Malawi

Entering Malawi is painless… there’s no visa fee and insurance (the only cost) is $35. I head straight for the lake, to Chitimba Beach Lodge – a lodge recently taken over by 4 dutch friends. It’s a beautiful beach, and run by great people. A few drunken evenings, livened up by the resident grate dane and Darren – a larger than life Australian driller looking for uranium in Malawi.

The campsite is a stop off for overland trucks and backpackers… Meeting with two Israeli girls - Michal (a girls name in Hebrew) and Tal, we agree to head to the Nyika National Park together – a reserve high in the Malawian mountains.

It’s beautiful weather here – winter’s just ended and the days are warm and sunny. Nights are freezing cold – the huge campfires are not only welcome, they’re essential. The campsite here has the best hot showers I’ve come across in Africa, getting out of them however is painful…

The campsite here is the Hyena’s kitchen, they’re known for stealing your dinner the second you turn your head… It seems though it’s too cold for even them at the moment, in the three nights we spend here – we don’t see a single one…

Our first meal of “chicken surprise” which we tried to cook the traditional way, with banana leaves and covered in hot coals:
[mal chicken surprise.jpg]
Turns out, it wasn’t such a great plan…

Friday 24th August 2007
You can drive around the park – there are many offroad tracks, leading to secluded mountains, lakes and valleys. We even take a detour into Zambia for a few minutes.

After cooking an incredible lunch, in a truly stunning location:

we find one of my new favourite places in Africa: Jalawe Rock – a beautiful spot in the north of the park. The views are outstanding, the rolling hills of Malawi and Zambia stretching out in front of you for as far as you can see.

I already love Malawi – it’s been one of the countries I’ve most looked forward to seeing in Africa. Ever since one of my first school teachers (who’d taught here for 35 years) told me about the country, I’d been enchanted – photo’s on the projector brought to life one of Africa’s best kept secrets.

Take a tour around the view from Jalawe – you can scroll around this photo – and use ctrl and shift to zoom in and out…. It’s just a small taster of what it’s actually like!