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Home , Lake Malawi, Likoma Island, Malipenga

worZAMBIA AND ARE A WILD lds NEW TWIST ON THE CLASSIC BUSH-TO-BEACH DOUBLE-HIT. peter browne REVISITS THE SOUTHERN AFRICA OF HIS CHILDHOOD AND FINDS HE IS STILL IN FRONTIER TERRITORY IN A VAST AND EMPTY AFRICA. photographs by michel figuet apart From up in my hot-air balloon I am struck by the vulnerability of the lone fisherman surrounded by hungry predators – and what Hemingway described as ‘miles and miles of bloody Africa’ when the water has evaporated, the roads Big John, when he moved north in 2006. have been rediscovered and the camps John was probably shot dead by hunters, reopened, the first people arrive for the although we will never know for sure.’ insanely short three-month safari season. The Busanga lions are stocky, with The camps are a major commitment unusually black manes. Because the for the operators, Wilderness Safaris, an camps are closed for most of the year, increasingly adventurous South Africa- their movements during the floods based company, which uses its own fleet had remained a mystery until last year of single-engine Cessna 210 aircraft and when a research group fitted them one hellishly expensive helicopter to with satellite collars. The results took n bed on my first night in transfer guests to Kafue. This despite the everyone by surprise. It had been , blanketed by warm, sweet-scented fact that Busanga will never deliver assumed that they headed north, away air, I could hear the intermittent roars crowd-pleasing, tick-all-the-boxes game from the encroaching water, but it seems of lion and the baritone laughter of hippo. viewing. Decades of unchecked poaching, they stay in the area, shrugging off a At dawn I watched the first rays of fires and trophy-hunting on the edges of cat’s inherent dislike of water to swim Isunlight lick the grassland; all around the park have resulted in skittish wildlife, between islands and, astonishingly, even me, puku and lechwe antelope grazed on and in wildly reduced numbers. cross the Lufupa River (a distance of the vast flood plains, ears twitching, the But there are encouraging signs of 80km in some places). In the insufferably horizon a silver shimmy of mist. improvement. Here is my list of sightings high temperatures of October, lionesses Kafue National Park is Zambia’s on that first game drive: red lechwe have also been seen resting in the low largest and least-visited protected area. and puku antelope (thousands grazing branches of trees to escape the heat and Although it has existed since 1950, there together), waterbuck (and an endemic flies – peculiar tree-climbing behaviour is very little infrastructure in the park: species I had never seen before, without previously noted in Manyara successive governments have never had the usual white rump-ring), oribi National Park in . the resources or inclination to invest (everywhere), roan antelope (in surprising The only shade around here, other in such high-class concerns as wildlife numbers), marabou storks, yellow-billed than on the island-clumps of palms and management. Surrounded by far more storks, crowned cranes, great white figs, is in the dense miombo woodland profitable big-game hunting reserves, heron and egrets, open-billed storks (the on the edge of the plains, where leopard the government-owned park has until undertakers of the bush), five buffalo, have been spotted. But this is also where recently