Day 20 - 2 June 2016 Liwonde National Park

Day's trip schedule

Liwonde -> Liwonde National Park

Distance & time taken

41 km
31/2 hrs

Accommodation

Liwonde Safari Camp, Liwonde, (www.liwondesafaricamp.com)
+/- 10km from Liwonde town centre and within the boundary of the Liwonde National Park

Trip Notes

Baobab next to our campsite

We had an early breakfast this morning as we needed to be at Reception by 07h45 to get a lift to town for the boat cruise up the Shire River. We eventually left the camp at 08h00 & headed to the "waterfront" in town. The trip took us the best part of 20 minutes delaying the other cruise guests. Our mode of transport was a Landcruiser that was probably used for game drives but we both agreed that there is no way we would last on a game drive in this vehicle as 1st gear appeared to be broken & the suspension had seized some time back. I was concerned with my back / neck as all was in order again & this trip could regress it.

Eventually, we got to the launch area & boarded the boat. There was an Irish family of 6 that had been waiting patiently for our arrival.  We headed up stream with "Jabba the Hut" as our captain & guide. We saw plenty of hippo, a few elephant in the distance, fish eagles & many other water birds. The cruise lasted about 3 hours & then it was back for the trip from Hell back to the camp.

Fishing on the Shire River

We settled down for a rest after lunch before we headed out to the park for an afternoon game drive. Fees for game parks in Malawi are substantially less than Zambia but the wildlife is not in abundance due to hunting over the past few decades. There is an focussed effort by the wildlife authorities to address this with new species that used to inhabit the area being re-introduced at regular intervals. Entrance to the park was $10 each & vehicle costed $3 - $23 versus Zambia of $75. We were quite impressed with the work being done to rehabilitate the park from a new bridge at the entrance to the recent grading of the roads - there were also clear signposts of you were & directions to other routes / waterholes.

Liwonde National Park

Baobab grave for leprosy sufferers

We saw a number of elephant in the park including a family of 25 that crossed the road in front of us on our way back to camp. There were also large herds of waterbuck & bushbuck on the floodplains along the Shire.  We were also very fortunate to see a herd of Sable Antelope but they were very skittish & vanished soon after we stopped the vehicle, as well as about 30 Lilian's lovebirds.  Before we left the park, we came upon a sign indicating a Baobab tree that had been used to bury those that had dies from leprosy.  We had a closer look & it appears that the bodies of the deceased got stuffed into a hole in the trunk of the tree - I had a look inside but couldn't see any skeletons.


When we got back to camp just before sunset, I went & settled the bill as well arranged that we get hot water early as we intended to depart around 06h00. As we were the only guests in the camp that night, the staff had the night off as we didn't eat in the restaurant.

Costs for the day

Accommodation	Liwonde Safari Camp	US$20,00
Boat Cruise	Liwonde Safari Camp	US$50,00
Park Fees	Liwonde National Park	US$23,00