The landscape here is wild and breathtaking: you’re surrounded by dense miombo woodland, cascading rivers and vast, green hills. Geographically, the reserve is perfectly located. Nkhotakota is the ideal, adventurous stopover on the route when travelling north from southern or central Malawi (such as Lilongwe or the lakeshore beaches) towards the rugged north. It breaks up a long day’s travel through the warm heart of Africa in a wonderfully natural way.

Nkhotakota is not Malawi’s number-one wildlife destination if you’re coming purely to tick off as many different animal species as possible in a short space of time. As the reserve is enormous and the woodland is quite dense in many places, spotting wildlife here can be quite a challenge.

But the park has undergone an impressive transformation thanks to major reintroduction programmes. One thing is certain: you will definitely encounter elephants here. Hundreds of elephants have now made this their home. You don’t visit Nkhotakota for a quick ‘tick-box safari’, but for ultimate tranquillity, a true sense of wilderness and the magical moment when a herd of elephants suddenly emerges from the dense, green forest.