Category: Lilongwe, Liwonde National Park & Chembe (Cape Maclear)

Departing as early as possible always ends up being between 8:00 and 9:00 am. It doesn’t matter how hard you try it almost never works out to plan.

The road to Cape Maclear was actually very good except for the last 30 or so kms. The road became pot holed and then became mountainous terrain with very sharp curvy roads with potholes.

We descended the hills into a flat landscape and a road that eventually took us through the village of Chembe/Cape Maclear. It was a fishing day and the village was crowded. We had an incredible experience slowly driving through a typical Malawian fishing village weaving our way through narrow roads and paths and making sure not to run anyone over.

We made our way through the village to the gates of our next stop, Chembe Eagles Nest, a nice place with bungalows on the beach with a restaurant and bar attached and probably the best location in the whole cape. And like usual the drive took us about 5 1/2 hours.

Our two night stop here was really only to break up the long drives we had ahead of us however our location really exposed us to beautiful scenery and a great experience meeting the local villagers and fishers.

Our first evening was a beautiful sunset from our seats in the outdoor restaurant. Food was good and the beer was cold and no bugs to speak of. But I better ask Joyce first.

We set up a boat and snorkelling trip for the next morning and after breakfast we hopped aboard the Honey Guide and set off to feed some Fish Eagles and and then snorkel on the southern edge of Thumbi West Island to snorkel with the Cichlids.

Before heading over to the island we did a coastal route along the shores of the lake fronting the village and were surprised by the number of tourist lodges nestled among the shore.

The water level of Lake Malawi is way above normal so many of the closer to shoreline lodges have been flooded and are out of business until the water levels subside. A big hit to the local economy.

We proceeded out to the island and secured the boat to a some rocks on the shore. While I was getting my mask spitted up, Eliot was feeding the fish bread! Not a good thing but then I dove in to snorkel with a huge array of Cichlids, the worlds aquarium fish. People don’t know this. This is an amazing fish species with over 600 distinguishable species just in Lake Malawi.

The area also hosts the schistosomiasis parasite which I probably aquired by snorkeling so I’ll do a dose of praziquantel 3 months after my exposure so November 16 is my pill day and also my fathers birthday.

After arriving back at our beach we had a light lunch and then wondered off for a walk into Chembe Village.

Zambia and Zimbabwe are both experiencing severe drought and Malawi seems to be experiencing the opposite. I think extra water is ultimately better than no water but there are major repercussions either way.

We spent two nights in Chembe and then departed on the 17th of August to Rafiki Camp, beside Nkhotakota National Park.

The distance from Lilongwe to the lodge is about 310kms and it took us about 5 1/2 hours to the park entrance gate, 28 kms away from our lodge. The next 28k took just over an hour and was through the park skirting the Shire River. It was bumpy and dusty and slow going but we could see that the wildlife would be plentiful however what we didn’t see was the turn off to our camp.

We were stuck behind two other vehicles and it was very dusty and they kept stopping every time they thought they saw something.

I was looking right, Joyce left and we missed the sign that was just to our right on the road.

Oblivious to our situation and 2 kms later we all stopped where the road stopped, except for a small river crossing. How can we be lost?

As fortune would have it, just at that moment, a Mvuu Camp safari truck crossed the river and stopped. I got out of our truck to ask directions only to be reprimanded by the safari truck driver that there are lions in the area and you cannot leave your vehicle. I said “sorry” but I meant to get your attention, not the lions.

Fortunately the turnoff was only 2 kms back.

We pulled into the camp parking lot and were met by a lovely lady only to be told we had been upgraded to Mvuu Wilderness Lodge, just a hop, skip and jump away. We are always a little suspicious when we get an “upgrade” but this one definitely did not disappoint.

We were seriously impressed with our upgrade.

Our bungalow was more like a large luxury suite made of natural woods, canvas tenting material with wall to wall screens, a king sized bed, walk in shower, sitting area etc. all overlooking a large lagoon. It was beautiful.

The Shire River flows into Lake Malawi which eventually flows into the Zambezi River.

Lake Malawi water levels were very high which resulted in the flooding of some of the upstream river plains and forests, leaving islands of trees.

