Return to Malawi

After 21 months back in the UK while Covid regulations imposed travel restrictions we returned to Malawi, arriving in a torrential downpour (it is the middle of the wet season, though it started very late). The van was just as we left it and we soon settled in to our travel routine.

Just after we landed I contacted Ruth & Jurgen who we last saw 6 years ago after travelling through China and Tibet with them, to discover they were just 100kms north of Lilongwe! so we arranged to meet up for a couple of days. After getting supplies and some spares in Lilongwe we returned to the Lake Malawi, visiting one of the camps we stayed at before. It is clear from all the camps we visited that they have had a really difficult over the last 2 years, with very little income, and just as tourism was picking up before Christmas the Omicron variant caused mass cancellations.

We headed south along the lake to visit places we had skipped in our rush to get home in 2020, visiting Cape McClear, a beautiful sandy bay backed by the wooded hills of the National Park. A boat trip on the lake gave the opportunity to see Fish Eagles plucking fish thrown from the boat out of the water.

We returned to Liwonde National Park, where in 2020 we decided we had to get home, but recent torrential rain had made the roads too wet for us. We were treated to waterbuck, kudu and bushbuck in the camp, as well as a couple of hippo passing beside our van as we returned from dinner! We managed to slide off the track from the camp, and had half the local village help dig us out, helped by a passing car.

As the south seemed to be suffering regular torrential downpours we spent the following week working our way back north along Lake Malawi, staying at some beautiful lakeshore campsites enjoying the summer weather.

From the shore we could see the great plumes of mating Lake flies which form at this time of year. They must contain billions of flies as they looked like plumes of smoke on the horizon. We are back in Lilongwe and have just taken our Covid test ready to cross into Zambia tomorrow.

Mozambique, Malawi and Hurrying Home

We are safely back in the UK after a couple of cancelled flights from Malawi, arriving a couple of days before the country went into lockdown, giving us time to get the necessities before being confined to quarters. So we are safe and settled for the time being, having left the van near Lilongwe in Malawi.

Maputo railway station

Old and New Maputo

Leaving eSwatini we crossed into Mozambique where we had to provide a printed copy of a hotel booking - all to generate some revenue for the border people, so we stayed overnight in Maputo. A sprawling city on a river estuary, but with a certain faded charm, with a few old colonial buildings, particularly the rail terminus, and the old market hall, and a nice seafront promenade.

Main N - S road

We spent the afternoon strolling round the older part of the city and enjoyed the luxury of an air conditioned hotel room. The main road north undulates through forest and uncultivated scrub, passing scattered villages with their fields of maize. After a couple of nights staying at campsites on the beautiful sandy coast we reached Tofo Beach. A beautiful sheltered curving sandy beach backed by low rise lodges and accommodation. Probably the most developed tourist site in Mozambique, but still very laid back, with a couple of surf shops, several restaurants on the sandy streets, and a couple of boat operators offering trips to see the manta rays and whale sharks. Unfortunately on the two days we were there none were sighted.

Miles of deserted beach - only crabs for company

Tofo Beach

Mozambique secondary road

More deserted beach

Continuing north, the main road follows relatively close to the coast and we spent a few more nights by the ocean before reaching Inchope where we headed north west to Tete to avoid the stretches of road subjected to attacks by local rebels. The landscape becomes more cultivated the mountains bordering Zimbabwe to the west and rocky granite outcrops from old volcanoes scattered across the Zambezi plain. On crossing the Zambezi at Tete we found a small campsite on the banks of the river, but near the town centre - a real refuge.

Local fishing fleet

The border into Malawi is just 70kms from Tete at the top of a pass. An easy crossing, but it immediately feels very different. Every tiny area of ground is cultivated, with hillsides terraced to grow maize, and many more people walking on the roads, and more frequent villages. The road drops down into Malawi which is situated in the rift valley, with the rift valley edge clearly visible stretching north along the lakeside. Blantyre, the main commercial centre of Malawi, is a sprawling old colonial city surrounded by mountains and we camped in the grounds of the old rather rundown Colonial country club, an oasis in the city.

