Duncan and Sara 2019

We'd spotted a large church on the way to Liwonde and stopped to have a quick rest at Balaka, to look about (spot the bees' nest?)  More of that l ovely countryside and, as I said, the road back to Lilongwe is also Malawi's border with Mozambique, studded with white markers with 'MW' on the Malawian side and 'MZ' when you're standing in Mozambique. And just enough time for shopping for tonight's dinner - a different landscape, different types of crops...

We were very sad to hear, after we had got back, of the death of the British soldier who was trampled to death by an elephant while deployed in Liwonde on an anti-poaching exercise.  A reminder of that elephants are magical but can be very dangerous . For us, Liwonde was a terrific spot (once we got used to the 'luxury' tents - luckily it didn't rain too much).   First afternoon, we took a boat-trip on the Lifupa river    and saw a huge herd of perhaps forty elephants, at their usual spot, calmly eating reeds From the boat, we could get quite close Here are the other, gorgeous inhabitats of the river... but there were some brave souls who still fish on the water... with hunters lurking on the shoreline as the sun went down Next morning, a drive around the park ( rather soggy but lots of life...)

Along the 150 mile route from Zomba - before heading onward to Liwonde National Park - is Dedza with its pottery   and its excellent restaurant (including the melt-in-the-mouth goat shank) Through the beautiful countryside, coincidentally the border with Mozambique - more of which, later) for two nights at our next stop: Zomba, the capital of Nyasaland Protectorate (before the establishment of Malawi in 1964) and of Malawi itself until 1974 (though t he Parliament remained there until 1994).   Casa Rossa B&B is on the hill towards the Zomba Plateau Mandala Falls cascaded near to a picnic site where, happily, local folk touted a range of excellent locally- grown soft fruits  Down in Zomba itself, British colonial past is reflected in its architecture.   The Zomba Gymkhana Club  was once the focus for social activity in the expat. community (b...