remained one of Africa’s most a few wildebeest, one striped jackal. blood-sucking tsetse flies are most intriguing forgotten wildernesses. Towards the end of our drive we came prevalent. On approaching the woodland This is real wild-frontier stuff, especially across two lions panting in the shade of (the road past it provides the fastest in the north, where the Busanga flood a fig tree, occasionally licking their lips access to the game-rich southern plains), plains emerge from the water for after gorging on a fat lechwe. I knew the the guides hastily light canvas containers just three months of the year, exposing pair had visited camp the night before filled with elephant dung to hang off immense, open grasslands – an utterly (checking for tracks is one of the camp the front of the vehicles. The fumes pristine region unexplored and unknown, manager’s early-morning rituals), and are supposed to discourage the flies, vast and unfathomable. John D introduced us. ‘These are the leaving people relatively unmolested As I set off on the first game drive with brothers,’ he said. ‘They service three and only lightly smoked. my guide, John D Muleka, the heat of the prides in the area, so as you can imagine One afternoon we came across sun was already dissipating the rosewater they are always busy, always on patrol. a magnificent herd of buffalo several shades of dawn; soon any subtleties in the They took over from the dominant male, hundred strong; later we took a landscape would be lost to the pin-sharp clarity of southern Africa’s late-September light; by noon the temperature would reach 38˚C or 40˚C. But for now, with a a region on the up… poor governance. Zimbabweans thought of cool breeze coming off the still-watery I was born in Zimbabwe, just south of Zambia as a backwater, and its president flood plains, there were plump, buoyant Zambia, when the two countries were known Kenneth Kaunda, a slightly camp figure prone as Southern and . After scents in the early-morning air. to waving his white handkerchief, a source World War II they were bundled together, The Busanga Plains fan out from the of infantile amusement. Malawi was popular along with (now Malawi), into a Lufupa River, a tributary of the great with Zimbabwean backpackers, but you had federal realm of the British Crown, until Zambia Kafue. In the wet season, from November to be wary of President Hastings Banda’s ban and Malawi gained independence in 1964. on long hair (on men) and miniskirts (women). to about March, the fine, black-cotton After Prime Minister Ian Smith’s Unilateral Since Kaunda and Banda fell from power soil is slowly flooded save for a few low- Declaration of Independence from the UK, in the early 1990s, Zambia and Malawi have lying islands where enormous sycamore resisted majority rule for remained relatively stable, in contrast to figs and palm trees grow. In mid-July, another 16 years and the region, including Zimbabwe’s spectacular economic collapse. Last , erupted in a guerrilla war. When Opposite, clockwise from top left: dinner at year Zambia elected its fifth president since it ended and Zimbabwe became the darling Busanga Bush Camp; buffalo on the Busanga independence. In Malawi, Joyce Banda is of the international community, Zambia and Plains; relaxing post-safari; a watering hole southern Africa’s first female head of state.P B at Busanga; carved walking sticks; a hippo; Malawi suffered from underinvestment and the safari logbook; a male lion

