through security three times(!) it did not work. Never mind, I was out like a light virtually all of the way.

Back in our normal world I am looking back at a great experience, with great support from so many and I am pondering… Should I do it again in Kenya / Tanzania in 2024?

Thank you to all the companies and people that sponsored Transaid for my cycling.

Freddy