Liwonde National Park: Malawi’s Best For Flora And Fauna

Excellent environment and great wildlife and plant reserve makes Liwonde National Park favorite destination for the flora and fauna lovers, it’s the place where you can find the animals in their real physical condition without the interference of the humans. Stretched over 550 sq km and runs through savanna and mopane woodland on the floodplains of   river Shire and Lake Malombe in the south of the country, it’s a real delight for people who are fond of their mother nature. The park is long, thin and flat and has hills in the southern tip. Unlike other parks this one is extremely peaceful and uncommercialised. The park has seriously taken up the conservation programs and plans to transfer some females in the near future. One the best attribute of this national park is that animals can be watched from various activities ranging from game drives to boat safaris to walking safaris.

Location

On the upper Shire river plain, 150km north of Limbe . The southern gate lies about 6km from the town center of Liwonde.

Malawi

Flora and Fauna

The best time to view animals is dry season because that’s the time when they come to the river to drink. Elephant, hippo, Burchell’s zebra, black rhino (very rarely seen), warthog, sable antelope, greater kudu, vervet monkey, baboon, impala, water buck, bush buck, mongoose, crocodile and monitor lizard live here and its said that this place is also home to lions who have settled here quite recently. There is a strong population of hippo about 2000 who occupy a stretch of 40km river. Lion and leopard are sometimes seen as they prefer to remain unseen. Hyena can be heard at night.

A large variety of birds can be seen here and African Fish Eagle the national bird can be easily noticed.

There are 7 different plant communities that house some 1,030 species of vascular plants. Mopane woodland dominates the region, named after the tswana word ‘mopane’ referring to butterfly shaped leaves, Baobab trees and poetic fever trees are also found here. There are huge number of wild flowers lilies and orchids which makes the place extremely colorful and when it rains they get more colorful; in particular Impala lily turns into amazing striking pink.

Climate

Extremely hot and humid

Fees and Permit

$5 per day for non Malawian resident

Lodging and Boarding

Chingiuni Hills camp- This is 5km into the park from the southern entrance. This is great place to stay and inter mingle with travelers of other countries. You can relax here and the owners knows how to keep his guests happy and owns a car battery in a place where there is no electricity.

Njobvu Cultural lodge- It is run by local communities and important source of revenue for them and the benefits help them to conserve their utmost valuable cultural and natural resources, a percentage is donated to the nursery schools. By living here you can experience the real Malawian life, sleeping in the traditional mud brick hut in the village and being with the local people is really earth warming thing.

Mvuu camp

Mvuu lodge

How to reach

Air: Lilongwe Airport

Road: Can hire car direct from Lilongwe