Liwonde National Park

Liwonde National Park is located in the southern half of Malawi on the Shire River, allowing for both game drives on the plains and river boat safaris.

Liwonde is the most popular and wildlife-rich of Malawi’s safari parks. It doesn’t offer a big game-viewing experience to rival that of the Serengeti or Masai Mara, but the park has a wonderfully relaxed feel and some stunning landscapes. The birdlife is the great attraction here, as in much of Malawi, and among the species to be found are African fish eagle, weavers, bee-eaters and Pel’s fishing owl, to name but a few. Botanists will also find the park very interesting, with over 1,000 species of plants, including beautiful seasonal wild flowers.

In terms of big game, the Shire River is home to large pods of noisy hippo (around 2,000 of them!) and crocodiles – the night time sounds here are amazing (you can also add frogs to the chorus!) The park’s numerous other residents include waterbuck, bushbuck, plentiful elephant, impala, warthog, greater kudu, vervet monkey, baboon, monitor lizards, sable antelope, zebra, hyena and the very rare black rhino. There are few big cats in Liwonde, although leopard are present and efforts are being made to introduce more. For many years a solitary male lion - heard more often than seen! - was the only representative of his species in Liwonde, but in recent years an additional pride of lion has been introduced into the park and is thriving.

The park landscape is very diverse, dotted with picturesque lagoons and marshland, swamps, and forests dominated by mopane woodland, acacia and handsome baobabs.

In and around Liwonde National Park
Liwonde is within driving distance of Blantyre (3 hours) and Lilongwe (4-5 hours, allowing for a visit to Lake Malawi’s southern lakeshore along the way). There’s also a small airstrip connected to Mvuu Camp for charter flights.

As for places to stay, Mvuu Wilderness Lodge offers high-end accommodation, while Mvuu Camp is more basic but enjoys a great location.