Zambezi bridge at Tete

Malawi highlands tea plantation

The highlands in the south of Malawi are home to its tea and coffee plantations which stretch across the landscape. Spectacular granite mountains rising almost vertically in places to 3,000m with trails and waterfalls. It was lovely to be able to gain some height to cooler weather and take some walks in the wooded hills around Mulange Mountains and then further north on the Zomba Plateau, where there are wide views across the plains to Mozambique.

Market day

We had been monitoring the progress of the Coronavirus outbreak around the world as we headed to Liwonde National Park, and hearing that South Africa was to close its borders we decided to head home as soon as possible. Having booked a flight from Lilongwe three days later we spent a day in Liwonde, a beautiful park set along the floodplain of the Shire River and extending into the rocky hills to the east. We seemed to be the only visitors as we drove the track spotting a male lion in the long grass right beside the road, as even a brief glimpse of a cheetah. The real spectacles were the herds of elephant in the long grasses bordering the river, and the large numbers of hippo grazing the river plain in the daytime. A huge number of bird species inhabit the park with some lovely sightings, especially the palm nut vulture.


Lake Malawi                                                                                View towards Mozambique from Zomba plateau

As we headed towards Lake Malawi where we planned to sort out the van before leaving it in Lilongwe we heard our flights had been cancelled, so had an additional relaxing day by the Lake, then after parking the car at a storage place in Lilongwe discovered the rebooked flight had also been cancelled. Fortunately we managed to be rebooked onto a flight via Nairobi and Paris, arriving back in the UK at a deserted Heathrow on Saturday 21st March.   

 

Mozambique village surrounded by maize

 

 

Dziwe wa Nklamba waterfall

Mulanje massif

 

Lion in Liwonde N P

Hippos grazing during the day

Palm Nut Vulture

 

 

Kwa Zulu Natal and eSwatini (Swaziland)

Just hatched turtle heading for the sea

Give way, elephant approaching

Baby Rhino - mum is just behind him

Back in Johannesburg we were reunited with the van. After repacking and reorganising the van we headed south to the coast of Kwa Zulu Natal (KZN) and the parks along the coast. This remote section of coast is the nesting site for thousands of loggerhead and Leatherback turtles. After three days of fine rain we were rewarded with seeing Loggerhead turtles emerging from their nests, as well as a female which had clambered up the beach, but found the sand too hard after the rain to excavate a nest, so she returned to the ocean. We had a very relaxed couple of weeks, visiting several National Parks and Reserves. Hluhluwe hosts the big five, and we were fortunate in seeing 21 white rhino including one mother and baby which came up to within 1 metre of the van - a very special moment. Tembe Park near the Mozambique border houses some of the biggest tuskers, and we came face to face with one on a track, fortunately he found a way through the surrounding forest. On our way out of the park we were stopped by a herd of around 80 buffalo standing across the track. The countryside is all very green after the rain, but being out of season the campsites are deserted, so we have had the pick of locations. Arriving at one of the campsites we found a UK Landrover parked up, belonging to Neil and Julie Lee. We spent a couple of evenings and a day chatting about overlanding and their involvement with iOverlander, Overlanding Sphere and various other facebook groups which they help manage.

A couple of white rhino with magnificient horns

Malolotja National Park

They were heading south and we drove north to eSwatini. The border crossing was easy and we entered a relaxed, very green and friendly country surrounded by mountains. The Malolotja reserve in the western mountains is a large unspoilt open area of high veldt, offering the promise of cooler weather. Arriving under an overcast sky we stopped in their campsite as an incredibly active thunderstorm broke and passed overhead. For three hours we were surrounded by almost constant lightning and very loud thunder. After visiting the viewpoints the following morning but seeing little as it was still cloudy we headed north to a couple of the game and nature reserves. At Hlane Royal Reserve white rhino come in the evening and morning to the water hole where they are inquisitive but short sighted so several times headed towards us, eventually taking fright when within 10m. The east of the country has some huge sugar cane farms, but has large undeveloped areas still covered in natural forest, resulting in large populations and diverse species of birds. We finally tore ourselves away and headed north to Mozambique.

