Category: Malawi

My last stop in Malawi, the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve, established in 1953 and expanded in 1975, and covering an area of 52 square miles, is Malawi’s smallest national Park or Reserve, and its least visited – it turns out for good reason.

Mwabvi is located at the southern tip of Malawi bordering Mozambique. Like most of the other Parks and Reserves in Malawi, this one too is managed through a cooperative arrangement between the Malawian government and a private nonprofit trust called Project African Wilderness (PAW), which was formed to protect and restore the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve. I suspect that Mwabvi was established originally because it was the last natural home to the black rhino in Malawi. However, as with the rest of the country, both wildlife and woodland have been heavily poached over the years, and thus there are few animals left today. Black rhino were hunted out many years ago and there has been no effort to reintroduce them given the management status of the Reserve (see below). As far as I can tell, and what little information I could glean from the Reserve entrance gate ranger (the only Reserve staff person I saw), there are only a few species of antelope left, such as kudu and duiker, but I saw none during my brief stay.

The reserve is situated in the Shire River valley, but it does not abut or straddle the River like Liwonde and Majete, so there is no riverside floodplain or riparian habitat. Instead, Mwabvi straddles a seasonal tributary (now dry). They claim that this Reserve has a wide variety of habitats, but all I could see was unbroken woodlands and the dry riverbed. Perhaps the most notable feature of the landscape is the occasional sandstone outcroppings that provide some relief. Here are a few photos of the relatively uninteresting landscape:

The story of Mwabvi is a sad one. Unlike African Parks, which manages Liwonde and Majete and has done an amazing job of recovering the wildlife populations and improving the infrastructure and facilities, PAW, as far as I can tell, has done absolutely nothing to protect and restore this Reserve. There is no obvious investment in infrastructure or facilities and, so far as I can tell, they have done nothing to protect and recover the wildlife populations. Consequently, there is almost no wildlife to speak of, and as a result, no one visits this Reserve. It appears as though the Reserve is simply a common area for the locals to rummage wood, grass and poach the occasional antelope for meat. It’s a shame, because given the location in the Shire River valley and the woodland habitat, this Reserve could be as successful as Majete with the right investment and management. Fortunately, I only had to pay $13 USD for the one-night stand.

I camped at the public campsite (Migudu) in the Reserve. This was the one redeeming feature of the Reserve. There are just 5 sites, but each are private and nestled up against some minor sandstone outcrops with both shade trees and – surprisingly – a water tap at each site. Amazing! There is no toilet, which is shocking, and it looks as if no one, including the Reserve staff (if there is any) has visited the campground for some time. Nevertheless, the campsite suited me just fine for my brief stay. Moreover, there were two very short trails leaving from the campground, one to a viewpoint and one to the dry riverbed. Note, I had planned on staying 3 nights in the Reserve, thinking there would be more to see, but after arriving and doing a little reconnaissance, I decided to bail after the first night and give myself more time elsewhere. Here’s my campsite:

I took a short video of my campsite and one from the viewpoint to share for those followers that just see my videos and don’t actually read the blog. Here it is:

Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve video (3 minutes)

Ok, I am off to Mozambique. See you there.

After my grueling, but extraordinarily rewarding, trek on Mount Mulanje, I headed west to Majete Wildlife Reserve:

The reserve, established in 1955 and covering 270 square miles, was African Parks’ (the nonprofit organization managing many Parks throughout Africa) first mandate, signed with the government of Malawi in 2003. Prior to this, Majete was an unknown reserve where almost all its wildlife had been hunted out – only a few antelope remained. Just 12 scouts were employed, and not one tourist had visited the park in three years. African Parks immediately began creating the necessary infrastructure and establishing a collaborative relationship with local communities. In 2003, they reintroduced black rhino, followed by elephant in 2006, lion in 2012, giraffe in 2018, cheetah in 2019, and wild dogs in 2021. The Majete law enforcement team maintains the remarkable track record of not having lost a single rhino or elephant to poaching since their respective reintroductions. Thanks to these introductions, along with effective park protection measures, wildlife numbers increased significantly and by 2016, Majete was able to supply wildlife to other parks in Malawi.

