:: Sample Holidays - suggestions to whet your appetite

A GREAT CENTRAL AFRICAN ADVENTURE, game viewing in Liwonde National Park and enjoying lakeshore life and relaxation on and beside Malawi’s inland sea

	Fly overnight from London via Johannesburg to Lilongwe. By road to Liwonde National Park. Mvuu Lodge for 3 nights. By road to Cape Maclear. Overnight at Danforth Guesthouse followed by 2 nights sailing on Mufasa to Likoma Island. Kaya Mawa for 3 nights. By boat to Nkwichi for 2 nights. By boat back to Likoma Island, fly via Lilongwe and Johannesburg overnight to London. From £4,439 per person sharing for 13 nights
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After being met at the airport, you will be driven through typical Malawian rural landscapes, traditional villages and into the hills around Dedza. Stop for a delicious piece of cheesecake in the garden tea-room at the pottery before carrying on down the Golomoti escarpment with the lake stretching before you.

Now divert to the Shire river which you will cross by boat to LIWONDE NATIONAL PARK. Here, on the banks of a quiet lagoon is Mvuu Lodge with accommodation in eight spacious ‘Hemingway’-style safari tents. Each tent has its own private viewing platform and is discreetly hidden amongst the bush bordering the lagoon.

Elephant and hippo are in abundance and you will be taken on walks, boat safaris and game drives into the woodlands to seek out more timid creatures. But it is the birdlife that is particularly rewarding here with specialities including Lillian’s lovebird, brown breasted barbet, osprey, palmnut vulture, Pel's fishing owl and Livingstone’s flycatcher.

After breakfast you will be driven along the southern lakeshore to CAPE MACLEAR and on to Danforth Guesthouse. All the spacious rooms, tastefully decorated in cool, nautical colours, open on to the large patio with views over the gardens to the lake and off-shore islands. Catch your first glimpse of the luxury catamaran Mufasa moored in the bay and later perhaps take a sunset cruise to start finding your sea legs.

After a night at the guesthouse, start your journey sailing north for two days. You will drop the anchor in beautiful bays to snorkel and swim in the clear waters and to go ashore. It is your choice as to how much you participate in the actual sailing and, with a skipper, hostess and deck hand on board, this will be a really magical experience.

The third day’s sail will take you to LIKOMA ISLAND where, set on a beautiful sandy bay is Kaya Mawa, an imaginatively designed lodge which incorporates luxury with simplicity and eco principles. In addition to the watersports, take time to explore the island on foot or by bike or maybe take an organised village tour. On Sunday you can attend a service in the soaring Anglican St Peter's Cathedral filled with joyful African harmonies. Over 100 years old and a comparable size to the cathedral in Winchester, its soapstone carvings and stained-glass windows are well maintained.

For a final couple of nights, you’ll be collected by boat and taken across to the WESTERN MOZAMBICAN SHORES of the lake to Nkwichi Lodge, a community conservation scheme with an underlying philosophy to improve the standard of living for local people whilst protecting the indigenous wildlife and its habitat.

Individually designed rooms are unobtrusively set back from the beautiful beach with its white powder sand. Fresh produce comes from the lodge’s own kitchen garden and all your meals, whether a delicious picnic or a feast elegantly served down on the beach under the stars, will be especially memorable.

and what about?
	A tour of Malawi can take the traveller further south for other wonderfully contrasting experiences - walking from Ku Chawe Inn on the plateau overlooking the old capital of Zomba; to Blantyre, the commercial centre of the country, and through the neat, stunningly green tea plantations around Thyolo and on the slopes of Mulanje. Guided or self-drive, ‘the warm heart of Africa’ will make you most welcome.

:: Sample Holidays

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