Near the S Africa eSwatini border

 

Inquisitive giraffe

 

Buffalo take priority on the track

Stunning sunsets

 

Baby Rhino

 

Passing elephant

 

 

Blesbok

Water thicknee defending nest against passing white rhino

African Harrier Hawk

 

The North of Madagascar

Zebu trampling a rice paddy

The second half of our stay in Madagascar was in the north. Returning up towards Tana we stopped at a local zebu market, Farmers with up to a dozen of the local zebu cattle stand around in a open area while prospective buyers walk between them examining the cattle, then haggling over the price. Fascinating to see, with many of the animals bred in the south destined for a 2 day drive up to Tana for the markets there. The Zebu, apart from being bred for meat are used on the farm for pulling wagons,

Zebu Market

ploughing the fields, and just trampling the ploughed fields before the rice is planted.

Antsirabe, one of the towns on the main road sits in the highlands, even getting an occasional frost in the winter. A short drive from the town up a very slippery track we found Tritriva crater lake. A vertically sided lake in an old volcano crater surrounded by forest and very fertile farmland growing all sorts of fruit and vegetables. Antsirabe itself is an old colonial town with a wide central avenue - very French, with a very relaxed atmosphere.

Giraffe beetle

Andasibe National Park, east of Tana, is home to the largest, and noisiest lemur (the Indri), as well as one of the prettiest sifaka (the diamante).

Parsons Chameleon

Our guide for both the evening walk and the day trek into the park was fantastic, finding some very special chameleon as well as the Indri and diamante sifaka. Being the wet season, we were lucky with the weather, having a dry evening and morning walk, with heavy rain in the afternoon.

Indri Lemur

The east coast of Madagascar is exposed to the Indian Ocean, so the French constructed inland canals joining the freshwater lakes to provide a sheltered 600km route for boats. On the edge of one of the lakes is a small resort surrounded by forest which has numerous habituated lemur. We were woken each morning by black and white lemur jumping across the forest in front of our cottage.

Diamante Sifaka

An island nearby has been created as a sanctuary for the strange Ari ari nocturnal lemur which has one extraordinarily long finger for prising insects out of their burrows, or crevices in trees. Locals fear the ari ari as they believe it brings bad luck, so they kill them, this island rescues them and tourist visits help pay for permanent security.


Ari Ari

Flooding in Diego Suarez

Our last week was spent in Diego Suarez at the very north of the island, enabling us to visit some of the most beautiful beaches, as well as visiting two areas of tsingy - pointed rock formations formed by erosion of the limestone, or surrounding rock, as well as a couple of national parks, each of which contains species found nowhere else. The town itself has many retired ex-pats, but the surrounding, hilly countryside was some of the poorest we had seen in Madagascar. Villages relying on subsistence rice farming, with no electricity or mechanical devices, where they shelter in wooden huts from the monsoon type rain. One 30 minute downpour resulted in water outside our hotel 500mm deep in which children were playing.


Diego Suarez

Local Village

Flying back to Tana before our return to South Africa we had good views of the inland areas of the island, scattered villages in long valleys with only a mud road, resulting in them being cut off from vehicle access through the wet season.
Back in Tana, the rice harvest and planting was in full swing. It is amazing how they have maintained rice paddies right near the centre of the city, but does provide a lot of open space. The harvesting was taking place from paddies under 500mm of water as they have had so much rain.


Tsingy

Main road to Tana from Diego Suarez

 

 

 

 

Crossleys Dwarf Lemur

 

 

Black and White Ruffed Lemur

Eastern Brown Lemur

Crowned Lemur

 

Highland Houses

Rive Harvest in Tana

 

 

Rock Thrush found only on Amber Mountain