Sipping tea out of an elegant cup on the veranda of Huntingdon Lodge, I look out across a manicured lawn with scattered feature trees. Hoops have been set up for a game of croquet. I seem to have drifted back to a Home Counties England of 100 years ago. That is, until a vervet monkey scampers across the grass to remind me that I am, in fact, in the southern highlands of Thyolo, surrounded by Malawi’s Satemwa tea plantations, established here by a Scotsman, Maclean Kay, known as Kangaroo Kay. This was the third house he built on the site in 1935, the previous two having burned down.
Malawi’s tea production is impressive and the rolling hillsides here are covered in the deep greens of the Camellia sinensis shrubs that grow waist high, their leaves picked every day by workers so adept they toss them over their shoulders into baskets without a backward glance as they work their way across the fields. They produce a variety of teas – black, green, and white from the main plants, as well as red bush tea and fruit and herbal teas. You can walk through them with a guide to point out not just how they are grown but the abundant bird life as well as those monkeys. But, if you really want to know more about tea, you need to taste it and, indeed, test it with expert Alice who tutored me on how to get the true taste (you gurgle the tea at the back of your throat – not something I think you’d try at home) and together we tried 18 varieties.
It’s not just tea that reminds you of Malawi’s historic British associations. Going higher into the hills, I discover the town of Zomba that was, at one time, the country’s capital. The Brits loved it here with its cooler climate, lack of mosquitoes and even the possibility of growing strawberries. To this day, the town is full of handsome colonial buildings – the old Parliament, the Governor’s House, a war memorial to the King’s African Rifles – there’s even a Zomba Gymkhana Club. Higher still and you get to the Zomba Plateau where the views were once described as “the best in the British Empire”.
Down on the plains of the savannah, though, Malawi’s safaris are becoming increasingly established. There aren’t the same game numbers as in many of the most famous safari destinations but all of the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino – are here. You just need to give yourself a bit more time to see them. This turns out to be a good plan in itself staying at Camp Mvuu in the Liwonde National Park where the atmosphere is totally laidback and the small number of camps means you get the place pretty much to yourself – rather than finding yourself surrounded by half a dozen other safari vehicles all trying to get the best picture of the lions or the elephants.
Mvuu (the name means ‘hippo’ and there are plenty of them in the Shire River that fronts the camp) is unfenced. So, you can expect plenty of visitors. You need to keep all of the doors and windows of your chalet firmly closed to prevent the baboons coming in to trash the place. After dark, you’re walked to your chalet, just in case there’s something bigger wandering through the camp and I did, in daylight, find my path blocked by an enormous kudu – I’m not sure who, between us, was more surprised.
Did I say laidback? Your day is arranged, of course, according to the animals’ timetables and they tend to be most active in the very early morning and the later afternoon and evening. The day starts at around 4.30am with a wake-up call and time for a coffee before you go out in your open-sided safari vehicle. The guides know everything about the animals, birds and landscape. In my case, Chifundo managed to find on that first afternoon and evening drive an extraordinary haul of animals. There were all kinds of antelope, including graceful impala and herds of waterbuck. The birds ranged from tiny, gaudy bee-eaters to acrobatic Bateleur eagles, hornbills and guinea fowl.
Within an hour, though, we’d found the lions, snoozing in the afternoon sun and dreaming (judging by the paw movements) of yesterday’s hunt. By the time the light was starting to fail (also known as G&T time out in the bush) we’d found a family of elephants mixed up with buffalo who watched us descend from the vehicle to drink those obligatory sundowners. Before we’ve got back in our seats, we hear the first groaning roars of the lions, waking up for another hunt. Driving back in the dark, Chifundo uses a spotlight to see who else might be spotted getting ready for the evening’s activities. First a porcupine ambled out from under the trees. Then there were civets and jackals and, most remarkably, a cheetah glimpsed only for a moment as he stalked through the undergrowth.
On the River Shire itself, you can take a boat safari. Here the river is wide and slow and filled with hippos and crocodiles. You can even take a boat all the way to Lake Malawi for a stay on the beach. This might be a landlocked country but around the lake are soft white sands and the Makokola Retreat – a proper resort if you fancy some respite after those 4.30am starts! There are spa treatments and water sports, a gym and a beachside restaurant, a choice of pools, tennis courts and even a golf course.
Malawi, you could say, is full of surprises.
Next steps
To plan and book an unforgettable journey to Malawi, call Silver Travel Advisor on 0800 412 5678.
