Introducing Cederique and Tina!
Cederique and Tina will blow your socks off with their Malawi Adventure, you guys are not ready!
But before we jump the gun, hello Visit Malawi avid readers and travellers!
Meet Cederique and Tina, who both live in Belgium. Tina is originally Malawian & Cederique is Belgian.
Travelling is their passion like yours (hence you’re probably here)! Here is their Malawi Travel adventure and our featured article of the month.
Cederique and Tina will take you on a journey into Malawi….. So, come along on this wild adventure.
Cederique and Tina’s 30 Day Adventure Itinerary
Cederique’s Perspective:
Malawi is a hidden gem in this world.
Many people don’t know about Malawi and I was one of them until, I met Tina for the first time.
Our adventure to Malawi was in in July, which is winter time there, but for us this was perfect.
Malawi weather in July is between 20 and 30 degrees, in a dry climate with minimal rain which offers good sleeping nights.
During the night, the temperature drops to around 15 degrees.
In the morning, the light is bright by 6:00 in the morning and the sunset is at around 17:00hrs.
Border Entry for Cederique and Tina
There is only two entry points into Malawi if flyint into the country.
You can either land through Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) located in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.
Although the city is vibrant and busy, i feel there aren’t too many special things to do.
After a days rest though, we head straight to Kiboko Safaris in Lilongwe!
A fee of around 800 dollars for the both of us bagged us a 3 day safari + stay, straight to ZAMBIA and South Luangwa National Park.
This park is a 6 hour drive from Lilongwe and you’ll have to get a visa to enter Zambia.
Please note: You will need a visa to enter Malawi again (unless you’ve acquired a multiple entry visa).
Tina and Cederique in Senga Bay
Senga Bay, is the hometown of Tina right by Lake Malawi ( third biggest lake in Africa).
You have some amazing spots in Senga Bay! There are all kind of lodges for IG photo’s such as the beautiful WheelHouse Marina .
For a place to stay over we’d recommend Safari Beach Lodge this is on a hill with a beautiful terrace overlooking the lake and to the left there’s a fishers village.
The Lodge has nice food, good wifi, a swimming pool and silent rooms.
You can also do a small hike in Senga Bay mountain with a local guide, to have a nice view of Senga Bay and the lake.
With so many beaches that you can have almost all to yourself, this is a great place to take a breather during your trip.
so stay as long as you want to have a restful time!
Nkhata Bay
After Senga Bay, we were lucky enough to get a ride in Tina’s uncle’s car to Nkhata Bay.
This was a long drive since the road to this location is in a really bad state.. but that’s part of the African experience I would say!
You will find great lodge opportunities, but we had a stop over at Kande Beach, because we couldn’t reach Nkhata bay before dark.
In Kande Beach you can surf on the sweet water if the weather is windy ( I did it! And it felt great to surf again!)
You can also ride horses in the jungle and on the beach if you’re into that.
Between Kande Beach and Nkhata Bay you also have a lot of beautiful beach lodges to stay over and relax depending on your budget.
Once we arrived in Nkhata Bay we marveled at the “Italy of Malawi,” a place that’s all hillside right next to the lake.
In the bay, you see the houses (village) and lodges on the mountain slopes which gives it a nice atmosphere.
Here, we recommend Mayoka Village to stay and relax. There are many activities to do here for very little money.
You can rent a boat for the afternoon and go to any beach that’s almost unreachable by foot because of the jungle.
You can also go cliff diving or snorkeling.
I must say even in the evenings we felt very safe walking around in the village, we also went out together locally and this was no problem.
From here, its also possible to take the ferry to several islands in the lake.
If you’re vegan we know a Malawian vegan guy that lives there and he has been vegan for over 20 years, so it can be done!
A few things to keep in mind while you’re in Nkhata Bay:
You’ll need to have cash with you as there are no ATM’s, and our visa or MasterCard did not work.
They do not have a big supermarket here only little stores, so if you’re a woman and it’s that time of the month, you won’t find anything out here
:p ( that was our issue).
The best option is to take a 1 hour drive to Mzuzu City up in the mountains.
Cape Maclear
After our journey through the North, we took the journey back all the way to Cape Maclear in Lake Malawi National Park!
You could safely call this the most touristic place in Malawi, but probably because it was in July, there were almost no tourists.
Again, keep in mind that you should make sure you have enough cash because there are no ATM’s near.
Now! Cape Maclear is such a wonderful place to get lost in.
You’ll really feel like you’re in paradise here. There are many lodges but we found one that we loved and we stayed here for every night.
The place is named Warm Heart Adventure Lodge. The price was amazing ($35 /night for the both of us) and the experience was wonderful.
A nights rest in a beach hut with a very nice bed, must be heaven.
If this isn’t enough, the morning sound of the peaceful lapping of the lake and 2 island views in the distance will leave you awe struck.
