The Caledonia Way (Route 78) from Campbeltown to Inverness in 2 Days

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I had wanted to do this route for years, looking across the channel at the hills of the Mull of Kintyre and knowing they linked all the way up to Loch Ness and beyond to the Highlands. I have a friend who lives up in the highlands, and knew of a small ferry that goes from Ballycastle to Campbeltown but I was always held up by two factors:

  1. It takes too long – I wanted a trip I could do in a long weekend
  2. How would I get back? It’s not an ideal circuit trip

I wanted to see if it was possible to get from Belfast to Rogart (up in the Highlands) in three days. So I booked a flight back from Inverness airport on the Tuesday morning and set out on the Dublin to Belfast train on Friday morning, giving me 3 days plus a rest day at the end.

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The pier at Carnlough, Co. Antrim

The warm up day from Belfast to Ballycastle began in torrents of rain but eventually dried up to show the Glens of Antrim at their misty best. The A2 is a lovely road on a weekday without too much traffic and spectacular views. 105kms, and I arrived in Ballycastle in time to take the wee ferry to Campbeltown.

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Belfast to Ballycastle: Strava Link Here 

The ferry from Ballycastle to Campbeltown is tiny. It takes just 12 passengers, and crosses the very rough North Channel in 90 minutes. I lashed my boat to the deck and hoped for the best on the choppy crossing. The bike was undamaged, and got a good soaking from the big breakers that were crashing down on deck. Once we arrived in Campbeltown I headed straight for the nearest car wash where I gave it a jet wash to get rid of all the salt. I stayed in the excellent Campbeltown Backpackers.

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So, Day 1. I had to cover 210kms of very rolly roads. The first leg from Campbeltown to Tarbert takes you along the Eastern side of the Kintyre peninsula. It’s a lovely quiet road with some steady climbs and descents that keep you on your toes. In those first 60km, you’ll climb around 800metres. A good warm up for what’s to come!

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Tarbert for an early lunch

After Tarbert, I left Route 78 to take a shortcut along the Eastern side of the peninsula to Loughgilpead. My first disclaimer: I didn’t follow the Route 78 religiously, as I was tied to a time limit. Sometimes I headed along more direct routes to make up time. If I had the luxury of time, I would have followed the whole thing! After Loughgilpead, I rejoined the route along the stunning Crinan Canal towpath. The sun came out of the clouds and I sped along the smooth surface of the towpath into the afternoon.

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Turning inland soon thereafter, the Route 78 begins climbing along the West shore of Lough Awe. This part was a highlight for me. You’re on a single lane mountain road with a very good surface, steady climbs and steep descents. One beautiful village stood out – Dalavich – with a village store / bakery / café / Post Office that served an excellent lunch.

Getting deeper into the afternoon, I took the main road from Taynuilt to Connel Bridge, unfortunately missing out on the Royal Road and Oban (another time!). After the Connel Bridge the Route 78 really plays its trump card, meandering on and off an old railway line, through native woodlands, along rocky beach, all off road. From the bridge pretty much all the way to Corran Ferry it was beautiful cycling slowly along the route – I lost a lot of time on this section, but it was worth it.

The last 10km from where Route 78 takes the ferry across at Corran until Fort William were along very busy road, but I was well lit and kept a steady pace to finish the day after 210km and 8 hours in the saddle.

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Campbeltown to Fort William. Strava Link Here

Day 2 got off to a very wet start, but it was worth it, as the route followed the Great Glen Way up Neptune’s Staircase and along the canal to Loch Lochy. On my carbon road bike with 25mm tyres, I struggled at times today with forestry tracks and some single track forest trails. They were very pretty, but I’d recommend taking 28mm tyres at least, to help you with some of the gnarlier sections.

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Along the Western Shore of Loch Lochy

Along Loch Lochy is bumpy forestry track with some steep climbs, but rewarded with beautiful views of the lake. Then, the next lake is Loch Oich, where the trail again follows a deadpan flat rail-trail section, which is a little muddy. The final section to Fort Augustus is along a canal towpath where you can put in good speed and enjoy the views at the same time. While getting covered in mud.

