Warming to Malawi

GO AFRICA:It's one of the poorest countries in the world but, once you get over the culture shock and chaos, Malawi has a lot to offer the intrepid traveller, writes UNA MULLALLY

AFTER A few days in Malawi, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing works. There are daily blackouts, a fuel shortage that has cars at a standstill and trucks queuing for hours outside petrol stations, and a foreign exchange shortage that means your cash is best swapped on the black market.

So, when I’m left washing my socks by candlelight when the hotel’s power goes for the umpteenth time and requests for bus timetables are met with a curious shrug, the description of Malawi as Africa for beginners begs the question: what on earth is Africa for the advanced?

The best thing to do is dispense of one’s frustrations, because things do work, just in a roundabout way.

Malawi is a stunning, small country bordered by Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, and is dominated by Lake Malawi. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world and it’s obvious. The majority of the population lives on less than $1 a day, the staple food is the unappetising thick maize paste of nsima, and in rural areas villages are breathtakingly basic set-ups of small clay and brick huts with straw roofs.

Leaving the culture shock aside, there are plenty of reasons to visit Malawi. It’s unspoiled by tourism and you couldn’t meet friendlier locals. There are great beaches and decent safari opportunities. Plus, there’s virtually no language barrier and it’s home to Lake Of Stars, an internationally lauded music festival.

But alongside the benefits of visiting somewhere that hasn't been impacted by travellers, Malawi isn't exactly tourist-friendly, and getting from A to B tends to evoke Challenge Anneka. Leave your impatience in the airport (where the X-ray machines weren't working on my way out and the bureau de change had run out of foreign exchange), because Malawi's chaotic nature ends up being an essential component of the country's charm.

Most visitors start off in Lilongwe, a rundown dustbowl of a capital city that doesn’t have much charm, but it does have a decent craft market and a few fun bars where ex-pats and Malawians hang out. A bottle of beer – Carlsberg established its first brewery outside Denmark in Malawi in 1968 – will set you back about 50 cent, which gives you an idea of how much consumables cost. I stayed at Kiboko in the old town (kibokohotel.com) next to the craft market for €40 a night. The hotel also runs safaris in Malawi and neighbouring Zambia’s South Luangwa Park, one of the finest national parks in Africa.

OUT OF LILONGWE, there are a few options regarding how to get around. Car hire is available, but fuel is expensive and shortages are common. The main roads are decent, but any diversions off them require a four-by-four. In daylight, sprinting goats, wandering pigs, cyclists, drunk drivers, pedestrians and the occasional cattle drive require quick reflexes. Driving at night is not recommended given that there is no street lighting.

If you’re not up to this, there are a few options. Malawian Style (malawianstyle.com) offers excellent packages around the country and provides a jeep or minivan and a driver. The company’s MD, Mike Varndell, is also a good source of local and logistical knowledge. Land and Lake Safaris (landlake.net) has a list of transfer rates from Lilongwe to almost anywhere you’ll need to go.

For the most part, I used a mix of public and private transport. Public transport drove me up the walls. Bus timetables are fictitious. Outside of towns, matolas (pickup trucks) provide local transport. Piling into the back of a pickup with around 20 other people, their children and their chickens will provide one of the cheapest and also one of the most uncomfortable journeys imaginable. After one goat too many screamed in my face for an hour on one such trip, I resorted to private transport.

My first stop out of Lilongwe was Nkhata Bay, about five hours drive north of Lilongwe. Up there, the climate is tropical. Walk about 20 minutes through the village and you’ll reach the idyllic Chikale Beach, complete with a small bar. It’s pretty safe to swim – the last reported crocodile attack here was in 2002 – although there is a risk of contracting bilharzia, a nasty parasitic disease, anywhere in the lake. You can lessen the chances of contracting it by swimming when the water is moving.

I stayed at eco-friendly Mayoka Village Beach Lodge (think compost toilets and fire-heated showers), a fun backpacker-type spot with a lively bar and treacherous steps up to the various chalets which cost less than €10 per person per night.

Nkhata Bay seems to be taking over from Cape Maclear as a lake destination, but I preferred the latter. Cape Mac, a 20km journey down a dirt track from Monkey Bay, is idyllic. There’s a decent range of accommodation stretching along the beach that backs on to a fishing village, so I tried two ends of the market.

Danforth Lodge has perfected boutique luxury. A small infinity pool stretches out towards the sunset and there are excellent watersports with a diving instructor and catamaran. With just four rooms, full board without watersports costs €105 per person per night, which is considerable when you can stay at Fat Monkeys Lodge down the road for a fiver.

Gecko Lodge is also a great option (€40 for a private double room, €7 for a dorm bed). Cuisine isn’t Malawi’s forte, but nothing beats Gecko’s fish sticks, a pile of lightly breaded, fresh, meaty chunks of chambo dipped in garlic peri-peri sauce.

It’s worth tearing yourself away from the stunning, relaxing, close-to-paradise shore of Lake Malawi. Dedza, a couple of hours east of Lilongwe, offers a completely different experience to lazing around the lake. I booked a day trip with Land and Lake Safaris complete with a driver, which cost just over €100. Dedza is famous for three things: the Stone Age Chongoni rock art (a Unesco World Heritage site, some of which is sadly vandalised); its beautiful pottery that would give Louis Mulcahy a run for his money; and its “Irish potatoes”.

Journeying into the mountains, yellow baboons scatter, women descend carrying impossibly large loads of wood on their heads, and the dramatic views that stretch over mountain ranges into neighbouring Mozambique are astounding.

South of the lake along the banks of the Shire River lies Liwonde National Park. It’s small, and devoid of predators aside from one lonely lion who wandered in from Mozambique and the leopards hiding in the mountains but, boy, is it beautiful. Here, camped underneath the ancient baobab trees at Bushman’s Baobab lodge, the typical African river scene unfolds. Trying to sleep with a cacophony of wildlife grunting and screeching outside is a challenge, especially when there’s no electricity to turn on a light when something unidentifiable launches itself at your tent, but all my jitters were rewarded with some amazing experiences. Canoeing perilously close to groups of hippos, observing a massive herd of elephants and purring over baby warthogs were just some of the highlights during five days in the park.

If anything, Malawi merely whets the appetite for more of the continent. The warm heart of Africa that colours guidebooks may seem like a cliché, but there’s no better way to describe a country that may be poor in resources, but its wealth of spirit shows that a nation’s best assets don’t have to be ones scaled in monetary terms.

Lake of Stars

This is an international music festival founded by Englishman Will Jameson in 2004. It takes place on a lake beach near Nkopola on the southerly tip of Lake Malawi.

As well as creating money for the local economy and exposing Malawi as a tourist destination, Lake of Stars showcases artists from all over Africa and beyond.

It attracts backpackers, locals and ex-pats dancing until dawn. Like Malawi, the vibe is welcoming, fun and laid-back. This year, Foals, Beverley Knight, a Vampire Weekend DJ set and South Africa’s Freshly Ground were among the acts to take to the two wooden stages in front of several thousand people.

As music festivals go, the scale is small, but it’s a pretty unforgettable experience given the setting and the crowd and, as a result, earns a tremendous amount of goodwill from fans and musicians alike.

Get there

Ethiopian Airlines (ethiopianairline.co.uk) flies to Lilongwe from Heathrow via Addis Ababa. Prices start at around €700 and the flight time is around 11-and-a-half hours. There’s one hour time difference between Dublin and Malawi, so that means no jet lag. A KLM (klm.com) package from Dublin to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Nairobi and Nairobi to Lilongwe starts at around €1,000.