The lodge had wooden walkways that once skirted the land but now served as elevated pathways over the water. We were told some people preferred the lower water levels because it allowed some grazing animals to be near the walkways but others preferred the flooded lagoon because it gave a sense of walking through a flooded jungle. We loved it just the way it was.

We had three nights at the lodge on a full board basis. The breakfast was a standard of cereal, fruit, yoghurt and an a la carte selection of eggs, bacon, sausage and roasted tomatoes and was very good.

The lunch and dinner were preset and all were delicious with amazing deserts to follow.

Our stay included game drives, walking safaris and boat excursions on the Shire River. We did one boat excursion and two drives.

The drives were good. We saw several Southern Ground hornbill, wild pig, a small pride of lions with one male, three female and three young cubs, Sable Antelope, Kudu, Roan, Elephant, Waterbuck, Eland etc. and a land that has been somewhat transformed with the high waters.

The best was the river cruise.

The scenery was spectacular and the flooded land, where once there was large grassy grazing areas hosted a large array of birdlife as well as large mammals on the shores and larger herds further off into the distance. Large flocks of African Skimmers, Spoonbills, Open bills and a myriad of other birds perched among the white topped volcano-like termite mounds that dotted the flooded landscape.

Our last night brought some elephant visitors to our bungalow and we were later told that a pair of lions visited the bungalow next to us.

We had a very good experience at Mvuu Lodge and by extension, Liwonde National Park. The staff were excellent, the food was very good, our bungalow was outstanding and we were treated to beautiful scenery and wildlife.

Our next stop, as usual, is another long drive.

Onward to Cape Maclear on southern Lake Malawi.

We bid Kristina and Lucy farewell on August 10th and hopped a flight to Lilongwe, Malawi to begin our next two week adventure.

Our accommodation for the first two nights in Lilongwe was Africa House, a beautiful mansion which was previously home the Belgian Embassy.

When we first arrived at the airport none of the ATM’s accepted our card. We had a ride to pick us up at the airport so we asked him to take us to a legitimate bank with an ATM but we still had no luck. I could use my Visa card for cash so I took out a few bucks to hold us over to the next day. We also stopped at an Airtel kiosk to get a SIM card and data but after much hassle and paying for a card we couldn’t purchase any data. We were told the card was activated so there must be network issues so we should try again tomorrow.

After breakfast we hired a taxi to show us around town and to also try a few more ATM’s and purchase some date with our new SIM card.

None of the ATM’s would accept our bank card so I loaded up on cash using my Visa and then immediately paid it off on line once we returned back to our lodging. Our next stop was to purchase some data. This was important because we needed Google Maps. We found an Airtel kiosk, were told our SIM card had not been activated, paid for a new SIM card, loaded up on data and it was off to the races. We obviously got ripped off the day before.

Lilongwe is very spread out over many “Areas”. Area 10, Area 40 etc. except 85% of the areas do not connect so you can’t assume an address in Area 10 is close to an address in Area 11. Road construction is rampant in the city and traffic is horrible although the fact that there is road construction is a good thing, except without doubt financed by a country that has ulterior motives.

That evening we had a very good dinner at La Cantina, a highly rated Mexican restaurant near to Africa House. The food was great and nobody spoke Spanish although a large noisy table spoke “belt and road”.

The next morning we were picked up by a “Land and Lakes” representative. This is the company that we used to rent our 4×4 and book our accommodations throughout Malawi. We picked up our truck and rather than use Google Maps, used Maps.me to plot our first destination.

We’ve used Maps.me before but it seems everyone in Malawi uses this map service and as it turns out, it was excellent and we will use it for all future travels.

Five minutes after departure from the office and just as we got onto the city bypass road, we came to a police road block. We were waved over, I stopped, rolled down my window to greet the female police officer and was told I was under arrest for passing on a solid line! Well this is great way to start a journey.

The officer had a slight grin on her face, she was hard to read but I vehemently denied the charge. “ It was a broken line I protested. I passed a very slow moving vehicle with an L on the back window. No way did I pass on a solid line”! She continued to smile, wandered over to the passenger side of the truck, looked at the insurance decals on the windshield, sauntered back, pulled out her gun, just kidding, nodded and smiled and told us to have a nice day.

We don’t think she was serious but maybe she was. We will never know.

We were heading to Liwonde National Park and after about six hours of so-so roads we made it to Mvuu Camp.