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After lunch in Fort Augustus (with hordes of tourists), you’ll follow Route 78 up an 8km steady (sometimes steep) climb on the East shore of Loch Ness. I really enjoyed this section – you feel like you’re getting away from the crowds and get views of deserted valleys and forestry along the next 50km or so to Inverness.

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The view up Loch Ness

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Part of the 8km climb. Pretty?

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Annnnddd… the downhill!

Finally, you’ll cruise into Inverness after 110km through lush fields and get rewarded at the end of the day with some great food and beer at the Black Isle Brewery, or wherever you wish to go! Enjoy.

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Last view of Loch Ness

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End of the Route 78

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Fortwilliam to Inverness. I kept going into the Highlands! Strava Link Here

I got my bike boxed for me at Highland Bikes in Inverness for £30. Loganair charged £10 extra for taking the bike on the plane, so it wasn’t too expensive to take the bike on the plane. All round, well worth the trip, very happy I jumped at it!

I wrote this blog post because I couldn’t find ones with reliable information on how much time you could take on this route, if you weren’t traveling at a walking pace but aren’t Mark Beaumont either! Good luck

 

American trip photos

Here’s a few last photos from the trip across America:

Cycling in America, pt.2

I’ve now reached New York, bikeless. Since boxing and shipping my bike in Denver, Colorado, I’ve spent four days on long distancs trains and visiting friends through the West and Midwest. But before the train tales, let’s go back to Pinedale…

Things always happen for a reason. Such a cliché, but loosely scientifically and philosopically correct,so I’ll stick with it. If my luggage rack hadn’t broken on the rocky descending road from Union Pass, I wouldn’t have taken a rest in Pinedale. That would mean I wouldn’t have been outside AZ Hardware late the next morning and wouldn’t have met Renato and Doug, who were coming in off a ‘Nero’ (nearly zero I.e. nearly zero miles ride) day, soon joined by Cheryl and later by Cedric and Justin. Then finally Mike, found way out in the desert the next afternoon.

The group from Pinedale to Rawlins

It was because of the support and camaraderie of this group that I made it to Rawlins and on to Colorado, a gruelling, windy and extremely remote route that took four days across dusty and windy roads. If I had been on my own I’m not sure I could have made it. But as a group it made it manageable and enjoyable, and Wyoming is a state that will forever be etched in my memory for those epic four days.

On the first day we made it across a huge swathe of desert to Atlantic City, an eleven and a half hour cycle not helped by the fact that myself and Cedric lost the group for a few hours and first thought they were behind us, eventually figuring out that they were ahead when we saw four dots on the distant horizon.

We carried on through the empty terrain, meeting a group of local people reenacting the pioneer trek across south pass, when the west was still young

Atlantic City is a semi abandoned gold rush town, far from anywhere. Populated only by a few families, on one side of a dried up dusty creek we stayed with Wild Bill, a hunter/boutique knife craftsman/beef jerky producer who put us up in his cabins and served us a massive bottomless breakfast the next morning in his front room, surrounded by his stuffed prize animals staring down at us as we gorged on pancakes, coffee, sausages, eggs etc.

The next morning we set off into rolling desert, losing the way a couple of times through criss crossing tracks. The only water source that day was Diagnus Well, miles into the desert and only marked by a white rock lying by the road side. Eventually, at 8.20pm that night we made camp at AM reservoir, a man made lake stocked with fish to keep the oil workers out here occupied.

On the third day we rolled in to Rawlins, a wild west town with saloons, cheap motels and an off license. It was such a relief to get out of the barren wastelands of the Wyoming Basin, but even though it was tough it was one of the highlights of the trip, due to the surreal nature of the never ending views and end of the world feel.

