Tropic of Cancer
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Equator
AT L A N T I C OCEAN
Tropic of Capricorn
Explore the mysterious prehistoric rock art of the Chongoni UNESCO World Heritage Site Encounter a profusion of waterbirds in Liwonde National Park and the Elephant Marsh Stay at a hilltop eco-resort in Livingstonia
“Recommended reading”
Wanderlust magazine
Learn about Malawi’s history at the Mua Mission near Dedza Search for the ‘Big Five’ in the wilderness of Majete Wildlife Reserve
www.bradtguides.com Despite being one of the smallest countries in Africa, Malawi hosts an expansive landscape of mountains, lush forests and well-stocked conservancies. f BradtTravelGuides Dominated by vast Lake Malawi and the Great Rift t @BradtGuides Valley, it is a paradise for wildlife, and renowned for its friendly people. Soak up tropical African
Additional online content and updates at grunting hippos, and reed beds rustling with www.bradtupdates.com/malawi birdlife. Watch big game on foot in one of the many national parks and wildlife reserves, or simply relax Published by: on the sandy palm-fringed beaches of Lake Malawi.
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Travel: Malawi/Africa ISBN 978 1 78477 636 7
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MALAWI
Malawi
Snorkel in the cichlid-rich waters of Lake Malawi
Malawi
AFRICA
edition
Fully updated for this eighth edition, Bradt’s Malawi remains the only standalone guide to this remarkable destination. It is packed with practical advice on the country’s popular attractions, while also highlighting many sites that are overlooked, making it a must for intrepid travellers.
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Philip Briggs
Acknowledgements HELENA SMITH The biggest thanks go to my road-trip buddy Tionge Chiweza, for keeping me from getting lost and for sharing laughs, hikes, elephant encounters and a few tears along the way. Sincere thanks to Fiona Chalamanda, author Philip Briggs, updater Sandra Turay and Malawi expert Kelly White for pre-trip support. Plus dear friends Sandy and Cornell Dudley for their fantastic help and hospitality; Lois Losacco for Blantyre suggestions; Ilaria for the background on African Parks; Annelies de Bruine for generously passing on ace travel info; Francesca of Africa Wild Truck and hikers Celine, Stefanie and Annelies for tips about Mulanje; Petal and Tom for sharing their home and tree-planting plans; Noleen and Alan in Cape Maclear for local expertise; Mzuzu fans Abbie Morneault and Kelsey Nauta at Maji Zuwa; Joy in Mzuzu for her recommendations; Amanda Harwood and Pilirani Sankhani of LWT for sharing knowledge of Malawi and its wildlife; Pete, Caroline and Watson for a great trip to the Nyika Plateau; Tara, David, Michael and Vafa for their assistance and friendship; Muti Michael Phoya for illuminating background on the arts; Lonnie Ncozana in Liwonde; and Sam Banda Jnr for music knowledge. Backing from SS Rent a Car, Ethiopian Airlines, Central African Wilderness Safaris and many Malawi lodge owners was invaluable, and thanks too to Biosphere Expeditions who let me join their Vwaza research trip. Gratitude to Grahame and Angela Smith for being bold enough to move our family to Zomba in 1981. What an adventure. This edition is dedicated to John McCracken, who loved Malawi.
FOLLOW US Tag us in your posts and share your adventures using this guide with us – we’d love to hear from you. f pb.travel.updates t @philipbriggs @bradtguides : bradtguides y bradtguides
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If you’d like to donate school or medical materials, bear in mind that Malawian stationers and pharmacies are well stocked, and you support the economy in the country by buying locally.
