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Malawi 2026
  • Grant Mills
  • Grant Mills

Malawi 2026

A 22-day adventure by Grant Read more
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  • Trip start
    May 2, 2026
    Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 2026 Day 02: SYD/JHB

    May 1 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Qantas Premium Ec service was delightful; the flight surprisingly bumpy, making the Saturday cryptic more difficult than usual; A380 docking expedited by the absence of a ute parked in the bay like last time. Instead of a long wait in the foreigners passport queue, Marie demonstrated usual queue-jumping skills and I found myself being shimmied through priority customs at breathtaking speed. And then a pleasant, though poorly signposted, 10 minute walk across to the City Lodge Hotel to a bland but pleasant enough room. The lounge/dining was charming, as was the Devils Peak lager.Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 2026 Day 01: An Explosive Start

    May 3 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    And I don’t mean early onset traveller’s diarrhoea! Port Macquarie Airport security, though now relatively benign, invokes my grumpy side - fueled by past encounters with staff who clearly had woken up with a splitting headache, taking it out on me: “take off your shoes; take off your belt; empty your pockets “. Not even at the Israel-Gaza border will you encounter this level of security.
    Fortunately, I had almost always managed to escape the sampling station that follows security- Marie invariably took that one, for the team.
    This time, however, the dice rolled the wrong way and Marie slipped past untested and the uniformed lady locked her radar on me and, despite some fancy footwork and manoeuvring on my part, I got pulled over and tested.
    The testing machine flashed red! Clearly a technical error. But, the red light had triggered a protocol driven response invoked by the highest levels of security in the history of PM airport. The lady tested herself, the “control” test: Green. Now a second test for me: RED again. I had heard stories of people being locked up for less. Two REDs invokes an even higher level of response - shifting eyes and twitching movements and staff getting excited. “Would I prefer a private room for the body search?” “Definitely bloody not!” Do it where there are multiple witnesses.
    No explosives found, obviously. But why the positive tests on so innocent a visage?
    I had had in mind to take a Biolite stove to give to someone in Malawi. This clever little item is fueled by small sticks and has a built in battery charged by a thermocouple. Thus can be used in a remote environment using easily available fuel to generate power to charge a phone or power a light - perfect for Africa. This stove had been stored a with starter fuel. At the last minute, the time a usually do my packing, I had removed this from my bag, worried more about the restriction on battery power for air travel. Presumably there was enough residue in my bag to trigger the PM Airport security system. Imagine the excitement if they had found the stove in my bag!
    The rest of the trip was uneventful.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 2026 Day 03: JHB/LLW/Luwawa

    May 3 in Malawi ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    In the morning, proximity made for an easy stroll across to the terminal for check in. Such was the lightness of my morning demeanour that I did some shopping!
    Now we are in the air in a lovely new Airlink Embraer E175, Zimbabwe below us and the sky thankfully free from Tommahawks and Patriots.
    Malawi takes into the heart of Africa. Not the glitzy safari brochures or sunset over the Cape wine lands. No, this is the dusty crumbling forsaken Africa; kleptocratic government and exploitative corporations; where people grow their own food and make their own music. Fuel at $5/l worries not these folk on foot or bicycle. As the road passes through the town, it gathers markets and scruffy shops, businesses of every kind selling pumpkins and tomatoes; funeral and financial service; bicycles and furniture. And plenty of smiles and happy children. And pot holes and washed out bridges.
    Finally, we bounce our way through the bush to a somewhat charming old place and a warm welcome and warm beer.
    Tomorrow promises something- probably more charm.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi Day 04: Luwawa

