17.Back to Malawi - 2 Octoberto 12 October 2009

Back in Malawi after our drive into Mozambique, on Saturday 3 October we drove into Liwonde National Park, just 6kms out of town. We drove up to Mvuu Camp towards the north of the park to find it quite full of campers who were spending the weekend doing a voluntary wildlife count. This was very much in contrast to the next night when we camped at the more southern Chinguni Hills campsite, which overlooks the wide Shire River, and we were the only ones there. But an unexpected visit in the dark just after our dinner from the security guards, one with an AK47 slung over his shoulder, firstly gave us a fright but then reassured us that we were definitely right for the night!

From Liwonde NP we drove back to Lilongwe as we had decided to get the car serviced there. By the time we left the capital next day, it seemed we knew the city fairly well, and we were ready to be on the move again.

The rest of our time in Malawi was spent moving from one campsite to the next on the shores of Lake Malawi, which seems to get more beautiful the further north you go. Cool Runnings campsite at Senga near Salima was our next camp, followed by Kande Beach north of Dwangwa. On the way we had stopped for lunch at Nkhotakota Pottery and Lodge, near the site of the largest slave market on Lake Malawi for much of the 19th century. Further north again was Nkwasi Lodge near Chintheche which was a beautiful spot on the lake with white sand and jagged rocky outcrops on the shore, and when we arrived a small 'surf' was being whipped up by the wind. Our campsite under a huge mango tree seemed almost perfect, though a lonely night without any other campers. We did venture up into the Viphya Mountains to camp at Luawa Forest Lodge, which was a cool respite from the hot and humid climate on the lakeshore and a very different landscape, and where we met a lovely Dutch couple and their little daughter who are living and working in Malawi. And our last campsite on the lake was Chitimba Beach, with plenty of company in the way of overland trucks which we actually don't mind. The drivers are a wonderful source of information for camp sites ahead. On the way to Chitimba we visited Livingstonia, named in honour of Dr Livingstone by Dr Robert Laws who moved the Scottish Missionary there, way up on top of the Rift Valley escarpment to escape the mosquitoes and malaria. The 16km road up to Livingstonia climbs over 700m in altitude along a series of 20 hairpin bends. It's a gravel road except for some concrete that has been put down over the most serious bends, so it's quite a challenge. We thought it compared with the Sani Pass in Lesotho, but it could have been due to the fact that we weren't expecting it to be a challenge, whereas we were psyched up for the Sani Pass. We also called in to the Mushroom Farm, perched up on the escarpment with amazing views, and run by an Australian.

From Chitimba Beach, it was off to another border crossing into Tanzania at Kasumulu, and goodbye to Malawi, which we did enjoy, though it is a highly populated country and very poor. The people are very friendly and always smile and return our waves, and they work very hard on their little plots of land, especially the women who are often hoeing the soil with a baby tied on the back!!