000 motorboat out on a series of permanent extraordinary part of the world. Beneath predators and what Hemingway described lagoons and were quickly surrounded by us, hippo trails of flattened grass led in as ‘miles and miles of bloody Africa’. pods of hippo numbering 15 or more. For all directions from the sparkling pools. more than an hour we watched them wallow As the sun rose higher, we chased our ake malawi (also known as and swim and snort, disappearing near balloon-shaped shadow across the plains, Lake Niassa) is the most our boat for disconcertingly long periods, the papyrus wetland and thick woodland. southerly of the great of then popping up elsewhere, ears and eyes Every now and then a lone figure appeared Africa’s Rift Valley. At 75km curious as to our presence; slid far below: traditional fishermen from the Lwide and nearly 600km long, it is an off the banks into the water; white herons Kaonde tribe catching bream to dry and enormous, freshwater sea populated by landed gracefully on the shoreline. sell at market. Since the nearest village about 1,000 different (exotic fish), On our last day at Kafue we took a is 200km away, fishing trips can last weeks, many unique to the lake. It lies on the hot-air balloon safari above the plains; and I was struck by the vulnerability of border between Malawi, Tanzania and it felt like a grand farewell to this these minute figures surrounded by hungry Mozambique, and was a 19th-century

The plains of Kafue National Park, Zambia hub for slave trafficking, as well as the passports stamped ‘exit’, we set off for the lodge could not be anywhere else headquarters for that trade’s most Cóbuè village, 12km across the lake, in the world. There are just six guest vociferous opponents: Scottish missionaries to buy entrance visas for Mozambique chalets, hidden between granite boulders led by , who sailed from the police station. and dense woodland, all with wide the length of in 1861. Nkwichi Lodge is a further half-hour’s verandahs, quirky outdoor bathrooms Once our little Cessna had puttered journey from Cóbuè by motorboat. It is and huge, four-poster beds fashioned to a stop on in the northern hidden in a little cove on the miraculous, from gnarled old tree trunks. It owes its reaches of the lake, we were met by white-sand beach from which it takes its peculiar style to local villagers who built smiling staff from Nkwichi Lodge, on the name (nkwichi translates as ‘squeaky’, it with their bare hands. Solar-powered and Mozambique side, where we would spend as the sand is so clean and fine it squeaks almost entirely self-sufficient, the lodge our first two nights. After stopping off when you walk on it barefoot). is often cited as a model for sustainable at the Malawi immigration officer’s house But if the beach could be in the tourism. It employs 56 villagers full-time (it was a very sleepy Sunday) to get our Caribbean, Seychelles or Mauritius, and indirectly supports more than 1,000; a percentage of the room rate goes directly to the Manda Wilderness Community Trust, a UK charity that has helped build schools and set up schemes such as the lodge’s agricultural education project. There are no vehicles at the lodge, or indeed roads anywhere near it, and on my first afternoon I set off on foot to visit the Manda farm along an ancient path created by Arab slave-traders centuries ago. After about 40 minutes I came to the lodge’s agricultural project, where I met Joao Maniamba, the dapper farm manager, who took me on a tour of his chicken runs, vegetable and herb gardens, and mini-orchard of mango, banana, orange and lemon trees. There had been a bumper crop of tomatoes (the sweetest, plumpest I have ever tasted), but baboons had been helping themselves a little too freely. Set up a decade ago as a demonstration farm to teach villagers how to make compost and cultivate crops, the farm now supplies the lodge with all its herbs and salads. At the farm there had Lake Malawi is far more beautiful than I remembered from visits in my been a bumper crop of backpacking youth. It is gin-clear at the shoreline and bluer than a robin’s egg tomatoes – the sweetest, a little further out. Once reassured about the absence of crocodiles (too far from plumpest I have ever a river mouth) or water-borne bilharzia (too far from the humans necessary tasted – but baboons had to spread the disease), we snorkelled between the granite rocks in our own giant, been helping themselves tropical-fish . We went on canoe expeditions, and out on the lodge’s a little too freely wooden dhow to explore coves along the shore. In fine weather, evening drinks are served from a hilariously comprehensive bar set up around a campfire, followed by dinner at a long table on the beach, lit by lanterns and accompanied by good South African wines. The local choir is on hand to serenade guests in the sweetest, most self-effacing way, a world away from the commercial entertainment often wheeled in by some big safari companies. On our second day we were told about a dance competition being held in Utonga village. It was an extraordinary experience, with seven all-male dance troupes from local villages competing beneath a palisade of ancient baobab trees. The entire village had turned out in their weekend finery to cheer on their team, and the afternoon passed in a joyous haze of dust, dance, music and Clockwise from left: snorkelling off the beach at Nkwichi Lodge; a salad lunch; a mganda dance participant; snorkelling gear; staff at the lodge. Opposite, the honeymoon suite

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The sun terrace of the Nkwhazi room at Kaya Mawa, Malawi

