Itinerary #3 – Malawi camping details and distances

We drove from the Mchinji border post in Zambia, through the central and northern parts of Malawi, on our way to Tanzania.

The majority of the roads that we travelled on were “tar” roads, but their conditions weren’t great, especially as one is typically winding through the various little villages with loads of bicycles on the road – Malawi is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa!

Top recommendations:

· The furthest south that we went, was Cape Maclear. Doing an overnight kayak trip to one of the islands from there is definitely recommended!

· Nykia National Park, even though a little out of the way and via some pretty corrugated dirt roads at times, has incredible vistas – it feels like a different world!

Top tip / advisable changes to our itinerary:

· We took the “short” 15km gravel road from Khondowe on the M1 to Livingstonia…it lived up to its reputation of one of the most crazy routes in Malawi (and for that matter, the craziest 15km that we had to drive since we pulled away from Cape Town!) The road ascends approx. 900m in 9km, which would’ve been easy enough if it wasn’t for the 20 hairpin bends that we had to navigate…They are busy upgrading the back road from Rhumpi to Livingstonia as we speak, and we drove it on the way back – what an absolute pleasure! So definitely go to Livingstonia, but take the route from Rhumpi if you have a weak heart (or brakes, or clutch, or or or 😊)

· Go to Kande Beach Resort for a drink at their bar on the way to Makuzi, but rather stay at Kachere Kastle as the campsite for selfdrive overlanders at Kande Beach is not great. When we passed, it was a couple of days after they hosted the “Festival of Stars”, and they were still busy cleaning up, else we would’ve definitely stayed!

Our 16 day and 1,162km itinerary: