Liwonde National Park

Archetypal African River Setting

Liwonde ranks among my very favourite national parks anywhere in Africa. Its most compelling feature is the Shire River, a stunning palm-lined tropical waterway that evokes every romantic notion of untrammelled Africa, especially at night when the air resonates with the chirruping of frogs. The stretch of river running through the park is home to some 2,000 hippos, and you seldom spend long on it without encountering some of the park’s elephants drinking or waiting in the shallows.

Liwonde has always been a special reserve, and it has seen massive developments and improvements since being taken over by the NGO African Parks in 2015. This includes the reintroduction of lion, cheetah, Africa wild dog and black rhino, as well as the fencing off of the entire park to minimize human-wildlife conflict. On my most recent visit, in May 2024, I was lucky enough to see lions on a daily basis, and also had a great cheetah sighting, while other guests were fortunate to sit for several minutes with a black rhino. Other highlights included a pair of bushpigs feeding on the riverbank and sable antelope in the thick mopane woodland away from the river. Impala, waterbuck, bushbuck, warthog, vervet monkey and yellow baboon are all common.

Liwonde is a superb park for birding, with more than 400 species recorded. Aquatic birds are prolific and include African fish eagle, saddle-billed stork, Pel’s fishing owl, palm-nut vulture, rufous-bellied heron and white-backed night heron. Localised woodland species I’ve seen on pretty much every visit include brown-breasted barbet, Böhm’s bee-eater, Lilian’s lovebird, Livingstone’s flycatcher and collared palm-thrush. A key attraction of this reserve is the varied range of activities, which include sensational boat trips and guided walks, as well as night and daytime game drives. An all-round gem.