Today was a bit wild. We left Mutare at 7 this morning and got across the border to Mozambique without too much hassle. We had to blast through Mozambique to get to Malawi where we now are and to be honest we hadn't expected much, but I found it truly beautiful. It's very undeveloped and you can see the extreme poverty all around you. But the people were helpful and smiling and the scenery majestic.

I managed to get an arial view of that scenery as coming out of a town we hit some unannounced traffic calming road bumps. Except these were the size of a small Mountain range. I hit the first one doing 90. Stuart, Andrews father who is with us for a few days following in his car, later asked me what I thought about as I took off. And I did take off. Serious air for a couple of seconds. Two week ago it would have been game over but now after some pretty intensive riding..."Stuart, I was just whooping In my helmet!"

And that has been my day. While it's been a bit frustrating doing 900 KM with hardly a stop I found myself grinning from ear to ear, dancing along on my bike to the tunes on my iPod. I now know I can make the bike weave to The Gorillaz, that I can stand and shake my leg to Seal-Crazy (which seems appropriate) and that old school Deacon Blue - Dignity fits this trip so well...."and I'm thinking about faith..."

You see my overwhelming feeling today has been sheer and utter joy. I don't mean just a good feeling, I mean joy, the sort of joy that makes you weep with happiness, scream the lyrics to songs and jump up and down on your bike to the beat. I feel free and unbound and it feels wonderful.

I think we forget about joy. I think our busy lives cause joy to be discarded in the pursuit of busyness and worry. It's so hard to put it all aside under normal circumstances. But here with all the cares left behind, the laughs and waves of children, being with friends and this wonderful beast of a bike, I remember who I am. I remember who I was created to be and my joy feels overwhelmingly complete.