The entire village had turned out in their weekend finery, and the afternoon passed in a joyous haze of dust, dance, music and festivities festivities. The dance is called mganda, and well-rooted honesty has a variation of malipenga, which has its proved irresistible. Kaya origins in military parades introduced by Mawa is a talking point with the King’s African Rifles in . savvy, moneyed travellers who Once a year, participating villages take are bored with the big hotels it in turn to host the mganda dance-offs, of the Maldives and other which are taken extremely seriously and snazzy Indian Ocean islands. judged by the village chiefs. Men of all Each of the 12 bedrooms ages, some very elderly, don the colonial- is slightly different (the inspired uniforms of their village troupes best are private houses with or bandas (white or khaki shorts and long plunge pools), but all have socks with garters, feathered fezes, sashes acres of creamy, polished and medals) and perform their rigorously concrete floors, idiosyncratic, rehearsed routines to the beat of an Zanzibar-influenced design ear-shattering cacophony of whistles, details, huge open-plan drums and calabashes. wet rooms, and beds covered The next morning dawned dark and in cushions. The hotel stormy for our departure. Overnight, is smoothly managed by the lake had turned angry and volatile. Michelle Cavanagh, a former Upper Class GETTING THERE for coordinating High waves crashed over the jetty, so flight attendant on Virgin Atlantic. Her Because of the remote flight times and we walked for half an hour along the husband Richard Greenhall, who trained nature of the camps transfers. Our trip was old slave-traders’ path to find a more chefs for Jamie Oliver, makes sure the food and lodges, transfers arranged by African sheltered spot from which to embark on (dreamy lunches of feta and pumpkin between them can Explorations (01993 822443; www.african our journey to Kaya Mawa hotel on the salads followed by light-as-air lemon test the patience of a saint. Our flights (11 explorations.com). south-western shores of Likoma Island. cheesecake) is of a super-high standard. The in all) were in small, A similar trip to Lightfoots also recently finished building single-engine planes. Zambia and Malawi ikoma is one of two inhabited their own home, Ndomo House, a four- Getting to Malawi with three nights at islands on Lake Malawi. In 1886 bedroom villa with a private pool and tiny from Kafue National Wilderness Safaris’ it was chosen as the headquarters beach, which is now for rent and is the Park necessitated Busanga Bush Camp, for an Anglican mission, most stylish place to stay on Lake Malawi. an overnight stay one night at Flatdogs resultingL in one of Africa’s most curious Kaya Mawa is the island’s biggest at Flatdogs Camp Camp, two nights at colonial relics, the austere, solid-granite St benefactor; its projects have included piping (www.flatdogscamp. Nkwichi Lodge and Peter’s Cathedral. Completely incongruous water to two villages. We took the lodge’s com) in South two nights at Kaya and utterly bizarre given its remote shiny new quad-bikes out for a tour of Luangwa, Zambia, Mawa costs £5,199 before connecting to per person, including setting on a tiny island, it is modelled on the island and stopped at nearby Nkwhazi in Malawi all international and Westminster Cathedral and was finished primary school, where Kaya Mawa supplies to clear customs, and internal flights, meals in 1905. It can hold 3,000 worshipers, almost the books, and at a fabric workshop run by then on to Likoma and some drinks. half of Likoma Island’s current population. James’s wife Suzie, where women embroider Island. Flatdogs (the There are no tar roads on the island, tiny, delicate beads onto yards of soft linen. colloquial name for WEATHER TO GO or mains electricity (there is a generator, At St Peter’s Cathedral, a trainee crocodiles) is a decent The camps at Kafue which is switched off at 10pm). Kaya Mawa priest showed us the lace-draped altars, camp with a good National Park are open – which translates rather evocatively as ivory crucifixes and stained-glass windows; restaurant near the June–October. This ‘maybe tomorrow’ – is on a beautiful beach and at the open-air market in Mbamba, entrance to South is also the best time in the south. The hotel first opened in 2000, the main town on the island, music blared Luangwa National to visit Lake Malawi. Park. A good tour the realisation of a dream of two British from wooden shacks where hairdressers operator is essential adventurers, Andrew Came and Will applied odorous chemical straighteners, Sutton, who created a slightly whimsical and Chinese shoes and bags were stacked world of handcrafted chalets built into beneath posters of Barack Obama. We rocks and crowned by thatch. In 2009 met Mozambican traders selling firewood, James Lightfoot, who had been the general tomatoes and red onions, bulbous local manager at the property, bought the place pumpkins and roasted utaka fish. with Nicholas Brown, a regular guest, and The fishermen still use lanterns and nets closed it while he gutted the interiors. to attract and capture their haul, sailing Since it reopened, Kaya Mawa’s their wooden dhows out into the inky combination of low-key sophistication waters at nightfall. More than 150 years ago, Livingstone was inspired by this Opposite, clockwise from top left: an interior seemingly celestial sight to name Lake detail and the pool deck of the Nkwhazi room at Kaya Mawa; a selection of books at Malawi ‘the lake of stars’. It is still a Ndomo House; primary school pupils; Kaya bewitching place with a timeless rhythm, Mawa’s Madimba room; the menu at the a life-giving force of nature in one of hannah george local hairdresser’s; beads used in the fabric the most beautiful and remote expanses

map : workshop; the deck of the Mainja room of African wilderness.

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