Two days later and we were in Colorado, having lunch at a ranch right on the border. The ranch manager told us of his 900 cows which wander in to the surround kilometers of forest in Spring, just to wander with the encouragement of some cowboys back before the snows come in October. The remoteness out here is huge. He was just leaving on a six and a half hour drive to south dakota, to an agriculture sales event.

Colorado brought with it enjoyable riding along quiet dirt roads. We got a sense of the growing wealth, cycling last some luxurious ranches and beautiful wooden homes.

And finally made it to Steamboat Springs. A resort town in the heart of the Rockies, we set down our bikes and went to the bar. There was a mountain bike race in town that weekend and it was very busy. The local bike shop advised against riding over the pass to Denver due to narrow shoulders and heavy traffic, so we reluctantly boxed our bikes, saying goodbye to those who were continuing the trail south (they’ll eventually end up in New Mexico).

In Denver I stayed with Gareth and Aubrey, two friends from my time in Korea. We went to Breweries, went out in the gentrified warehouse district in downtown Denver, and cooked up some mean Korean food at home. It was a perfect rest time after 5 weeks and 3300kms in the saddle.

Then on Tuesday I began my four day journey East on Amtrak, the US long distance rail network. On the first overnight to Omaha, we were three hours late due to weather and freight trains taking priority on the line.

I spent the next day in Omaha with Justin, a former band member. Omaha is famous for Warren Buffet and Steak, and it didn’t disappoint. We cycled along the Missouri river, had a huge American breakfast (this is a solid theme in all my travels this year you’ll notice) and went line dancing in athe club called ‘Rednecks’ that night. A great introduction to Midwestern culture.

From there I hopped back on the Amtrak to Chicago. Distances are huge in America: this leg was a ten hour trundle through endless corn and soy fields. The trains are two storey, and give a great view of the surrounding countryside. The panoramic viewing car is where you end up talking to all sorts of people. I got chatting to ayou pig farmer from Iowa who was going to visit her son in Chicago, and a marijuana farmer from California who was going to visit his mother in Baltimore (with a large rolly bag of his own product hiding in the luggage compartment)

I briefly stopped in Chicago to get a hair cut and beard trim and catch up with Emkay, a friend from Korea, before hopping on the last leg of the trip, a mammoth 19hour train ride to New York.

Now I’m finally in New York and ready to go see some sights over the next few days. I’ve really enjoyed seeing the states from the train. People are always so friendly and talkative and you get a real sense about what people think about their country, as we whizz by on the double decker coaches…

Cycling in America, pt.1

I’m currently in Pinedale, Wyoming. Yesterday was a beautiful day on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a cycling route I’ve been following on and off for the past few weeks.

It goes all the way from Banff in Alberta to Antelope Wells on the border with Mexico. I’m just following parts of it, because to do all of it I’d need a more mountain-ready bike with less weight. But more about that later.

Yesterday, I was flowing along nicely over Union Pass, a 9,200ft pass that crosses the continental divide over some stunning Alpine scenery.

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Beautiful views from halfway down Union Pass. Note the rocky road!

The road was gravely and rocky, which was slowing me down a bit, but the views made up for it. By evening I was descending as planned towards Pinedale taking in the views of the Wind River mountain range ahead of me, when suddenly I heard a snap from the back of my bike and I skipped to a stop. My rack, which holds all of my luggage, had snapped both forks. Pretty bad news when I still have 6 days or so on my route, across the Wyoming basin and through the Colorado rockies.

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One snapped rack stem…

I managed to bungee-cord the rack to my seatpost and struggled on to Pinedale, a small town in the middle of Wyoming. This morning I’ve found a cheap rack in a hardware store here, attached it, and hopefully (fingers crossed) it will hold for the rest of the journey. I’m not overly confident about it though, so decided to take the day off to allow other cyclists catch up and I can ride with them tomorrow through the desert.

Which gives me time to write a blog post! I’ll run through how the trip has gone so far:

I began after a couple of days in Tacoma, Washington, where I learned how to build a bike down at the community bike shop with Travis, Noah and Nate.

