Hippos and hyenas

Trip Start Jul 05, 2009

Trip End Dec 23, 2009

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Flag of Malawi Liwonde National Park, Malawi
Saturday, October 24, 2009

So we departed from Cape Maclear on Saturday morning for Liwonde National Park. After hearing tales of only being able to leave Cape Maclear (which is isolated away from main roads by a very long dust road) if you get up at 5am (and even then it'd be in a crowded minibus, we decided that this was stupid advice and that we should just get up at a normal hour and 'see what happens' - it's becoming the catchphrase for our journey! We left at 8 and after settling down with some newly purchased bananas and mandazi were presently surprised when a plus people carrier pulled up a little while later. After explaining to the driver that we were waiting for the bus and were only prepared to pay bus prices, he agreed to take us the full 70 KM to the next big town for 3 pounds each! Here we got some more money (you have to stockpile cash whenever the opportunity of an ATM presents itself!) and found a bus to Liwonde.

We spent the next two nights camping in Chinguni Hills campsite within the National Park boundary

Searching for Elephants at Liwonde NP

. It was beautiful, up high on a hill with absolutely stunning scenery of the park below. We were slightly disappointed though as when we arrived the owners were talking lots about how elephants and hyenas had been trampling through the site for the last few nights but we didn't see tusk nor hair of them the whole time! We heard hyenas howling in the distance at night though - slightly creepy!

On the Sunday we had a 5.30 am start to get to our 6am canoe safari on the Shire River. We saw a huge family of hippos (which we rowed very near to; the grunting noises they started making was slightly alarming!) but no crocs. Loads of impala, water buck and birds though and more fantastic warthogs! After the 2 1/2 hour ride we went back to the campsite to lounge around and play games before our night time drive safari (oh yeah, and tea at the campsite - shepherd's pie with carrots and green beans! They even did a veggie version - score!). Again, no hyenas but we did see a hippo on land grazing which was really great! It was eerie but fun riding about with a search light to find the animals - look out for the eyes!

After a few late night beers we headed to bed, still hoping that elephants and hyenas would come...

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