    May 4 in Malawi ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Yesterday, we arrived in the dark, greeted warmly and shown to our room, navigating a tricky path but no hippos. The room or more a little cottage, typically African with red painted concrete floor and African batiques on the wall; hot water from a fire driven donkey and a toilet where the flush creates an unattractive whirl that is totally ineffective in performing its desired function. That said, in Africa, anything is better than going outside at night.
    The evening had been charming - cosy fire in cosy lounge; chats with the 3 other guests. Dinner was a choice of, for entrée, pumpkin soup; a main of coq au vin; chocolate brownie with home made custard for dessert. All absolutely gorgeous. The wine was Drostdyhof in a box, so left it in the box (having been a student at the University of Cape Town, I knew what this stuff could do to you).
    Patrick is the birding guide - an encyclopaedic knowledge and an uncanny ability, while holding a conversation, to hear and identify a distant bird call. So this morning found us wandering through the bush with him and a man with a very big camera- the biggest I have ever seen. This was the purpose of his visit to Malawi and I get why, having run out of fingers and toes counting new birds: batis and bishop, whydah and widow bird, thrush and bunting … you name it. He knew them all … and their relatives.
    After that, a restful day and another evening walk with the binoculars. The evening is spent chatting with other guests and another great meal from largely local produce.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi Day 05: Luwawa to Livingstonia

    May 5 in Malawi ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    The best porridge ever, with a topping of thick dark local honey and a big blob of butter on top and I mean Butter, not the woosy New Zealand stuff - this had just come out of the butter urn.
    Farewell to Luwawa. The road north goes all the way to Tanzania and carries all the good stuff: diesel, tobacco, marijauna and illegal immigrants. Some sections are new and smooth. Mostly very much not.

    Our driver spotted a fuel station with diesel so elected to top up. The toilet was clean but lacked a seat or cistern lid. The light switch had been pulled off the wall. The reprieve was the person allocated to hand fill the cistern by bucket as water no longer flowed in the pipes.
    It was a long drive but there was always something to look at. Three adults on a motorcycle - the suited man at the back plaiting the hair of the woman in the middle. The back of a removal truck with no tail gate and a number of feet sticking out the back.
    We passed the site where the late vice president’s plane mysteriously dropped out of the sky.
    But we made it to Mushroom Farm, perched on the top of the escarpment, looking over Lake Malawi across to Tanzania.
    More tomorrow.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler
    Our guide and random helpers

    Malawi Day 06: Livingstonia

    May 6 in Malawi ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Sunrise over the rift valley far below us and smoke rising from morning fires. It is not cold. But people settled up here to escape the heat of the lake.
    Mushroom Farm it as self sufficient as it can be and our breakfast is of local fresh eggs and home made whole meal toast and honey.
    Today will be special for Marie. Livingstonia is where her great grandparents, Malcolm and Marie Moffat, worked and her much-adored grandfather was born. Also born here were the twins, who sadly lived but one day. Marie hoped very much to find their grave.
    Our driver, MacDonald, drove us the 10 km to town and introduced us to Shiwa, the museum caretaker. This kind lady guided us around town: the church; the museum; the hospital and finally, the cemetery. As a local and of the local tongue, she was able to get the proper permissions.
    Down a muddy road, the unkempt cemetery lay among trees and tall grass. A burial was taking place. We held back while Shiwa approached to seek approval from the elder. All good, we started looking around. Our hopes were not high. Many graves were overgrown and headstones buried.
    The local men became curious, asking for whom we were looking. Marie and I were beating a path through the long grass and more and more despondent. A commotion around a gravesite. “Moffat, Moffat”, we hear and scramble over. Unbeknown to us, the men had unbeen digging around looking for the grave site. They had uncovered the headstone: “In Memory of the Twin Daughters of Marie and Malcolm Moffatt Born July 24th 1903 Died July 25th 1903”.
    There was much excitement as they fetched water and washed off the soil and they stood aside as Marie approached and the celebration turned to quietness as they stood with Marie in her moment.
    And sharing this moment with the local people was, for Marie, profound and the memory and the connection and the deep spiritual connection she feels with Africa. I held back a sob.
    More Africa tomorrow.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 07: Mantchewe Falls

