‘Nyika’ The Source of Springs

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As evidenced by the title, Nyika (neeka) national park means the source of springs. Probably because it is one of the highest point in Malawi, the highest point being on Nganda mountain which apparently lies at 8552ft above sea level which is rather spectacular. The plateau is in itself a remarkable place driving along bumpy potholed tracks you see an ever changing landscape of rolling hills and grasslands not too dissimilar from the Yorkshire moors at first glance. On second glance eland, bush buck (or Nyika impala) are seen, pine forests appear and rock outcrops pop out. One hill gives way to another until as far as the high eye can see are ranges that disappear north east and south into the park and west into Zambia, the park being on the border of Malawi and Zambia. Eruptions of small birds burst out of the grasses as our Izuzu blunders past and resettle again before we have a chance to see anything apart from a brown rump. I believe birds have a sixth sense for these things, evolution seems to have given them the ability to know when a camera is pointed their way. For the bird lovers a few we have seen both are; Denham’s Bustard, Francolin, Spotted Eagle Owl, Common Quail and an Ogre Buzzard. We also saw an unnamed black eagle and some sort of falcon in the morning. Other wildlife we spotted include; eland, roan antelope, bush buck, zebra, warthog (who are also very adept at running away from the camera), hares. And finally the jewel in the crown, during the night drive a pair of red reflective eyes amongst the long grass revealed a serval cat, an absolute joy to see. I have only ever seen them on television and to see one sat their yawning in the grass ready to start its night time hunting I was certainly chuffed.

We have been able to see a variety of areas on our drives through the park, setting off early we headed for Chisanga Falls this led us to some rough track and down into forested valleys which probably hid the few elephants that are around this time of year. This area had a hidden gem feel to it and it did reveal some wonderful views as well as a temptation to continue along the road to one of the most northerly of Malawi, Chitipa. We have also done one of the small northerly loops (still about 20km long) and we were immediately graced by more spectacular views, even more so that we had seen already. The area had such character, the blossom of colour and flora in the valley bottoms created mini oasis’ in the folds of the hills and surrounding the springs. A very familiar plant also lurks around which is a pest here, fern! Here thanks to the peculiar grey colour, it takes on a beautiful quality as its spattered around the contours of the hills making the landscape seem like an old man’s unshaven beard.

By this point I had taken over the reins of the car and was lead navigator of the tracks, bumps and grooves with success and even traversed my first rickety bridge, I was thoroughly enjoying myself bouncing along in charge of a huge 4x4 absorbing all the views (of which I will not stop going on about, it is amazing!). We headed round our loop and were rumbling toward our temporary home in the pine trees. Pine trees may seem an odd thing to find in an African national park however they were brought over by of the British (along with the fern) and are grown and cut down in certain areas of the park.

On the afternoon/evening drive we saw much of what we’d already seen but in slightly greater numbers and we were able to put names to the game which we had currently only been able to call antelope or deer thingy ma bobs. We parked up on a rocky outcrop to fully enjoy the sun set with biscuit and tea in hands, it did not disappoint. There peeking through the cloud was the unmistakeable African red sun, I think it is so red because of the dust here which gets everywhere!

Setting off again it was on to the spotlight and scanning the surrounding for any eyes reflecting the light, we saw more zebra and bush buck there was also a Denham bustard we scared away and a spotted eagle owl which was rather cool, a good moment but the great moment as I’ve said was the serval cat sitting posing for us. An absolutely stunning creature, we could see the spots and stripes and the big radar ears which blended it perfectly into the grass as well as equipping it for night time hunting. We didn’t see much more of note on the way back but I did stand up to poke my head out of the sun roof and properly admire the heavens laid out above us and the crescent moon casting its eerie unnatural light, spec-tac-u-lar!!!!!

The ultimate serenity of this place is brilliant and I want to come back in the rainy season when it is transformed into a rainbow of colours and lushness and the elephants come back up. The comfort and luxury of the lodge makes it an ideal holiday spot, even the campsite is in a great little spot if you do it on the cheap. The only challenge is to get your 4x4 up and down the dodgy track and from there it's plain sailing!

A Flavour of Malawi

So for you curious bunnies I thought I would try to give an essence of what it is like over here in the world of the Rift Valley. Well for starters, the geography of Malawi, it is a rather small eastern African country nestled quite snugly between Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania (little fact they pronounce Tanzania Tan-zay-nia) and is mostly dominated by the natural beauty which is Lake Malawi  or Lake Nyasa to locals. Lake Malawi is the worlds 9th largest lake and Africa's 3rd largest. It is also renowned for it's vast array of Cichlids, cute little colourful fish which occur in a greater variety of species here than anywhere else in the world. So it already sounds pretty great right?

Another fact I like about Malawi is that where we're situated in Mzuzu, is 4183 feet above sea level (around the height of Ben Nevis :O ) whereas the lake lies around 1500 feet. SO when we go for trips down to the shore we have a lot of downhill to cover!

Other than the bare facts about the place which already make it a naturally and ecologically varied place, is the incredible human element to the country. I have found that many Malawians speak English which makes travelling around and buying things relatively easy, they love to laugh and most definitely quick to get a good bargain for things. The general backward ways of Africa are of course present along with some amusing characteristics such as never appearing to fix cars so if you're daring enough to drive at night (and barely any cars have fully functioning headlights) the way to be seen is to put your indicator on so oncoming traffic can see you, mad right! The overladen lorries also make me chuckle trucks filled with god knows what piled high with people perched on top crawling its way up the hill and taking up the entire narrow roads blowing smoke and making a racket. Bumpy dirt roads, waving children, clay brick houses and fishermen in dug outs all go a small way to give picture of what it is like here.

What I like most is the incredible diversity of this place, the lushness of the lakeside with the easy supply of water and fish, the extensive forests and the rolling hills, the high plateaus and low valley bottoms, the beautiful lodges and traditional food. It is a place of many differences there are rich and poor areas, the rich live in brick house with tin roofs with walls surrounding and the poor live in small brick huts in little road side villages selling things like bananas, reed fencing and charcoal. You can buy so much here (last time I was here I was convinced I put on weight we got through so much food), people even come to the window if you're sitting in the car and offer you bananas, tomatoes, carrots anything.

So far we have been to places like Vwaza and Liwonde parks (oh the elephants!!!) Salima, Karonga, Nkhata Bay (this is where to get touristy items such as carved elephant, necklaces, figurines etc), Chinteche and Lilongwe but there are still many more places to go and so much I could say about this small but characteristic place. So many many more things to see about the weird, wonderful and downright barmy things that make up Malawi, but the only way to truly know what I am on about is to come here for yourselves.

Keep a look out for a bit more as we are going to Nyika next week a national park set high up on a plateau and is well known for birds (as is most of Malawi) grazing animals and the flora.


I highly recommend Malawi and it has made me eager to see the rest of Africa and learn their characters and taste their flavours now that this Msungu (foreigner, white person) knows her way around this little part of the continent, the rest becomes ever more enticing.

Click on this picture to see a selection of photographs from Malawi to see just how beautiful it is here