Cape Maclear has a very good snorkeling spot named Otter Point, it’s a must go to.
At Otter Point Spot, you will see the beautiful exotic fish.
Since there is no fishing permitted in the National Park, stunning fish are in abundance!
For Scuba diving, kayaking, sailing, and shopping in Cape Maclear you can check the info here!
Island Hopping in Cape Maclear
When in Cape Maclear, you can book boat trips with Kayak Africa to 3 different islands:
Domwe Island, Tumbi Island West and Mumbo Island.
On Tumbi, you can explore the Island on the cheaper side, via a day trip of snorkeling and exploring.
Secondly, Domwe Island has the same activities as Tumbi Island and stay for a decent price of around $45.
Lastly, Mumbo Island!
You can book Mumbo Island for one night and (hold on to your jaws) we paid $400, but it is totally worth it!
They allow a max of 10 people on the island per night. I think we were with 2 other couples on there.
However, we only saw each other when the bell rang over all of the island when it was lunch or dinner time.
On Mumbo Island, you have such beautiful snorkeling opportunities.
You get to see the one and only most territorial and most colourful fish in Malawi: the Cichlids.
This experience is truly a wonder.
Furthermore, because of the national park status, no one is allowed to fish here so they roam in abundance.
Also you can hike around the entire island and see no one. It’s truly an adventure.
A sunset boat tour is included around the island with a guide explaining everything.
Note: This is where we learned that the island used to be called “ Elephant Island”.
Apparently, a single elephant lived on Mumbo Island all on his own, before people came (probably swam over there).
You can also kayak around the island together with your snorkeling gear they provide for you.
Or you could chill on the beautiful beach of Mumbo Island, whatever your preference is! Definitely HONEYMOON MATERIAL!
Heading South!
After our time in Cape Maclear, we headed south, straight down to Blantyre City.
Here, we stayed over with a friend of Tina’s so we have no hotel recommendations, but as a general tip we would highly recommend not to book via online booking sites.
This is because you can really strike a deal ANYWHERE in Malawi just by negotiating with the people.
Don’t go for half the price or anything even more drastic, but you can go for maybe a third less than the price you see on online booking sites, or you can get free room upgrades if they’re low on customers.
There’s tons to enjoy out in the city, and you can enjoy Malawian, South African or afrobeats music while having a blast with dancing!
You have ATM’s here and supermarkets. Get sufficient cash before you head out somewhere else!
After spending some time in the city, we went straight to .. MOUNT MULANJE! Yesss our first biggest hike so far.
We did a 10 hour hike through Trolltunga in Norway in the past, and we thought that one was hard, guess again..
This hike is 53 km up and down and we completed it in 3 days. It was brutal but WHAT an experience.
Our hike went something like this:
1. First we met with our guide at the foot of the mountain, we payed him $25 a day so $75 in total
2. We had the choice of hiring a person to carry all our stuff( this was $45 a day )but we decided to carry everything ourselves
3. We bought food for 3 days (bananas, bread, peanut butter, vegetables, rice) since we’re vegan and it gave us energy for days!
4. Arrived at the trail-head of the mountain and paid $2 entry.
5. We hiked from 9:00 for 8 hours up to the first part of the mountain plateau, passed a lot of waterfalls and had a lot of swims.
We stayed the night in a hut with an amazing view and we also cooked in here with the cooking materials provided.
The cost was $2 to stay the night!
6. We started off the next morning for a 6 hour hike to Peak Sapitwa.
We had a short breather in the hut here, left our stuff taking a day-bag only and started climbing the peak! This was HARD.
It took us around 6 hours to go up enjoy the view and go back down to the hut and we arrived back like 5 minutes before the sunset.
Sapitwa is a maze!
You can’t find your way up or back without a guide and you don’t wanna be stuck here because it drops below zero degrees at night.
There are people who’ve actually frozen to death because they thought they were experienced hikers.
Don’t do it without a guide, the risk is not worth it.
7. On the third day, we began our descent and did this in around 7 hours.
It was steep and pretty dangerous at some points plus our feet were hurting from going down.
BUT YES! IT WAS ALL WORTH IT AND WE LOVED IT! Almost SAW NO ONE in 3 days except our guide!
Signs of Better Days to Come
The infection curves of Covid-19 are beginning to show signs of flattening in some parts of the world.
We therefore hope that each of you and yours are starting to see some respite from days of confinement and constant worry.
The world is certainly not out of the woods yet, but it’s nice to be able to think of what comes after all of this in a more realistic light.
Today we are so pleased that we are able to collaborate with this beautiful couple Cederique ad Tina.
Thank you for visually taking us along on your travels through Malawi.
Connect with Cederique and Tina
Connect with Cederique and Tina on IG (@ournextlocation) and their YouTube is here!
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