    May 7 in Malawi ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    After yesterday’s emotional whirlwind, a gentle stroll to the waterfall felt right. Paid our permissions and met our guide, Chimwemwe (Happy Jo if you cannot say that), and joined by our driver, MacDonald.
    Stopped at Jo the carver (surprise!) on the way out and promised to buy something on the way back.
    The walk down was as close you get to abseiling as you can get without actually abseiling! A steep bush bash with the promise of an endless plunge should you stray from the path. It was a warm day and was burning up and had no hesitation taking my shirt off and standing under the waterfall to cool down.
    There had been no suggestion that this was a spectacular and deeply spiritual place with a sad and sober history. But it was.
    Tribespeople, in an effort to escape the Arab slave traders, carved out a shelter behind the waterfall and hid there. Years later, the locals established a hydroelectric plant to power the local village. Very much a theme in Malawi - the government collects taxes and the aid moneys, but doesn’t waste it on providing services to the people.
    The people seem to accept this corruption and incompetence and carry on with their lives and find a way.
    Anyway, made it back to the top and stopped for a beer at Lovers Nest Restaurant- basically a tin shelter with warm beer, and a spectacular view over the lake.
    The evening was spent chatting with some young folk from Canada, Poland and France. Some had travelled from North Africa using only public transportation. Lots of fun stories.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 08: Chintheche on Lake Malawi

    May 8 in Malawi ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Down from the cool cloudy plateau at 1200 m, via Mzuzu, to the warm shores of Lake Malawi at around 500 m above sea level; at its deepest 704 m near Usisya; that is 230 m below sea level.
    Here at our comfy hotel the shore is a beach of coarse sand with mango trees growing on the beach in places; behind us, dense rainforest.
    Originally occupied by bushman-like people; subsequently by stronger Ngoni warriors - a bloody story to be sure. Read about it.
    The red blood cell sickle gene protected them somewhat from malaria, but not from the water-borne bilharzia parasite.
    Knowing we would surely be swimming and get bilharzia, we stopped at a pharmacy in Mzuzu and bought a treatment pack of praziquantel. This you can buy cheaply without prescription. Also grabbed a couple of boxes of malaria treatments as well - cheap, no prescription (the doxycycline was not agreeing with me).
    Despite the great big mango trees and the lovely lawn merging into the clean sand then the lake, I felt this place missed the chance of African magic and romance. Instead it falls into a grubby charm. The cattle on the beach are quaint, but …; and empty plastic bottles; fluoro spotlights etc! Not like the staff are busy. We appear to be the only guests. The staff were delightful, but I did not enjoy the hustler touting for business while we were dining.
    Dinner was interesting: I choose the slow cooked goat stew with nsima, here made from cassava meal (like mielie pap of South Africa). Wonderful flavours and you eat the meal with no utensils. Though, I felt the goat was not as slow cooked as I had hoped. In fact, I think it was the one that I had seen on the road earlier this afternoon (joking haha).
    Sleep well. See ya.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler
    Singing on a SaturdayKitchen for the boardersPatricia and Hakim (dep head of school) with MStaff room and school groundsSchool ?quadrangleMaths classWelcome song