I am told that Majete now provides hundreds of jobs and supports thousands of community members with education, health and socio-economic opportunities. Apparently, the communities around Majete number more than 140,000 people who, before 2003, received almost no benefit from the reserve, except the occasional poacher’s meat. Today, however, Majete’s community engagement programs have apparently reduced the incidence of malaria, helped thousands of children attend school, and supported critical enterprise development, cementing the value of the reserve within the community. Like Liwonde National Park, Majete offers some hope for the future of African wildlife. I was very impressed with the state of the Reserve. The major roads were in great shape and the facilities, such as the campground and the observation hides, were in excellent condition.

Like Liwonde National Park, Majete straddles the Shire River, Malawi’s largest river and the only river outlet of Lake Malawi, which drains into the mighty Zambezi River. The landscape is primarily woodlands and some riparian vegetation along the Shire River. Here, the Shire is a fast-moving series of rapids with lots of in-channel boulders and islands, and virtually no floodplain to speak of – quite a contrast from Liwonde where everything centered around the extensive floodplain, as shown here:

In Majete, it is all upland, hilly woodland bisected by lots of seasonal riverbeds – all dry during my visit, as shown in these photos:

Because it was mostly woodland, it was rathger difficult to see lots of wildlife driving around, but I could sit at one of the waterholes, a couple of which have observation hides on platforms – and let the wildlife come to me. Indeed, Majete is mostly a Park of woodlands and waterholes. I spent about half of my time simply sitting at the waterholes:

I ended up seeing quite a bit of wildlife, mostly at the waterholes. Some of my observations where from one of the waterholes with an elevated hide, and at times I had to share the hide with a number of other visitors (as you will hear if you watch the video below), while others where from a waterhole without a hide that I had all to myself. In fact, I took a drive into the interior of the Reserve to one of the waterholes, where I sat for 2-3 hours and filmed a variety of wildlife (see the video if your interested), and I saw no other people the entire morning, including the drive to and from. Apparently, just about everyone goes to the two waterholes with hides, and that is where the safari guides take their clients. SO, going to the interior was awesome. Not only did I see lots of wildlife at the waterhole, as seen in the video below, but on my return drive I ran into a pride of lions and spent some intimate time with a young male – see the video for the experience. Here are a few wildlife shots to wet the appetite:

I camped at the Game Capture Community Campsite in Majete. The first night I share the campground with two other parties; the second night with just another couple, and on the third night the South Africans arrived. In case you don’t remember from last year, South Africans – white ones that is – do love to camp, but they almost always travel in big conveys with lots of people and set up huge elaborate camps, often times with big lights and the works. They sometimes send advance parties to secure the site(s) and get the compound started, as was the case on my third night. Fortunately, the bulk of the convey arrived after I left so it was bearable. It’s actually quite annoying for someone like me that cherrishes the serenity of nature.

The campsite was actually pretty nice. I had a corner and shade trees, and there was a fully-equipped indoor kitchen, covered dinning area, and, most importantly, hot showers with great water pressure! I took advantage of the kitchen to cook a big pot of curried pasta with potatoes, onions, green beens, peas, carrots and tomatoes, and some of the homemade cheese that Nancy and I bought at Mambo ViewPoint in Tanzania – declicous! I will be eating it for 4 days I suspect. Here’s the campsite:

On my second night I heard a male lion roaring just outside the campground during the early morning hours, and I subsequently learned and saw that he had killed a waterbuck at the waterhold right next to the campground. I only saw the remnant carcass after he and the scavengers (including side-stripped jackals, spotted hyena, vultures, and even the warthogs) had their turn at it. See the video for the gorey detail.

Here’s my composite video. Sorry, but it’s rather long since I had lots of wildlife observations, so it’s only for the most dedicated followers. There’s extensive footage of lions from two different observations, one shared with a crowd of other visitors and one private viewing. There’s also footage of Nyala, zebra, elephant, buffalo, eland, ground hornbills, and even some warthog thrown in for good measure:

Majete Wildlife Reserve composite (37 minutes)

Ok, I’m off to my last stop in Malawi, the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve, where I am told nobody visits, so it should be interesting.

New Species:

1. Eastern (yellow-spotted) nicator
2. Village indigobird

First, somehow the short video of my cheetah sighting in Liwonde National Park didn’t make it into the composite, so I uploaded it separately here:

Liwonde National Park addendum (1.5 minutes)

After leaving Liwonde National Park I headed southeast to the Mulanje Massif, also known as Mount Mulanje, which is a large inselberg or monadnock (i.e., isolated mountain rising up from the surrounding plains) in southeastern Malawi. Mount Mulanje actually contains several peaks, not just one, and is more akin to an isolated mountain range. I climbed Sapitwa Peak, the highest point on the massif at 9,849 feet, which is the highest point in Malawi.

