Last Weekend Kim and I went to Liwonde National Park in the
south of Malawi and had a wonderful 3-day safari. We stayed at the Bushman’s Baobabs Lodge in Liwonde Park,
which is run by an old salt named Darryn, who is one of only 5000 native-born,
white Malawians. The lodge is surrounded by a grove of Baobab trees; for those who don't know what a Baobab is, I suggest you read Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince. He has a wonderful description of them. This is a shot of a Baobab tree at sunset--absolutely beautiful!
The lodge offers
a selection of four different safaris: a canoe trip, a driving safari, a driving
and walking safari, and a boat trip up the Shire River. We ended up doing all four trips among
other things.
On Saturday, after a long five-hour bus ride from Salima to
Liwonde, we arrived just before sunset, which was a great time to take a canoe
ride through the wetlands. We saw
quite a few hippos, water bucks, impalas, and birds. The ride was very soothing—there was absolutely no sound
other than the pole dipping into the water and the occasional grunt of hippos. At one point Kim even started falling
asleep because of the gentle rocking in the canoe.
When we got back to the camp, we enjoyed a lovely
three-course meal: samosas, fish and cauliflower in cream sauce, and apple
crumble with English cream. It was
such a nice, luxurious break from our dinners in Lifuwu, where all we can get
in the market is tomatoes, onions, eggs, rice and nsima. Then, we went to bed after such a long
day.
On Sunday, we got up at 5:00 in the morning for our sunrise
driving safari, which took us about 12 kilometers into the park. We saw many impala, water bucks,
bush bucks, and a few elephants.
One of the more astonishing parts of the safari was this gigantic baobab
tree that was 4000 years old.
We
got back at around 10:00 and had a full English breakfast: eggs, bacon,
sausage, toast, beans and tomatoes with onions. After this light breakfast, we sat on a sunset deck, which
resembled a deer stand, where we could watch the wildlife in comfort. After sunset, Darryn lit a fire, and we
watched the stars.
He pointed out
the constellations, including the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper (which was
upside down!!!). He also told us
stories about his life in southern Africa. He joined the Rhodesian army at 15, ran a fishing business
in Dar es Salaam, and even raised Hyenas and Cheetahs as pets. I’m not sure how much of his stories
were true, but the guy was very entertaining nonetheless. We ate dinner under the stars, and it
was even better than the night before: vegetable soup with homemade garlic
bread as a starter, then roast chicken with new potatoes, peas, carrots, and
cauliflower, and for dessert banana fritters.
Monday was our last full day in the park, and we started off
with a driving and walking safari.
We saw more elephants while driving, but the walking safari was not as
productive. For some reason, I think that the wildlife is more afraid of people
on foot than in Land Rovers. We
spent another day relaxing on the sunset deck watching warthogs, monkeys, and
impala.
Then in the afternoon we
took a sunset cruise up the Shire River, which was amazing. We saw so much wildlife, including
hippos (which unfortunately are very difficult to photograph), elephants (even
closer than before),
crocodiles,
and countless different kinds of birds.
We even saw something quite unusual and
certainly dangerous: fishermen were hauling in nets from the bank of the river,
but when they pulled them in, there was a 2-meter long crocodile caught in
them! The fisherman just flipped it out of the net and kept hauling in the
fish. It just shows you how even
daily tasks here in Africa can be life-threatening situations.
For dinner we had pumpkin soup,
followed by beef in red wine sauce, and apple pancakes.
On Tuesday we left Liwonde. We had such a wonderful time at the park, and the safaris
were so much more affordable than what we would have paid in Zambia or
Tanzania. I cannot recommend Bushman’s Baobabs more highly! If you ever find yourself in Malawi, be
sure to stay there for a few days—you won’t be disappointed!
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