Malawi

Malawi is a wonderful, warm, friendly and welcoming country that offers visitors great scenery and wildlife parks and some of the friendliest villagers in all of Africa. If you are keen to experience African culture and hospitality at its best, Malawi is possibly the best country for this. For these reasons, Malawi is commonly referred to as “The Warm Heart of Africa.”

With a population of 12 million people, Malawi is one of Africa's smaller countries occupying 117,000 square kilometers, of which around 20% contains the waters of Lake Malawi. It is a landlocked, long and narrow country, covering more than 1,000 kilometres from north to south.

Lake Malawi (formerly called Lake Nyasa) is the county's centerpiece. Like an inland sea it has endless palm fringed beaches enclosed by sheer mountains, making it undeniably the focal point for Malawi's tourists. Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa (behind Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika) and the ninth largest in the world. The lake has an area of 30,000 square kilometres, a length of 580 kilometres and a depth of 704 metres. To the south Lake Malawi drains into the River Shire which flows over 300 miles along the Rift Valley floor, eventually joining the Zambezi.

There is no country in all of Africa that has its geography so sculptured and determined by the Great Rift Valley as Malawi. The Rift Valley is a 3,000 kilometre long geological formation that bisects much of Africa from Egypt to Botswana. Towering mountains, lush, fertile valley floors and enormous crystal-clear lakes are all found in Malawi. The country is a little gem in the heart of central southern Africa that offers a true African experience.

The great missionary-explorer David Livingstone is intimately connected with Malawi's history and there are several related sites and monuments to be visited all over the country.

Malawi's scenery is diverse and the habitats are varied. At its lowest point, the country is only about 35 metres above sea level. Its highest point, Mount Mulanje, is 140 kilometres away and has an elevation of over 3,000 metres. Between these altitude extremes, there are rolling hills, plateaus, cool, misty mountains and much varied scenery. Each of its many habitats is protected within Malawi's eleven national parks and reserves. Everything within the parks, from elephants to orchids, is protected.

Malawi has nine national parks and wildlife reserves. In the north are the Nyika National Park (a highland plateau) and Vwasa Reserve (a lowland marsh). The central region has two vast game areas: Kasungu National Park in the west and Nkhotakota in the east, near Lake Malawi. To the south lies Malawi's best known national park, Liwonde, together with three other game reserves further south.

Malawi is a naturalist's paradise and boasts as rich a variety of large mammals as most African countries; including the Big Five — buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros. There are over 170 species of mammals and some 649 recorded species of birds, and there are over 600 species of fish in Lake Malawi - unequalled anywhere else in the world.