Walking and horse riding in Malawi

We stayed at Hakuna Matata camp in Chitimba for a couple of nights, then Kande Beach camp in Kande for another two nights. Both of which sit on the the shores of Lake Malawi, Africa’s third largest, nicknamed the calendar lake because it it 365m long by 52m wide, it sits in a trough formed by the Great Rift Valley.

From Chitimba we walked to nearby Livingstonia which was a 30km round trip, up a zig-zagging track through thick forests and onto an open plateau. Livingstonia was built in 1884 by missionaries and named after Dr David Livingtsone, the Scottish explorer. It is a very picturesque place, with lots of colonial style buildings alongside traditional African buildings and mud and thatch huts. En route to Livingstonia we saw Manchewe Falls, which is where, according to local stories, people hid in the caves from the slave traders.

We visited Stone House Museum, the original home of Dr Laws, the museum tells the story of European arrival in Malawi, it is now a national monument and also has an accommodation wing. The nearby mission church, dating from 1894, has beautiful stained glass windows featuring David Livingstone with his medicine chest and two travel companions.

Kande Beach camp was right on the edge of Lake Malawi and there was a little island just off the shore, I took a swim to it to explore and get a view of the lake shore and surrounding hills, about 40 minute swim there and back. There were lots of water based activities available, like scuba diving, snorkelling, pedalos, sailing and canoeing.

At Kande Beach I went for a 3 hour horse ride with Kande Horses, the stables were lovely and the horses well kept, run by a guy from Birmingham, UK, who has lived in Malawi for over 13 years. We went through the local villages and back into the forrest and farmlands. Most of the crops we saw growing were sweet potato, banana and cavasa, which is a root vegetable eaten by locals, it is dried and then ground into a flour which is then cooked with water into a thick porridge like meal. We ended our ride on the beach and went swimming with the horses, I have never done it before and it was great fun!