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Travis with the completed bike

Then it was on to the North Cascades National Park, where Angela, a friend from my time in Korea, is studying at the North Cascades Institute. It’s a beautiful region with high lofty peaks, loads of bears, marmots, mountain goats and birdlife. We spent a day hiking up to a glacier with Chris (another friend from Ulsan) and Becky, Angela’s friend.

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Up on the shoulder of the mountain, looking South

The next day I began my cycle proper, with an extremely tough 110kms over Washington Pass. Most of the day consisted of climbing up steep roads. I spend 60kms in total climbing. I was exhausted at the top, and much appreciated the pizza and beer in Mazama at the bottom of the pass.

From there it was two days through the Winthrop and Okanogan valleys, lovely hot dry valleys where the snowmelt from the Rockies allows for intense irrigation and a very successful fruit and wine farming industry.

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Flat, hot roads through the Okanogan Valley

Over the next few days I passed through rural Washington State. People were very friendly. I stopped off in the town of Republic, where I had beers with the local Democratic party organiser, and a few local woodcutters, who were definitely not Democratic. I was stopped by the side of the road by a friendly volunteer fire station who were having a barbeque and plied me with food and drink. And I camped by the Pond d’Oreille river where a ‘military’ family (father and son had both worked in the army and had interesting opinions) offered me dinner and some fish they had caught that day.

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Republic Brewing Company, a brewery in an old fire station

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A friendly fire station by the Pond d’Oreille river. Over 70% of fire stations here are voluntary, and they have to deal with massive forest fires every year

A day later I was in Sandpoint, Idaho, where I spent a relaxing two days with Lindsey and Jacob, friends from my time in Taebaek. Lindsey runs an outdoor shop in town but it was the weekend so we took their boat out on the lake and went for dinner in a village across the bay.

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Trying to drive a boat in Sandpoint

My next destination was Glacier National Park, but to get there I had to cycle through some beautiful mountainous roads through Idaho and Northern Montana. I really enjoyed the little towns of Libby and Eureka, and met some friendly people in their local Breakfast joints.

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Lake Koocanusa, a huge reservoir that stretches North to the Canadian border

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Eureka, Northern Montana

To get from Eureka to Glacier National Park I had to first crest the Whitefish Divide, a high pass over a very bumpy forestry track. It was a tough day, made all the tougher by experiencing my first technical on my bike when a big rock kicked up by my front wheel smashed my rear derailleur into the spokes of my back wheel. Dejected by the side of the road, I attempted to knock the derailleur back into shape. Lucky a nice older couple gave me a lift ten miles down the road to Polebridge, my destination for the night. The North Fork Hostel is a biker’s haven, run by a touring cyclist from Germany and populated that night by no less than 23 cyclists. So with their help I got it sorted!

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The North Fork Hostel, on the border of Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park lies in the extreme North of the US, bordering Canada and cresting at the Rocky Mountain ridge. A road goes through the park called the Going-To-The-Sun-Road, and I took it over the most spectacular scenery of the trip so far. My destination that day was Waterton Lakes National Park, over the border in Canada, where I met up with Payam, another friend from the Korean teaching days, and his friend Harry. We spent a day barbequeing, drinking beer and driving to some viewpoints in the park. The perfect rest day.

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Panorama of the Going-To-The-Sun-Road

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You can see the line of the road as it follows the contours up the mountain

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With Payam at Waterton Lake

From Waterton, I headed back over the Going-To-The-Sun-Road, spent two days heading South to Lincoln, Montana through areas where forest fires raged and ‘fire camps’ had been set up where people from all over the Northwest arrived and camped out to help with the fire-quelling efforts (apparently this is quite lucrative).