    Malawi 09: Bandawe feels

    May 9 in Malawi ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    It is hard to put things into words to say what you see or feel like those emotions say of joy that bubble up into your chest or throat and especially to put into words that joy or emotion that you know someone else is feeling but they are not showing but you know it is there because you know and love them well and the thing that just happened came out of nowhere and you were not expecting it so their face does not show it yet or something like that. If you know what I mean.
    This morning this happened so I will try. We stopped the car at the front entrance of Bandawe Girls Secondary School so I could take a photo. Marie predecessors had been involved in establishing the mission here over 120 years ago; her mother had worked here 20 years ago. As I lifted my camera a couple of girls moved into the frame, only to be followed by more. Laughing and posing. Marie appeared too from the car and something happened and the girls started singing around Marie. A welcome song. How did they know. Who told them about the connection and the power of that moment and that Marie could not have imagined the depth of this.
    There really is too much to tell but we were greeted by the deputy head who was here on a Saturday for us and showed us around the school in the background the sound of girls singing. Five hundred girls crowded I to a tiny school into bunks sometimes two to a bed they were so desperate to learn. Also there was a teacher, Patricia, whose father was the reverend when Marie’s mother was here.
    Of course there is much more.
    After the school we went to the actual mission church to be greeted by the reverend and his family and taken into his house for a traditional welcome. Follows a tour of the grounds and cemetery where are the graves of so many young people who had left their homes in Scotland to serve here to die beside the lake of malaria within two years of arriving. And the women and their babies.
    There is more and Marie will so tell but back to the revs house for more food and hospitality wanting to share stories and know about our stories and families and homes and all the time so grateful to us for visiting.
    So was our day and so is Africa and its people who have such grace and warmth and humanness in a continent where the leaders disappoint and betray.
    Big day so many feels.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 10: M5 to Nkhotakota National

    May 10 in Malawi ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The M5 highway south from Nkhata Bay was not without its challenges. Absolutely faith in our driver, McDonald, whose job it is. Having grown up in South Africa, I was familiar with its roads. It was the size and frequency of the oncoming trucks and the number of pedestrians and cyclists and the size of the cavities and pavement drop-offs.
    Through Dwangwa town where the town embraces the road and makes it part of the market as though the road were a piazza. Children running around; youngsters sitting in groups chatting; a bicycle with a whole live pig somehow mounted on the carrier. Across the Dwangwa River - the bridge washed away by the last flood and now a Chinese company rebuilding thankfully because the government here see no point I doing anything if foreign aid will do it for them and they can take a cut to top up their overseas bank accounts.
    Rafiki (friend) Lodge. A sigh of relief to be somewhere things work and stuff does not dangle or fall off or potentially electrocute you. A beautiful lunch then a guided drive into Nkhotkota Reserve and sighting of some lovely birds and a breeding herd of sable, the most beautiful antelope - only seen one before.
    Now nine o clock and past my bedtime.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 11: Pink koalas in Nkhotakota

    May 11 in Malawi ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Please read Marie’s blog @
    https://findpenguins.com/6dizjaeovqm7w/footprin…
    … because while I was learning boa she was taking notes and listening in on my conversation with Kevin who is clearly the local boa wiz and has stolen my blog material harumph.
    Boa is the African version of chess and can be played anywhere you can find 64 stones or beans or impala droppings and a patch of dirt where you can make 32 holes in the ground. Apparently it cause loss of productivity in the community because the men play boa all day while the women are working. Hang on a minute, that is what normally happens in Africa! Anyway, we had already been for a walk in the reserve this morning at 6 with an armed guide, Frankie. Fortunately, we did not encounter any elephant in the tall grass and more pleasingly did not encounter any buffalo either which would have been particularly scary as buffalo are bad news when you surprise them despite Marie looking like a pink koala.
    What is particularly difficult is explaining to these guys who live in small intimate communities that we do not talk to our neighbours or that our neighbour may even die and we do not know or go the the funeral together with all the other neighbours. Yeh weird I know.
    Don’t get me started on how this government is f.…king this country. Good night.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler
    121