Here’s what the Mulanje Massif looked like as I approached it – a bit intimidating realizing that I was goint to ascend to the top of that beast and beyond to the hidden peaks (note the tea farms on the lower slopes):

Mount Mulanje is essentially a huge mound of granite formed by subsurface magma bubling up to form one giant massive, along with several places where the magma broke through to form the distinct peaks. I was extremely relieved to find out that the entire massive was granite, which forms a really nice surface for traction, otherwise I would not have been able to ascend the steep slabs of rock or safely hop from boulder to boulder along the ridge to the summit of Sapitwa. My route took me up the main valley shown in this photo:

Prior to the trek, I camped near the trail head outside the village of Likhubula while I got myself organized for a two-night backpacking trip into the high country. Day one involved passing by some beautiful waterfalls on the way up to a high mountain basin and then over two passes before descending to a mountain hut at the base of Sepitwa Peak – a total climb of 5,000-6,000 feet over 7 hours. Needlesstosay, I wasn’t in the greatest shape for such a climb after having been mostly on my butt for the past two months, so I suffered a bit – mostly because I let myself get dehydrated. I had a great night stay in the hut, enjoying the company of Aiter and Natalya from the Basque Region of Spain, and then did the grueling 2,000 foot slog up a 45 degree slope on bare rock slabs followed by boulder hopping, squeezing through rock tunnels and eventually making it hand over hand to the summit. The weather was perfect for the hike and the views were stunning – except for the dense smog from all the wood burning both from brush fires on the Massif as well as every household in the region burning wood for cooking and heat. We descended the peak, did a litte R&R at the hut – sorely needed after the 5.5 hour summit excursion – and then trekked for another 3 hours back over the same 2 passes we climbed getting to the first hut and then on to the head of another basin, where a delightful hut awaited my tired feet and legs – not to mention the cold pool in the stream next to the hut. Had another great night with my spannish friends, and we were even entertained by our guides with music and dance. Next day, I did the gruelling descent from the massif. I will include a few slides of the mountain landscape and the huts here, but see the video if you want to see the progression of my trek and hear me give a few side notes about the landscape:

Here’s a video following the progression of my trek in case you want to see a bit more of the trek and here my commentary:

Mount Mulanje trek video (15 minutes)

Ok, I’m off to Majete Wildlife Reserve and back to my usual safari lifestyle.

See you there.

New Species:

1. Mountain wagtail

After leaving Songea in southcentral Tanzania, I headed 300 km south across a very remote border crossing into Mozambique. The crossing took perhaps 15 minutes top and $11 USD, and I was the only one crossing. Apparently, they don’t get many overlanders at that remote post. The 300-km long track was all native surface and extremely slow going given all the bumps and holes and stream crossings, etc., so it took me about 11 hours – argh! The first 100 km in Mozambique was through a Game Reserve – which is basically just a large patch of ground that native people mostly didn’t want to settle and where rich people, mostly from South Africa and the U.S., pay a lot of money to shoot big things. The second 100 km was through almost continuous villages and heavily used land – the only cash crops being charcoal and maize, so far as I could tell. I spent the night in the relatively large town of Lichinga at another iOverlander site that turned out not to be a campsite afterall, but the owner let me stay anyways, and then drove a few more hours southwest to cross into Malawi, where the border crossing took perhaps 1.5 hours and cost $70 USD – there is just no consistency in border crossings. All the border crossings in Africa have been easy, but some take a lot longer and cost a lot more.

My first destination in southern Malawi was Liwonde National Park, established in 1973 and covering 212 square miles, which has a sad history like most the natural areas in Malawi (and elsewhere in this part of Africa), but also has been an inspiring example of what can be done to recover the ecology of an area if there is the will and the means to do so. Liwonde has been the site of some significant wildlife translocations and reintroductions, transforming it into a sanctuary for Malawi’s wildlife. When African Parks assumed management of Liwonde, in partnership with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) in 2015, the park was riddled with tens of thousands of wire snares – more snares existed than large animals – and it had some of the highest human-wildlife conflict levels in the region and almost no wildlife. But since then, Liwonde has established one of the most effective conservation law enforcement measures and training in southern Africa, integrated advanced technology to protect and monitor wildlife, removed more than 40,000 wire snares, and orchestrated a number of historic animal reintroductions. The Park was entirely fenced to reduce the potential for poaching and to reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and all evidence that I saw suggests that it has been very successful. Moreover, the Park has collaborated and cooperated with some 31 local communities neighboring the Park to accomplish their mission.

