Malawi and Mozambique

Malawi

Malawi kicked off our East Africa expedition and it would have been extremely easy to locate ourselves next to the beautiful Lake Malawi, however we did move around, spending a brief amount of time in the larger cities, Blantyre and the capital Lilongwe and the mountains. The country is small which is great for getting around quick, but I do recall the amount of people and bikes on the road, you do need to be aware. My key highlights below.

Lake Malawi: Also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, it is the southern most lake in the East African Rift system and located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is also the fourth largest fresh water lake in the world. Just a bit of trivia for you!

We only saw Lake Malawi from within Malawi, spending time at two different points Senga Bay and Cape Maclear.

At Senga Bay the water seemed to flow a bit more, a bit like the ocean, at Cape Maclear the water was a bit calmer. I actually didn’t swim at either spots for fear of the dreaded bilharzia, although I’m sure it would have been ok at Senga Bay, and probably at Cape Maclear too.

Both are lovely places to just chill which is pretty much what we did.

Oh, and we ate our share of fish too.

A must at Cape Maclear is to get a boat out onto the water at sunset, lovely!

Mulanje District: A beautiful area tea plantation area featuring Mount Mulanje.

I have mixed feeling about the mountain itself as we never got to actually climb it due to a good dose of food poisoning, but I would have loved to and the reports we got back from others were positive. Either way, even for a day hike it’s worthwhile checking out.

Mozambique

I dream of one day being able to visit Mozambique again and seeing all of the wonderful places I know we missed out on! But, I can’t complain; we did get to travel through northern Mozambique, which was amazing and free of tourists. I can imagine that with better infrastructure (we travelled down some pretty rough roads), northern Mozambique would be a tourist paradise.

Portuguese inspired architecture, white beaches, piri piri prawns, need I say more?!

Ilha de Mocambique: If you were to go to only one place in northern Mozambique, it should be this place. Paradise!

This little island has it all, beaches, yummy food, cute little guesthouses, architecture, quaint laneways and more.

Chocas Mar: A stretch of coast on the mainland pretty much opposite Ilha de Mocambique. Just think, some of the whitest sand you will ever see!

Pemba: A large port city, big expat community and a good place to base yourself in order to get to some of the islands.

Archipelago das Quirimbas and Ilha do Ibo: In all honesty, I felt these islands are best set up for luxury tourists. They are/were accessible to low end tourists (which was apparently us), but it was hard work to organise. We did make it Ilha do Ibo though and while I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did Ilha de Mocambique (very different), if you want to get away from tourists completely, this makes a nice stop.

Unless things have changed though, very limited goods and service available, so remember to BYO (or else pay up for a pricey lodge).