In Lincoln, I met up with a group of Great Divide bikers who were heading on the same route as me. I met them in the morning at a breakfast diner. I have been burning around 6,000 calories a day cycling, and without American style breakfasts (sausages, eggs, hash browns, coffee, pancakes, toast etc.) I don’t know how I’d get through a lot of these days. I could easily have two dinners and still feel hungry. Anyway, we met in a breakfast diner, a place where long distance cyclists spend a lot of their mornings!

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Breakfast diner in Lincoln, Montana

We cycled together over a pretty steep pass, by chance passing the cabin where the Unabomber lived in the 80s and 90s, and finished our day in a beautiful cabin in fields overlooking a lush valley. Ten bicyclists, One cabin, Two llamas.

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Cycling that day included a fair bit of pushing!

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John and Barbara’s Biker Cabin (spot the Llama)

The cabin was free for us to camp at. The Great Divide route passes through some very remote areas and quite a few local people have opened up their gardens, cabins and sometimes even their homes to passing cyclists. Pickup trucks passing sometimes offer water or advice on the route, and people a generally very friendly.

After a few hard days on the road, I was tiring and needed a rest day. I stopped in Butte, known as ‘The Richest Hill on Earth’, which was at one time the copper capital of the world. Those days have passed, the population has dropped from 130,000 to 30,000, and now it’s quite a surreal place to visit. Half the town is abandoned and huge mine shafts and tailing piles dominate the landscape. I arrived when the Eval Kneival show was in town, so it was quite busy, with plenty of motorbike tricks and bikers drinking on the streets.

From Butte, the final leg of my trip is a 10/11 day trip across Southern Montana, Wyoming and Colorado to Denver, where I’ll finish up. I spent the first two days passing through drier but no less spectacular scenery which gives Montana its nickname ‘Big Sky Country’, camping in the ghost town of Bannock one night (it was the first capital of Montana but when the gold ran out, so did the people. This happens quite frequently in this part of the world).

Throughout my journey, I’ve been amazed at the amount of open spaces in the US. The reason for this is a lot of America is Public Land, owned by the state, where people are not allowed to build or develop. Much of it is forested in the Northwest, but a lot is just wilderness. In Montana alone, there is 144,000km2 of public land. In comparison, the entire area of Ireland is 84,000km2.

Leaving Montana reluctantly behind, I headed into Wyoming, and into the Yellowstone National Park. There, I didn’t manage to see any animals, but lots of tourists. It’s jammed at this time of year, with tailbacks of cars and huge crowds at the main geyser sites. Still, it was nice to see.

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Panorama of a trail I followed off road in Yellowstone

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Morning Glory Pool. The colours are created by the gasses escaping from deep within the pool and the bacteria that live in it

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I’ve noticed that a lot of tourists don’t even look at what they are taking a photo of. This is Old Faithful, one of the largest geysers in the world.

Since Yellowstone, I’ve followed a lovely route through the Bridger-Teton national forest (one of the biggest in the world) into Wyoming proper, where I am now after a 10 hour cycle yesterday, 3 of those spent with a broken luggage rack.

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Togwotee Pass, one of the passes I came over to get here

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Finally, a lone Grizzly Bear spotted on top of the Togwotee Pass. He was just munching away on some grass, not bothered by me at all

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The Pinnacles, a mountain range that has dominated my view over the past two days

So there you have it, a very rushed and not-too-detailed recap of the trip so far. I have around another week on the bike to Denver (if I get there with this new rack!) where I’ll meet up with Gareth and Aubrey for a few days and from there I’ll be on the trains to Chicago and New York.

Now I’m off for a burger. Back on the road tomorrow to Atlantic City, a city (village) nowhere near the Atlantic.

 

Pics from weeks 2 and 3

I’ve arrived to my rest day in Butte, Montana. Copper-rush mining city and Eval Kneival is in town! In the meantime, here are some no-comment photos…

They’re all mixed up in chronology, but the most recent is the doom-laden overlook of Butte after roaring down a 10 mile 6% gradient hill on interstate-15:

America Trip – Week 1 photos

An assortment of photos from the first ten days. I may add captions later, but for now you can make them up yourself…

America Trip – Summer 2017

I’m here in North America on the bike for 8 weeks this summer, being ambitious and trying to see lots of friends and cycling up a lot of big hills. I’ll try and get a few updates here.

