Kayaking and swimming Lake Malawi from Chitimba
Summary
Lake Malawi, with its clear waters, beautiful beaches and sheer size (580km / 360miles long and 84km / 52miles wide), is the jewel in the crown for Malawi. There are many ways to experience it, such as one of the high-end private resorts or the hostel scene of Cape Maclear, but a more natural, peaceful and cheaper option is to camp by the beach in the Chitimba area. this area has the advantage of being at the foot walk that leads up to the mystical village of Livingstonia (see here for details on this wonderful experience – Hiking up to the former utopia of Livingstonia from Lake Malawi). Its also a great spot for jumping in a kayak and heading to one of the nearby small islands for snorkelling and general adventuring
highlights
#1 Kayaking out to one of the nearby islands for snorkelling and general adventuring
#2 Chilling on the beautiful sand beach, seeing the surrounding mountains and having the beach largely to yourself
#3 Taking on the challenging hike up into the mountains to the nearby former utopian town of Livingstonia
#4 Only being interrupted for someone to sell you coconut
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other beautiful Lakeside Experiences around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone