How Malawi Won Us Over – Unexpectedly
We had some doubts about whether we would like Malawi, even though we had heard many praises for it. Finally, we had the chance to go and find out. What we found was unexpected.
What caused us doubts was the sheer number of people in the country: almost 21.5 million people on less than 95.000 km2 of land area (which makes 230 people per km2!).
That means that people would be almost everywhere you can go. And we love countries like Namibia, whose population density is 4 per km2. 😉
(…We Finnish just love our personal space 😉 )
So, yes, we admit we had some prejudices when we crossed the border from Chipata, Zambia, in early November 2023, just before the famously wet rainy season started.
Upgrade your subscription now and get all the extra content for 24% OFF to celebrate our return to Africa again in late September 2024! 😎 🔥
For the first few days, we felt pretty uncomfortable because people were literally everywhere. People filled the roads by bicycle or foot, making driving tricky. There was hardly any space for our Defender.
We headed South as quickly as possible, toward the famous Monkey Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi. After all, Lake Malawi was one of the main reasons for our visit. We wanted to finally see it, go snorkeling, and spend some lazy “beach time.”
We also wanted to visit the small but exciting National Parks of Malawi.
We eventually ended up visiting most of them: Liwonde National Park, Lake Malawi Marine Park, Majete Game Reserve, Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve, and even the distinctively beautiful Nyika Plateau National Park in northern Malawi (which surprisingly turned out to be one of the highlights).
It took almost two weeks to get used to the vast number of people, but we noticed that the stories we’d heard about how overly friendly Malawians are seemed true. They were among the friendliest people we’ve met in Africa.
Slowly but surely, we started to really like Malawi.
When we got to Liwonde National Park, we gradually, maybe even started to love it.
Below, we stand at the Liwonde Safari Camp, where elephants regularly wander through the camp 🐘 ❤️
Below lines I wrote in the morning when we were spending that sorely sought-after time at the beach in Chembe Eagle’s Nest, right on the sands of Lake Malawi, where we could hear the waves splashing to the shore and watch the beautiful sunsets while sitting beside our car.
Do you hear the waves splashing rhytmically? Do you hear the wind blowing and the rustling of leaves? Do you feel the wind? Do you feel how the rainy season is closing in? Or the winter if you are in the other Hemisphere? How the wheels of nature are turning? We humans invented time. Making something out of nothing. Pretty awesome skill. But still there is no time. Nature just is. Learn to be with it, in it. Embrace the wind ang go with it. And you will know what freedom is. 17.11.2023 Lake Malawi
It still describes quite well our feelings while unwinding at Lake Malawi. :)
⭑NEW things are happening on our Buy My a Coffee -page ☆ Inner Circle & Memberships ⭑ Check them out! 🔥
Highlights of Malawi in a Nutshell
Liwonde National Park
Liwonde National Park was exciting. It was a little park where we drove in search of lions and found them in open areas. We also liked a lot of Liwonde Safari Camp and spent almost 1,5 weeks there. The camp was only about 10 minutes drive away from the park gate.
Nothing beats the feeling when you’re sitting in your camping chair, sipping your morning coffee under a big baobab tree, and an elephant emerges from the nearby bush, walks in front of you, and starts leisurely eating away the trees under which you are almost parked! 😍
Elephant visits happened several times in this small but lovely camp. The parking spots were also a bit secluded with bushes, so you didn’t always look straight at your neighbor’s car.
Lake Malawi Marine National Park
We loved Chembe Eagle’s Nest and enjoyed being the only campers for many days. It was one of the best camping spots, right on the sand but still secluded and shadowed by trees.
The drive to the camp went straight through the local village on a small dirt track. We constantly doubted whether that really was the road there…
Almost every day, we dipped into Lake Malawi (the tablets for schistosomiasis were waiting for us in the future, and boy, did they end up being strong by messing up our systems – but the swims were still worth it!).
Lake Malawi Marine National Park itself was superb! A UNESCO World Heritage Site for a reason.
But the best thing was our snorkeling trip to the Marine Park itself. So clear water and so many colorful, endemic fish around you! We wouldn’t have wanted to come out of the water. We spent a wonderful day at the lake with our private catamaran.
It's something to remember, for sure. To some extent, it can even compete with the experience of snorkeling with whale sharks in Yucatan, Mexico. Of course, they are different experiences, but exceptional in their own distinct ways. Both are highly memorable.
A glimpse from Lake Malawi Marine Park while we were on the snorkeling trip. An African fish eagle is there, too. ;)
Nyika Plateau National Park
Nyika Plateau turned out to be one of the highlights of our 1.5 months in Malawi. Completely different landscapes and a chilly mountain-like air significantly differed from what we had been used to in southern Malawi.
Also, the drive to the highlands was exciting.
Eventually, the M1 highway, which started as an OK-conditioned tar road, changed to a smaller and narrower dirt road (M9) when climbing upwards, ending up as a muddy track for one vehicle in some spots nearing the Nyika Plateau’s entrance gate (and onwards to Chelinda campsite).
We thought we were lucky it still hadn’t adequately rained, as then the track would’ve been much trickier to drive in some parts.
Occasionally, the track briefly goes on the Zambian side, too, and white poles at the side of the road tell you when you’ve crossed to the other side.
We didn’t see many animals in Nyika but saw even more magnificent, vast landscapes. Ultimately, we would have wanted to spend a few days more than we had planned—maybe some other time, as we had to start driving back to the south.
But was it worth the long detour to the North? Yes, it was.
A bit chilly but beautiful Nyika Plateau.
Initially, we thought we would spend maybe 30 days in Malawi, but we ended up extending our visas and staying for 1.5 months. And we actually really liked this little country, with extensively friendly and easygoing people.
We’re unsure whether we ever have a chance to go there again, as we saw almost all the places we wanted to experience. But it was worthwhile to spend time in Malawi.
So, despite our prejudices, we ended up loving it; in its own way, it made a great impression on us. Malawi was quite different from the other southern African countries we’ve been to (maybe mainly because of Lake Malawi), in a good way.
And after all, the massive density of people on a square kilometer didn’t even bother us anymore. And we quickly got used to dodging all those people, bicycles, and animals on the crowded roads. ;)
Malawi really is “the warm heart of Africa,” as their slogan says.
Stay wild & explore new landscapes,
