Malawi — Overview
Malawi can offer visitors unique scenery, rare wildlife and stunning valleys. Evergreen forests and waterfalls can be viewed from the heights of the plateaus. Activities are central to any visit. The national parks are attractive places for wildlife and game viewing in the most unspoiled of settings. Safe from the tarred roads and convoys of tourists, visitors can trek in entirely natural surroundings.
Malawi has nine national parks and wildlife reserves, six of which are especially recommended for visitors. There are also many attractive and accessible forest reserves. All the parks and reserves are uncrowded and give visitors an excellent experience of unspoiled wilderness.
Its most famous feature must be Lake Malawi, which stretches from the northern tip of the country to Mangochi in the south. Some of the rarest tropical fish in the world are unique to this vast lake, and it is also home to varieties of eagle and kingfisher.
Geography
Malawi shares borders to the north and northeast with Tanzania, to the south, east and southwest with Mozambique and to the west with Zambia. Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in Africa, is the dominant feature of the country, forming the eastern boundary with Tanzania and Mozambique. The scenery varies in the country’s three regions. The Northern Region is mountainous, with the highest peaks reaching over 2,500m (8,200ft), and features the rolling Nyika Plateau, rugged escarpments, valleys and the thickly forested slopes of the Viphya Plateau. The Central Region is mainly a plateau, over 1,000m (3,300ft) high, with fine upland scenery. This is the country’s main agricultural area. The Southern Region is mostly low-lying except for the 2,100m- (6,890ft-) high Zomba Plateau south of Lake Malawi and the huge, isolated Mulanje Massif (3,000m/10,000ft) in the southeast. The variety of landscape and the wildlife it supports make this relatively unspoiled country particularly attractive to visitors.
