Excursions from Nkhotakota

Vehicle Hire – There will usually be a vehicle and driver available for taking visitors on trips. The charges are approx. £0.25 per Km plus £2.50 per hour.

Slave Tour in Nkhotakota Township - 20 kms North from the pottery. A visit is included in all the courses.

Referred to in old books as “the largest village in Africa ”. Once a staging post in the slave trade en route to the Indian Ocean and Zanzibar , the 19th Century missionaries completed the large Church in 1894, which is still regularly filled. Near the Church is the “Livingstone Tree” where David Livingstone is reputed to have rested on his travels.

Today Nkhotakota is a very typical Malawian District Headquarters town, with its hospital, post office, filling station, police station, etc. as well as lots of general stores, rest houses and bars and an old jetty where the lake steamer calls on its weekly trip around the lake. There is also a thriving local market selling a wide variety of things including brightly coloured cloths.

Dwangwa Sugar Plantation - 70 kms North from the pottery

The largest sugar plantation in Malawi , Dwangwa produces sugar for both the local market and for export. Situated along the lake much of the plantation is irrigated by a system of canals and sprinklers. The waste from the sugar is distilled into ethanol which is added at the rate of 10% to all the petrol in Malawi to save on imports.

Mua Mission - 160kms South of the Pottery. A visit is included in all the courses.

An old Catholic mission built early in the 20th century, the original living quarters were elevated to keep the missionaries away from marauding lions and elephants. Father Claude Boucher, originally from Canada , has spent much of his life at Mua teaching carving and painting and studying Malawian traditions and interpreting the gospels into a Malawian context. There are few people who know more about Malawian culture than Father Boucher and he has recently opened the small museum of Malawian culture that he has spent the past 15 years preparing. At and around Mua there are many wood carvers at work and sometimes there are paintings for sale at Mua.

Local Safaris are run by the pottery. Nkhotakota Game Reserve, about 40kms from the pottery, is pristine bush of miombo woodland with some spectacular views of the Bua River but it is largely undeveloped so it can be difficult to see the reportedly abundant game. It is a beautiful place to take a walking safari and, accompanied by an armed game scout, you will see many species of birds, some considered rare elsewhere. There is a possibility to see a wide variety of game including crocodiles, elephants, buffalo and occasionally even lions.

Cultural Tour - We can take you to a village near the Game Reserve where the Department for Wildlife is developing alternative sources of income to discourage poaching. Guests will have a chance to see and learn about many aspects of village life. The villagers will explain about their traditional initiation ceremonies and guests will be able to watch, and join if they wish, the exciting dances that are still performed every year at the ceremony. The villagers will also escort guests to a nearby waterfall where the water has etched extraordinary forms into the rocks. A cultural tour is included in all the courses.

Boat Rides, Lake Fishing and Sailing – all these activities are available at the pottery under the supervision of Frank our experienced Safari Guide and Boatman.

Salima and Senga Bay - Salima is just over 100kms South of the Pottery and Senga Bay is a further 22kms. Salima has a few more shops and a larger market than Nkhotakota. There is an extensive craft and carvings market on the road before reaching Senga Bay . Near Senga Bay is the Stuart Grant Tropical Fish Farm which is well worth a visit and from where, in a carefully monitored operation, some of the many unique and colourful fish from Lake Malawi are exported to tropical fish enthusiasts all over the world. Some resorts offer boat rides and water sports. There is also pools where hippo can usually be seen.

Kuti Game Ranch – 95kms South of the Pottery. A fairly new small game park on the road to Salima; the ranch has a range of antelopes, zebras, ostriches and the only giraffes in Malawi .

South Luangwa National Park , Zambia - A 6 or 7 hours drive depending on the state of the road. About 3 hours on good tarmac in Malawi and 3 - 4 hours on reasonable tarmac and dirt roads in Zambia . Plus some time at the border with formalities. However this park is very special and visitors will almost certainly see elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo, lots of different buck, warthogs, zebras, and many types of apes and lots of birds. You are quite likely to see lion and have a reasonable chance to see a leopard. Although the camp where you will stay is outside the park you must take care at night as elephants or a hippo may be wandering around. While the park is becoming more popular it is still relatively unknown and offers one of the unique experiences of Africa .

Liwonde National Park - 300 kms South of the Pottery on the River Shire. A boat trip on the river into the park can be very exciting with hippos and crocodiles, lots of birds and, particularly during the dry season, the chance to see herds of elephants coming to the river. On a drive in the park you should see many types of buck, apes, warthogs, possibly zebra and perhaps lions that have recently returned to the area. The park also has a secure sanctuary where a pair of black rhino and their young calf, born in the park, are protected. For an additional fee it is possible to take a drive in the sanctuary but the area is very large so that the chance of seeing a rhino is not great. There are several possibilities to stay overnight within the Park.