    Malawi 12: the bumps and Liwonde NP

    May 12 in Malawi ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    I can barely speak after bouncing down the potholed highway for 8 hours. After a couple of hours I said I would go mad if this carried on any more and it did and then we had a puncture on a dusty bit of shitty road with trucks going by and it was hot.
    And then we arrived and everything changed and we were in tranquil beauty in a boat on the Shire River and there were birds and hippos. It was lekker, man.
    Met on the jetty by “Chief”, short for Chifundo, and after some yummy food, taken to our tent/cabin on the edge of the river with a warning that we should not leave our camp after dark because of things like hippos and lions and things like that. We are equiped with a drum like a jemba in case of an emergency we should beat the drum nine times if there is a lion on our deck. Thanks guys - shan’t forget.
    Barely had a chance to scratch myself when told to get in the 4x4 as there was a cheetah nearby - the most coverted predator ever I swear. Literally drove around the corner - a young male lying there, balls in the air. Took a couple of pics and jumped in the boat for sundowners up the river.
    It was literally bird soup out there and had trouble keeping up with my bird list wow. So frantic needed a “double in the bush” G&T and the sun went down and the fish eagles cried.
    Need another drink man.
    See what tomorrow brings.
    Gx    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 12: Liwonde NP

    May 13 in Malawi ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    I know you know what I will say but it wasn’t that bad but it is like being with preschoolers. No filter. Address the general space with what is at the front of your head like “I was going to wash my hair this morning but I didn’t “. Anyway it could have been worse. We only had two of them on our jeep for the game drives. Moving on …
    As a wildlife destination, Liwonde NP rates highly. Mvuu Camp has been really nice to stay at, too. Our dedicated guide has a university degree in wildlife management and guiding. Not only that, but he was raised in this district and through the locally sponsored wildlife training program. So spending about six hours a day with him is a privilege.
    Tomorrow starts at 4 am so I need to get to bed.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler
    3

    Malawi 14: Liwonde NP VEMGD

    May 14 in Malawi ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    = very early morning chilly game drive. Four am in the vehicle and what a treat it was. A bush-baby (galago) ran across the road and up a tree. It is exclusively nocturnal and mostly arboreal, so seldom seen. Following was a parade of nocturnal animals we miss on our day drives: civet and genet (nocturnal carnivores Viverridae; civet is more cat-like), porcupine (a rodent don’t you know); an array of nocturnal birds - courser, nightjar, owlet, owl and eagle-owl to name a few. Not as much for the big game people, but we did catch up with the local Romeo with two lionesses warming themselves in the morning sun; a large herd of buffalo but the rhinoceros remained elusive. Cheery on top was a ground hornbill calling from from an ada tree - though widespread distribution, is endangered and seldom seen even on the ground (see video)
    There are plenty problems managing a wildlife reserve in a corrupt and poverty stricken country, but African Parks are doing a great job here.
    A morning nap, laps of the crocodile-free pool, a nice lunch and set for a boat trip and sundowners in the river.
    Tomorrow Cape Town and family time.    Read more

  • Grant MillsMalawi 2026Traveler

    Malawi 15: Farewell Malawi

    May 15 in Mozambique ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    There is a road toll gate on the road to Liwonde where we paid a toll heading south and I naively expected the pot-holed road to become a smooth new motorway. Hahaha joke.
    Returning north after a lovely stay at Mvuu, we were required to pay the toll again. To my eye, there was no evidence of the Government of Malawi Department of Roads doing any road building or maintenance. Sure the Chinese are building roads, but it is the Government of Malawi building toll gates - good business model.
    The road actually improved once we got off the tollway.
    The fun bit for me was crossing into Mozambique - the border runs through the villages and parallel to the road with no fence or border control. So, took the opportunity to sprint across for a quick selfie, much to the amusement of our driver.
    Is it customary to reflect on such a travel experience - I suppose it is, but I don’t feel like doing that perhaps because the feelings conflict. It irks me to see such charming, kind and courteous and smart people struggling to find hope in a beautiful country wracked with poverty and administrative incompetence and corruption. But somehow the people just carry on, many of them subsisting: growing their own food and little troubled by the fuel crisis or the quality of the roads. The state does nothing for them so they are little affected. All work is done by hand; transport is by foot; if there is a hole in the road, walk around it.
    Customs and Immigration have taken up the first 4 pages of my new passport, damn it. Hope the flight to South Africa is on schedule.    Read more

    Trip end
    May 23, 2026
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