Lilongwe, two centres and other Malawi Things to Do Tips

Lilongwe, old town, vivid market

Lilongwe is the capital of Malawi.
Llilongwe has two centres, 3 KM apart, the Old Town and the New City, called City Centre. The old town has soul, in the new town not much happens.
Most visitors arrive in the old town, so we did. The heart of the old town is the market.
The old town with its vivid market is a pleasant place to stroll around. There are some bars and cheap hotels. In the Asian quarter are small shops selling clothes, household utensils and stuff like that.

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Things To Do: Lilongwe market

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 23, 2003

Lilongwe market

The first day we strolled around in the old town, not far from our resthouse, and visited the market.
At the market it was very busy. The African swinging music accompanied us.
Everything for sale has its own area at the market: vegetables like cassave, fruits, thatch, wood , aluminum goods and so on.
I liked it to walk around and to feel the atmosphere, the easiest and quickest way to be back with my both feet on the African soil.
It was the first time my friend accompanied me. For him was Malawi a nice and friendly country to start his African experience.
Malawi is also called "Africa for beginners"

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Directions: Old Town

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Things To Do: Lilongwe, town or village

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 23, 2003

Lilongwe. old town

From the market back to our resthouse (about 2 KM) we took a diagonal shortcut by 'bushpaths'', just by looking where all the locals were going.
We passed a residential quarter with small houses and yards. We saw women with their laundry at the waterpump. All images I knew from other visited African countries. The smell of wood- or charcoal fire. I'm back "home'' in Africa.
It's an open and green area with solid red mud paths.
Also this area proved, Lilongwe looks more like a village with a very laid-back atmosphere than a big city.

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Directions: Old town, area 1

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Things To Do: Lake Malawi, Cape Maclear.

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 23, 2003

Lake Malawi

Lake Malawi is one of the main attractions of the country. At the southern end of the lake is the Nankumba Peninsula and Cape Maclear is the tip.
From Monkey Bay, the boatferries- and bus- terminal, you can easily reach Cape Maclear penisula.
Cape Maclear is a very popular spot with travellers, been described as backpackers Mecca and the African answer to Katmandhu and Marrakech.
We stayed in lovely roundavels at the beach with sun, sand, water and breathtaking sunsets in front, like paradise. What more could we wish?

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Directions: Southern end of Lake Malawi, east of Lilongwe.

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Things To Do: Cape Maclear, graves of missionaries

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 23, 2003

grave of a missionary

Cape Maclear was the first site of the Livingstonia Mission, established in 1875 and abandoned a few years later, due to the high incidence of malaria in this area. Several of the missionaires die of malaria.
A small group of graves of three Europeans and one African can be seen.

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Directions: Near the entrance gate to the Golden Sands Holidays Resort and the headquarters of the Lake Malawi National Park at the westside of the peninsula.

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Things To Do: Cape Maclear and Lake Malawi National Park

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 23, 2003

trail Lake Malawi National Park

The Lake Malawi National Park covers most of the peninsula Cape Maclear, the surrounding lake and nine off-shore islands.
This park is the most important freshwater fish sanctuary in Africa.
Several fishing villages, like Chembe, remain unprotected enclaves within the Park .
From the Golden Sands entrance gate and the Park headquarters a small path leads to the hills overlooking the bay. After a few hundred meters you see first the small graveyard of the missionaries.
After the graves the path goes uphill. There are several routes. The shortest one, we did, was one and a half hour.
It's a nice walk to do early in the morning.

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Things To Do: Natural beauty of Lake Malawi

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 24, 2003

Lake Malawi, one of the islands

The area of Cape Maclear and the Lake Malawi National Park is very scenic.
The beaches are ringed by forested hills and faced by several islands. The sunsets are spectacular.
The underwater world offers the opportunity to see a diversity of colourful fishes. There is a underwater snorkelling trail, with a waterproof map provided.
Going to one of the small island can give you the real Robinson Crusoe feeling.

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Things To Do: Lake Malawi, boattrip

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 24, 2003

Lake Malawi

You can sit on the beach, walk a trail, do all kind of watersports, but the nicest thing to do is making a boattrip organised by the local people to one of the islands in the Lake Malawi National Park.
These trips include a fish barbecue. Every resthouse offers these trips, but it can be useful to shop around an ask other travellers for recommendations.
We made an halfday trip from 1 pm till dusk for a few dollars per person.

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Things To Do: On the Lake Malawi

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 24, 2003

dug-out canoe at Lake Malawi

It's wonderful to be on the water of Lake Malawi. The views at the peninsula and the island are really beautiful.
Dug-out canoes with local people pass by.
Sometimes some local canoes come to visiti our boat, because the people have some goods for sale, like selfmade jewellery. The vendors in Malawi behave very friendly.
On the lake we saw some fish-eagles. The crew of our boat tried to lure them with small fishes.

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Things To Do: Shire River and Liwonde National Park

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Updated by sachara

on Sep 25, 2003

Shire river