The Park straddles the Shire River, which drains Lake Mwombe, which is connected to Lake Malawi (Nyassa) by a short stretch of river. Lake Malawi is one of the largest Rift Valley lakes. The Park is evenly split between bottomland floodplain and upland woodlands, with a few tall hills thrown in for diversity. I spent most of my time in the floodplain where most of the wildlife is concentrated. The floodplain is a mosaic of openings and Mopane woodland, but much of the floodplain is now under water. Like all the Rift Valley lakes, water levels have been rising over the past several years. The unusually high rainfill this year (recall the massive flooding in Kenya, Tanzania and elsewhere, which cause the loss of ~2,000 people in Malawi) has exacerbated the lake level rise and the consequence is that much of the floodplain is now under a few feet of water. What used to be extensive floodplain grasslands (providing food for the grazing animals) is now water. Most of the remaining dry surface is either bare ground or grass stubble, as the extensive and huge termite mounds, some of them truly ancient, keep the ground almost completely free of vegetation. Termites in this ecosystem are truly a keystone species as their mounds serve as habitat islands for a variety of plant species, including several tree species that seemed to be found only on these mounds, because the plains are seasonally flooded or at least very wet, making it unsuitable for a lot of plant species. These mounds also provide I homes for a wide range of species, including most notably mongoose. Moreover, their role in decomposition of plant matter and nutrient cycling is immense. Termites are truly amazing! Here are a few shots of the varied environments in the floodplain:

It was quite evident that African Parks has really turned this Park around and made it into a true wildlife sanctuary. On my drives I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of waterbuck and impala, hundreds of greater kudus and warthogs, a couple harems of sable antelope, a smattering of bushbuck, several elephant family units, and lots of waterbirds. Clearly, African Parks is doing something right in only 9 years. Here’s a few shots of some of the wildlife:

In 2017, African Parks began re-establishing Liwonde’s predator population by bringing back cheetah, which had been absent from the park for a century. This was followed in 2018 by a founder population of lion, and wild dog in 2021. The lion population now contains 3 large prides. Unfortunately, I only saw one lion on my drives, but wasn’t able to get any decent photos or videos. Apparently there are many cheetah now (they told me, but I forget the number) and on my second morning drive I came across one of the GPS-collared individuals. He/she was almost 100 meters off the road lying at the base of a big tree in a sunny patch, and then at one point it got up to stretch and look around and then suddenly got startled by something and bolted away into the woods beyond. I had probably 10-15 minutes with this beautiful animal. I wish I could have watched it for longer, but I’ll take what I can get when it comes to cheetah (and leopard) See the video, which is not great given the distance, but here’s a photo taken through my spotting scope:

Tragically, the established wild dog pack was all killed when some low-life poisoned a water hole within the Park. This year, they reintroduced another 7 dogs and one wildlife trust volunteer I talked to said they saw a pregnant female a few days earlier, so that means they the population is reproducing. In 2019, 17 black rhino were relocated from South Africa to Liwonde in one of the largest international black rhino translocations in history, and I believe the population has doubled since then, so you can bet I was on the look-out for rhino. In fact, on my afternoon boat ride we spotted a single black rhino on the edge of the flooded plains, but it was too far away to photograph.

One of the reasons I decided to visit southern Malawi was to see this recovery effort in action and to support the effort through my visitor fees. I think if there is any hope for the long-term sustainability of wildlife populations in eastern and southern Africa, it is going to take efforts like this.

One of the innovative strategies implemented here to reduce human-elephant conflicts prior to the electric fencing of the entire Park was to encourage local farmers abutting the Park to plant red hot chiles to create a sort of deterrent fence. The “Spicy Farmers” project has harvested nine tons of chillies, which has also resulted in a decrease in human-elephant conflict thanks to the ‘chilli elephant barrier’ created by the project. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any evidence of the “chilli fence” now that the Park has a contiguous electric fence, but it is a cool idea similar to the beehive fence I talked about and showed last year.