Here’s the route:

While at home…

During my travels in 2012 I collected 14 hours of video. This week I finally got around to making it into a single collection, and put it online:

I also got around to writing detailed blogs for cyclists on crazyguyonabike.com of my routes in The Annapurna (Nepal), The Manali – Leh Highway (India), The Nubra Valley (India) and East Africa. When I was researching these routes it was very difficult to find information and advice online, so I hope they can help people who are thinking about those routes in the future.

And finally, I uploaded 50 recordings I made during the trip to The Freesound Project. My favourites are:

A buddhist ceremony of killing ‘ego’ in a monastery in the Himalayas
A train idling at night in India surrounded by frogs
A funeral song in Laos
Erte Ale volcano in Ethiopia
A pool full of bubbling sulphur in Ethiopia
Durbar Square market at night, Kathmandu

 

Malawi and the end of the road

A final update on the 2012 trip:

I spent a very enjoyable 3 weeks in Malawi on and off the bike. After a couple of days in Livingstonia I cycled to the Vwaza Marsh Reserve on the border with Zambia where I camped on the edge of a lake full of hippos and visiting elephants.

Elephant and calf, Vwaza Marsh (50m from my tent!)

Elephant and calf, Vwaza Marsh (50m from my tent!)

Following that I spent 5 days up on the Nyika Plateau, a vast area of wild grassland, zebra, bushbuck, viewpoints and great biking trails!

Camping on the Nyika Plateau

Camping on the Nyika Plateau

Then I stayed for a couple of days in Mzuzu before heading down to the lakeshore via the Chikangawa forestry road, an old road from the colonial days that zigzags down from the highlands to the lakeshore through pristine indigenous forest. On my second night I found my favourite camping spot of the trip: in a wood beside a lake full of loud birds during the day and insects and frogs at night.

Campsite at a resevoir near Mazamba, Malawi

Campsite at a resevoir near Mazamba, Malawi

Entering the forest, Chikangawa

Entering the forest, Chikangawa

Crossing a 'bridge' on the way to the lake

Crossing a ‘bridge’ on the way to the lake

I visited my old school at Bandawe, where I had volunteered for 7 months in 2006. All of my old colleagues had transfered to other schools or other jobs, but the school itself was in good shape, well equipped with a new science lab and computer lab and girls’ dormitory, all provided by the good old EU.

Back at Bandawe Secondary School, 6 years later

Back at Bandawe Secondary School, 6 years later

And to finish off my time in Malawi I went up to Ruarwe for a few days, a village I had visited before that can only be reached by a hot 11 hour boat ride. It was on that boat ride that I randomly bumped into Cuthbert – one of my old students – who was on his way home from university, so I had a chance to visit his family’s farm perched on top of a hill overlooking Ruarwe bay.

With Cuthbert in Ruarwe. You can see his house on top of the hill in the background

With Cuthbert in Ruarwe. You can see his house on top of the hill in the background

The best thing about being back in Malawi was seeing my old students again. The great thing about Facebook is that I’m back in contact with a lot of them, after a 5 year gap in communication. It was nice to hear that they had the second highest grade in the whole Northern region in the JCE (Junior) examinations the year after I left Bandawe and that now most of them are studying in 3rd level education. It’s difficult for students from a rural background to study in university because of a lack of scholarships or bursaries, but the government (and their donors) have recently introduced ‘bonded study’, paying the way for hundreds of budding nurses and teachers through college who then must work for the government for 3 years at a reduced salary.

Finally, it was onto a bus to Johannesburg to catch my flight home, where I’ve spent my time with family and friends at home, skiing in France and at my grandfather’s 90th. Good to be home! It was quite a trip.

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