Majete National Park

Enough was enough; Three month had passed and no encounters with any large game animals. It was time to visit a national park.

Majete National Park is about an hour drive from Blantyre. I decided to visit the nearby park for my birthday weekend. I called up the first phone number on google search, booked a night at Tawale lodge along with two game drives, and then off I went the very next day.

My expression when I found this inconspicuous tree frog. 

Like most trips in a minibus the journey to Majete was eventful. I was sitting in the back seat when our trunk flew open and all our stuff crashed out onto the highway. Bystanders rushed over, shoved the luggage back into the trunk and we drove off without another incident.

Once I entered the park it didn’t take long before spotting my first impala, then another, and another, and you get the point. It’s the mating season for impala, meaning the males become territorial, stand their ground and wait around for a herd of females to visit them.

Tawale lodge has a main bar and restaurant area that overlooks a watering hole. I spotted some warthogs and more impala at the as they played around in the watering hole. After a while a large herd of at least 50 buffalo arrived for a cool down dip. There were also zebras and waterbuck too. The one in the picture is drinking from a birdbath just a couple feet away from my room. 

Finally it came time to start the night drive. They start at dusk with about an hour to spot animals in the diminishing sunlight; there were many different species of antelope. After an hour of driving around you stop for some sundowners by the Shire River, a couple Carlsberg greens for me. Once you’re a little bit buzzed you carry on searching for animals, this time in the night and with a big spotlight.

We didn’t see a large variety of nocturnal animals but we did see a large hippo out of the water and some large elephants! Still would have loved to see some nocturnal wildcat species or a bush baby.

The people I joined for the night drive were from America. It was nice to talk with people close to home but they were a large group that wasn’t entirely interested in making a solo friend. How they knew it was my birthday was beyond me, they even got me a cake for dessert. Just kidding, coincidently one of the American girls was turning the same age as me on the exact same date. I enjoyed their cake and retired for the night. That’s until the buffalo were back and surrounding my tent, making all sorts of deep noises during the early hours of the morning.

My birthday Cake! This elephant just wanting us to go away already.

Woke up for the six o’clock game drive. We were really hoping to see a lion or rhino during this trip but we didn’t have any luck. We did find their tracks and some rhino dung.

Campsite tent.

I decided to stay for an extra night but had to switch over to the campsite. The campsite was very satisfactory they do all the difficult parts for you like cooking and tent construction. They even provide a mattress with clean sheets. The only thing you miss out on is the view of a watering hole.

Felt safe walking with the armed parked ranger. 

I did two nature hikes while I was in the park. The first one was alone with a park ranger. It was nice seeing little details you wouldn’t normally see in a car. Interestingly the animals are more afraid of people when they’re on foot than in cars. The animals would dart away at the first sign of us. Also still no chameleon.

The entire reservoir was drained in less than thirty minutes.

it left some crocodiles stranded on the muddy banks.

A lovely Belgium couple invited me to join them on a second nature hike. We went along with another park ranger. Originally we were supposed to do a river tour but a hydroelectric dam was being service the day we planned the trip. Even though we didn’t get out on the water we still got to see the reservoir being emptied at an astonishingly fast rate. That was cool to see and it only happens once every three months.

After the hike it was time to go home. Frederic and Nida kindly offered to drive me back to Blantyre and I graciously accepted. Thank you kindly, I hope we meet again.