I camped in Liwonde Safari Camp located just inside the Park fence. I was suppose to camp in the campground at this lodge by prior arrangement but before I arrived a few other parties showed up unexpectedly according to the owner, so they set me up on the other side of the compound in a wonderfully private setting overlooking a large wetland and a tributary of the Shire River – and with shade trees to boot. Within an hour of setting up camp, I had 4 handsome waterbuck bulls, 2 big warthogs, 1 delicate bushbuck, and one bull elephant on the penninsula across from my campsite (see video for footage of all but the elephant who was too far away) and a pied kingfisher (Mary!). And on the following day, a hippo showed up grazing during the middle of the day. Here’s a photo of my campsite:

Here’s a composite video of my visit to Liwonde National Park:

Liwonde National Park composite (18 minutes)

OK, I am off to backpack in the Mulanje Mountains. Should be interesting!

New Species:

1. Bohm’s bee-eater
2. Eurasian hoopoe
3. Eastern paradise whydah

First, ordinarily I would welcome you to Mozambique, as that is the country I entered next after leaving Tanzania, but since I just spent a day and a half driving through the northwestern region en route to Malawi, I will delay the introduction to Mozambique until I re-enter for an extended period after leaving Malawi.

However, I will post this composite video of my drive through the northwestern region of Mozambique between the Tanzanian border and the Mozambique town of Lichinga, where I stayed for a night before going on to Malawi. Note, this video is solely footage taken from the driver’s seat as I drove along 200 km of dirt track and through small villages in Mozambique, so if that is not what interests you, do skip the video:

Northwest Mozambique composite video (8 minutes)

I am entering the country of Malawi for the first time on my African overland journey, so it is worth sharing a few factoids about this country to put things in better context and to educate myself (and you, if needed) a little about this corner of the world. Here is what I learned from my research.

• As you can see in the map above, Malawi is a land-locked country bordered by Tanzania to the north, Mozambique to the east and south, and Zambia to the west and located between the latitudes 9-18 degrees south, which in terms of distance from the equator is the southern hemisphere equivalent to most of central America in the northern hemisphere.
• Rough the same size as Pennsylvania.
• Roughly 20 million people, compared to ~332 million in the U.S..
• English is the official language, but Chechewa is the national language spoken by more than half the population. And there are numerous other tribal languages spoken as well.
• Government is described as a unitary presidential republic with a structure much like the United States, except with a functioning senate in the legislature.
• Currency is the Kwacha, although US dollars are accepted in many places.
• Major exports include tobacco, gold, tea, ground nuts, and dried legumes.
• Like most of the region, it was occupied by humans for probably 10,000 years until it was “colonized” by the Bantu people in the 5^th century from west Africa. Between 1600 and the end of the 19^th century the Portuguese exerted a strong influence over the native peoples in the area and promoted the slave trade. In 1891, the area was taken over by the British as the British Central African Protectorate, and it was renamed as Nyasaland in 1907. In 1953, it became a protectorate within the semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was dissolved in 1963. In 1964, the protectorate was ended: Nyasaland became an independent country as a Commonwealth realm under Prime Minister Hastings Banda, and was renamed Malawi. Two years later, Banda became president by converting the country into a one-party presidential republic. Declared President for life in 1971, Malawi’s next few decades of independence were characterized by Banda’s highly repressive dictatorship. Following the introduction of a multiparty system in 1993, Banda was defeated in the 1994 general election. Today, Malawi has a democratic, multi-party republic headed by an elected president and has continued to experience peaceful transitions of power.
• Malawi is the fourth poorest country in Africa and over 40% of the population live on less than $1 a day. Sadly, it has one of the highest rates of Aids orphans in Africa
• Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyassa) is 350 miles long from its northern to its southern tip, making it the ninth largest lake in the world, and the third largest and second deepest in Africa (eclipsed by Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika). It is, according to UNESCO, home to more species of fish than any other lake on the planet, including some 700 types of cichlid – the little, colorful, finned creatures which flicker and flutter in its shallows.
• Has ~23% of its total land area devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas. This is truly impressive given the undeveloped and poor state of the country, but the wildlife populations were decimated throughout the entire country until relatively recently when reintroduction and recovery efforts were taken.