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09/15/2002: We have seen so many postcards and pictures of it before: white sandy beaches, clear blue water, fisher villages. And it was exactly what we found when we arrived at the Lake Malawi. It is the third biggest lake of Africa. It spreads on 24 000 km² and the Borders of Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique form its coast. With 700 meters depth at some places, it is one of the deepest lakes in the world. We drive along the coast more than 500 kilometres and enjoy the nice beaches and the kindness of the local people. Unfortunately we also enjoy two very stormy days - with so much wind and waves, we rather think to be at the ocean than on the shore of a lake! But we also know how to enjoy the wind.

09/09/2002: After spending four months in the dry Africa, what a surprise to discover the Nyika Plateau in the North of Malawi! The dust road leading to it goes up and up and up. After two hours driving we reach the plateau: a wide place that spread on 3200 km², all of it at an height of more than 2100 meters. The temperature sunk under 23°C (we are used to 30°!) and the landscape changed completely. In front of us we can see a vast range of high rolling hills, covered in montane grassland and little colourful flowers. We almost believed us to be in Scotland... until we saw the first zebras, elands and roan antelopes. Yep, we are still in Africa!

09/05/2002: Our first stopping place in Malawi is Lilongwe. This city of 350,000 inhabitants is the capital of the country since 1975. To us it is a good opportunity to visit the SOS children’s village, a humanitarian project for orphaned children. We specially wanted to know more about the medical centre, the village and the work that is done there. Follow us on our tour through the SOS children's village of Lilongwe!

09/01/2002: Today we leave Zambia and arrive in Malawi. We are impatient to discover the fourth country of our big trip!

08/31/2002: The reason for some changes in our planning was a visit in Katete. Close to the little town we find the Mkaika Chewa Headquarter - the palace of the king of the Chewa - and there every year a big ceremony is held to honour the King. As a cultural climax in our visit of Zambia we did not want to miss the "Kulamba": Visit the special page to this happening.

08/27/2002: For sure we also visit the famous South Luangwa National Park - "A must for every Zambia visitor", as we can read in a guide-book. We join a night drive for four hours because we hope to get closer to leopards and lions after the sunset when private vehicles are not allowed in the park. Unfortunately we had not much luck: The only nocturnal animal that showed up was the Large Spotted Genet ... But using our entry-permit for another ten ours the next day, we crossed the 9.050 km² measuring park extensively. Many Elephants, Impalas, Zebras, Waterbucks, Baboons, Vervet Monkeys and endemic Thornicroft's Giraffes crossed our paths, in the Luangwa river we watched countless Hippos fairly good and spot a few crocodiles. We were not able to see all 233 different species of mammals that live within the Luangwa valley, but even the magnitude of landscapes with wide plains, high trees, dense bush and river-banks have been very impressive.

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