SELECTED PROJECTS You’ll find many more ventures, small and large, across the country. This is just a small selection of some of the places we’ve encountered: Biosphere Expeditions (see box, page 301) Join expert scientists from Lilongwe Wildlife Trust at the little-visited Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve. You’ll be trained in data collection to carry out walking transects, bat and insect surveys as well as studies of the park’s large elephant population. Butterfly Space (page 278) A thoughtful and unusual community endeavour, this Nkhata Bay lodge runs projects ranging from teaching in the lodge’s school to training radio journalists to empowering people with disabilities and HIV/Aids. Fisherman’s Rest (page 190; see ad, inside back cover) This lodge runs community-driven projects: volunteers and guests can assist with sanitation and hygiene management programmes, reforestation, borehole repairs, building classrooms, making fuel-efficient clay stoves and helping schools with porridge provision or reading sessions. Kumbali Base Camp (page 96) Based just outside Lilongwe, this camp aims to immerse volunteers in Malawian life with language and culture classes; their projects range from teaching
assistance to reforestation to the protection of bats and carnivores such as wild dogs. Kuti Wildlife Reserve (page 117) Hands-on experience of community and conservation projects: accommodation is in solar-power chalets and food is included. Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (page 104) w lilongwewildlife.org. Join this fine organisation for 2- to 12-week placements, helping to rehabilitate injured animals at their centre. You’ll receive training, and there’s dorm accommodation on-site. Luwawa Forest Lodge (page 246) This awardwinning lodge in the beautiful South Viphya mountain range hosts volunteers with knowledge of outdoor activities, horseriding, the environment, marketing and tourism management. Phunzira w phunzira.org/volunteer. Phunzira recruits volunteers to work as teachers, youth and health workers, builders and in IT and management. Accommodation is in or near the gorgeous Zulunkhuni River Lodge (page 282).
We've seen the best so you can
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BIOSPHERE EXPEDITIONS A unique way to see the reserve is on one of Biosphere Expeditions’ two-week trips (w biosphere-expeditions.org), where ‘citizen scientists’ pay to work with scientists from the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust to study and document the park’s elephants, hippos, bats and insects. After initial lectures and training, you join very hands-on walking and driving transects, as well as setting insect and bat traps and cameras for nocturnal surveys. In 2018, the first year Biosphere Expeditions supported the project, researchers recorded three cat species never before formally identified in the park: lion, caracal and serval, as well as an order of insects never found here before. Accommodation is in a basic tented camp where one of the tasks is collecting water from a pump: there are compost loos and no running water. For those with an amateur interest in ecology, this is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the work of trained scientists in a little-studied and remote region of Malawi. Good communal meals and chats round the firepit help to make this a truly memorable experience.
have suffered badly at the hands of poachers in the past, and are to some extent seasonal, but the reserve remains reasonably well stocked because animals can move freely between it and Zambia’s contiguous Luangwa ecosystem. Some 2,000 buffalo and 300 elephant are thought to be resident, though the former have reputedly declined in number in recent years, probably through subsistence poaching. A variety of antelope is present, including roan, greater kudu, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, puku and impala. Lion and leopard survive in small numbers, but sightings are rare.
A WHERE TO STAY
Nyika and Vwaza VWAZA MARSH WILDLIFE RESERVE
GETTING THERE AND AWAY Kazuni Camp, at the main entrance gate, is about 25km from Rumphi along the ‘old’ dirt road that connects to Mzimba. To get here, follow the M24 out of Rumphi towards Nyika for about 10km, and then turn left on to the S109, which is signposted for the reserve. You can normally reach the gate in a saloon car, but a 4x4 may be necessary after rain. Internal roads are generally closed during the rainy season. Access to Vwaza Marsh on public transport is surprisingly easy. In the dry season, there is at least one bus daily between Mzimba and Rumphi, apparently leaving Rumphi in the early morning and Mzimba at about 14.00. This bus doesn’t stop right at the gate, but at Kazuni village, which is about 1km from the gate in the direction of Mzimba. A better option coming from Rumphi is to look for a matola lift to Kazuni. There seems to be a steady stream of pick-up trucks travelling between Rumphi and the tobacco farms in the Kazuni area, and you shouldn’t have to wait longer than an hour for a lift. Private vehicles will generally drop you right at the gate, from where it is a 5-minute walk to the camp. The best place to wait for a lift out of Rumphi is under the trees just west of the district offices. Map, page 285
A Chigwere Cultural Village Kazuni village; % 01 334389. This cultural tourism project at Kazuni village, 1km from the entrance gate, offers simple homestays, with all proceeds going to orphan care, & it also offers fascinating insights
into the local culture of this mixed Tumbuka & Ngoni community – try your hand at maize pounding, just join in with whatever is going on at the time, or ask to see a traditional dance (US$5 pp). US$7 pp bed only, US$20 pp FB. $
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