Transportation in Malawi is poorly developed. The country of almost 14 million has 39 airports, 6 with paved runways and 33 with unpaved runways. It has 797 kilometres of railways, all narrow-gauge and about 45 percent of its roads are paved. Though it is landlocked, Malawi also has 700 km (435 mi) of waterways on Lake Malawi and along the Shire River.
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo.
The geography of Mozambique consists mostly of coastal lowlands with uplands in its center and high plateaus in the northwest. There are also mountains in the western portion. The country is located on the east coast of southern Africa, directly west of the island of Madagascar. Mozambique has a tropical climate with two seasons, a wet season from October to March and a dry season from April to September.
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
The British Central Africa Protectorate (BCA) was a British protectorate proclaimed in 1889 and ratified in 1891 that occupied the same area as present-day Malawi: it was renamed Nyasaland in 1907. British interest in the area arose from visits made by David Livingstone from 1858 onward during his exploration of the Zambezi area. This encouraged missionary activity that started in the 1860s, undertaken by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland, and which was followed by a small number of settlers. The Portuguese government attempted to claim much of the area in which the missionaries and settlers operated, but this was disputed by the British government. To forestall a Portuguese expedition claiming effective occupation, a protectorate was proclaimed, first over the south of this area, then over the whole of it in 1889. After negotiations with the Portuguese and German governments on its boundaries, the protectorate was formally ratified by the British government in May 1891.
Nkhotakota (Un-kho-tah-kho-tuh) is a town and one of the districts in the Central Region of Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. As of 2018, Nkhotakota had a population estimated at 28,350. The district had a population of 301.000.
Liwonde, or Livonde, is a town located in Machinga District, in the Southern Region of Malawi.
Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi which is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Monkey Bay was 14,955 according to the 2018 census. Monkey Bay is 206 kilometres (128 mi) from Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city, and 253 kilometres (157 mi) from Blantyre. Monkey Bay is a tourist resort and is often travelled through on the road to Cape Maclear.
Chizumulu Island is the smaller of two islands in Lake Malawi, the larger being the nearby Likoma island, which together make up the Likoma District. Both these islands lie just a few kilometres from Mozambique and are entirely surrounded by Mozambican territorial waters, but they belong to Malawi. They are therefore exclaves of Malawi. This came about because the islands were colonised by Anglican missionaries spreading east from Nyasaland, rather than by the Portuguese who colonised Mozambique. The British originally claimed the entire Lake Nyasa/Lake Malawi, but in 1954 signed an agreement with Portugal, which recognized the centre of the lake as the boundary between their holdings and Mozambique, and making these islands an enclave.
Nacala, also known as Cidade de Nacala or Nacala-Porto is a city on the northern coast of Mozambique. Located in the southwestern indentation of inner Fernao Veloso Bay, it is the deepest natural port on the east coast of Africa. Nacala serves as the terminal for the Nacala railway, a rail line to the landlocked Malawi. South of Nacala is Mozambique Island, at one time the capital of Mozambique and now a World Heritage Site.
Likoma District is the least populous district of Malawi, which consists of two separate exclaves of Malawi situated within Mozambican waters in Lake Malawi. It consists of two main islands, Likoma and Chizumulu. It is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Likoma.
Likoma is the main town on Likoma Island in Malawi. It is the administrative capital of Likoma District.
Livingstonia or Kondowe is a town located in the Northern Region district of Rumphi in Malawi. It is 430 kilometres north of the capital, Lilongwe, and connected by road to Chitimba on the shore of Lake Malawi.
Lake Malawi National Park is a national park at the southern end of Lake Malawi in Malawi, Southeast Africa. It is the only national park in Malawi that was created with the purpose of protecting fish and aquatic habitats. Despite this being its main purpose, Lake Malawi National Park includes a fair amount of land, including a headland, the foreshore and several small rocky islands in Lake Malawi.
Nkhata Bay or just Nkhata is the capital of the Nkhata Bay District in Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi, east of Mzuzu, and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Nkhata Bay was 14,274 according to the 2018 census. Nkhata Bay is 413 kilometres (257 mi) from Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city, and 576 kilometres (358 mi) from Blantyre, Malawi's second-largest city. Nkhata Bay is the second "busiest resort" on Lake Malawi.
The Pink Map, also known in English as the Rose-Coloured Map, was a map prepared in 1885 to represent Portugal's claim of sovereignty over a land corridor connecting their colonies of Angola and Mozambique during the Scramble for Africa. The area claimed included most of what is currently Zimbabwe and large parts of modern Zambia and Malawi. In the first half of the 19th century, Portugal fully controlled only a few coastal towns in Angola and Mozambique. It also claimed suzerainty over other almost independent towns and nominally Portuguese subjects in the Zambezi valley, but could rarely enforce its claims; most of the territory now within Angola and Mozambique was entirely independent of Portuguese control. Between 1840 and 1869, Portugal expanded the area it controlled but felt threatened by the activities of other powers.
MV Ilala, formally Ilala II, is a motor ferry that has plied Lake Malawi in East Africa since 1951. Every week she crosses the lake all the way north to Chilumba, Malawi, near Tanzania and then returns to Monkey Bay. She carries both passengers and freight, and calls at major towns on both the Malawian and Mozambican coast, as well as at two islands of the lake.
MV Chauncy Maples is a motor ship and former steamship that was launched in 1901 as SS Chauncy Maples. She spent her entire career on Lake Malawi and was regarded as the oldest ship afloat in Africa. After more than one hundred years' service it was intended to restore her for use as a floating medical clinic to support the several million lakeshore dwellers whose average life expectancy is 44 years. The Government of Malawi offered support for this in 2009 and charity fundraising was sufficient to make progress. The hull was found to be beyond repair at a viable cost so a more practical modern craft was proposed to give ambulance service around the lake.
Chilumba is a town in Malawi. It is an urban centre in Karonga District.
