The drive from Chembe to Salima, aside from the road to Monkey Bay was excellent. From Salima to Nkhotakota was not so good. By a long shot!
There was the pot holes of course and then what really added to the frustration was the erosion/destruction along the sides of the two-way roads which created many areas where two cars could just barely and possibly not share the pavement. This was especially more difficult if a big truck was involved. You had to very cautiously pull over and off the creviced side of the road giving just enough room for the truck to get by. The broken side of the road was sharp asphalt so this was potentially tire destroying.
Throw in a whole lot of new road construction, “speed humps” literally every 100 metres in many road construction sections and at the end of the day what should have taken 2 hours took close to 4 hours for a total driving time of 6 1/2 hours to get to Rafiki Safari Camp, our stop for the next two nights.
We arrived at our destination frazzled from the journey and checked in at a small reception post near the camp. Arthur radioed our arrival to the owners who greeted us and then asked if we would like to do a game drive once we got settled. A chorus of two sang out “ no, we need a cold beer”!
Rafiki camp sits along the border of Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, the oldest and largest reserve in Malawi.
The owners, Chris and Sandi of have poured their hearts into their lodge which abuts the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve and with the recent management agreement between African Parks and the Zambian Parks system I think they are well placed to reap the benefits of a rejuvenated park.
There is a long history to the park that unfortunately includes rampant poaching that reduced the elephant population to less than 100 from tens of thousands. With Africans Parks involvement things seem to be changing in a very positive way. I suggest you Google “African Parks” for more information.
We moved into our Safari Tent which was fantastic and settled in for two nights with full board and game drives and walks included with our stay.
Breakfast was the usual but really good while lunches and dinners were excellent with great deserts rounding out our three course dinners.
On our first night we shared the lodge with a French family with two kids so dinner and drinks in the main Boma was very uncrowded and quiet and after they departed the next morning we had the whole place to ourselves until our departure.
The morning after our arrival we did a small hike to the Bua River that flows nearby the camp. There were a few locals illegally panning for gold and there was a partial fence that divided the river between the national park and surrounding areas and it didn’t look like it was a very effective fence.
As we hiked along the river bank we were surprised by and then joined by the chef from our lodge. We didn’t think there was any reason for him to show up. We were quite comfortable hiking here but he made it clear that he was here for us and took the lead and gave us a nice tour of the river area and some perspective of life in this part of Malawi. And he was wearing his white chef uniform and hat! It was a very nice touch and for the life of me his name escapes me unfortunately.
Joyce had been suffering from neck pain for the past few weeks and didn’t need to have her neck shaken on a game drive so I went with Chris and Sandi in their safari truck. We picked up a park ranger at the park entrance gate and headed of on a 1 1/2 hour drive through beautiful thick forests and we had a great drive.
The elephants we saw were quite skittish and a little aggressive but over 500 elephants have been fecently relocated to this park so I’m sure these were some of those. I had many good wildlife sightings however the animals are more shy here because Nkhotkota has not been on the safari radar for a long time and I think this is a good thing. There was one other truck in the park with one tourist.
In Africa our evenings end early and our mornings start early. We had a long drive ahead of us to Chitimba so we had an early breakfast and said our farewells. The staff at the lodge were all wonderful, friendly and gracious and I think they all realized how lucky they are to be employed at Rafiki not just because unemployment is sky high in Malawi but because of the opportunity and good environment that Chris and Sandi offered.
Next stop Chitimba to meet friends we haven’t seen in seven years!