Cape to Milan

After a couple days of relxing at the beach, it was time for another short-but-sweet safari!

Although Malawi isn’t exactly famous for game parks–unlike neighboring countries, Malawi is densely populated and lacks suitable habitat for some of the big game Southern Africa is famous for–we found a great safari opportunity at Liwonde National Park, along the Shire River.

The Shire River is an important waterway in Southern Africa. It drains Lake Malawi to the south and eventually meets up with the Zambezi River in Mozambique. David Livingstone intended upon sailing up the Zambezi but found it too difficult and chose the Shire River instead. He eventually stumbled upon Lake Malawi (which he called Lake Nyasa), setting the foundation for British colonization of Malawi (originally called Nyasaland).

Apart from the wildlife, we quickly discovered that the river itself was beautiful.

One reason this park was so appealing to us was accessability. Normally, safari parks are so remote from towns and cities that you pretty much have to set up your own transport into the park and pay whatever tour operators ask, which usually ends up somewhere north of $200 per person per day. However, this place is adjacent to the town of Liwonde, which has regular minibus access along one of Malawi’s major highways, allowing us to get almost all the way there on our own.

We stayed at the Hippo View Lodge, a riverside resort just up the street from town. We found that the place definitely lives up to its name; within a couple hours of arriving, we spotted a whole family of hippos just across the river. It turned out the warning signs aren’t for show!

The next day we went on a boat tour into the national park, and got up close with the hippos.

We also saw a fish eagle, waiting for a good chance to hunt.