I enjoyed my visit to Malawi in 1990. I booked a 10-day fly-drive holiday from Harare, flew into Lilongwe and picked up a battered old car. I stayed the first night at a good hotel in the capital.

The next day I walked to a nearby post office and sent some letters home. I don’t think they were used to seeing white people in there. The locals deferentially parted for me to be served first. I declined the invitation, but they insisted.

I drove from Lilongwe to Mangochi, where I had accommodation booked in a resort on Lake Malawi. Frankly I had no idea where I was going, but it was a fascinating drive.

The only map I could buy was of Nyasaland, which was Malawi’s name before independence in the early 1960s!

I drove through some villages and recall seeing lots of goats. There was very little traffic, even on the main highway.

Eventually I stumbled across the resort, where I enjoyed some wonderful weather and sunbaking on the lake.

A group of Zambian travel agents arrived shortly after me on a familiarisation tour, and I made friends with two of them.

The nearest town to the resort was Mangochi, on the Shire River, which used to be called Fort Johnston.

According to Wikipedia, Mangochi today (2026) has a population of more than 53,000 people. The town was founded by colonial administrator Sir Harry Johnston in the 1890s as a British colonial defence post on the plain of the Shire River's western shore.

Mangochi was developed as an agricultural centre and has marine-engineering shops. Cash crops grown in the area include tobacco, cotton, and groundnuts. Rice and maize are intensively grown along the lakeshore, and commercial fishing is also important.

The Lake Malawi Museum houses ethnic, environmental, and historical exhibits. They include the Hotchkiss gun with which the British gunboat Gwendolen defeated the German gunboat Hermann von Wissmann with a single shot in their brief naval engagement in August 1914. The museum apparently has a scale model of the Gwendolen.

I didn't know about this, unfortunately, when I visited, or I would have gone there. Internet didn't exist then.

The Queen Victoria Memorial Tower (pictured) was built in 1901 and it's near the Bakili Muluzi Bridge, it features a non-working clock and a Hotchkiss cannon from the Gwendolen.

I stayed at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge and remember seeing the fishermen at work. It was lovely to relax on the lake's beach.

The Shire River reminds me of the local beverage, Shire Valley Rum. it was a white rum, like Bacardi, and quite splendid. I brought a bottle home, but it didn’t last long.

After staying on the lake I spent two days in Blantyre, which is Malawi’s largest city and main business centre.

Me in 1990, relaxing at Lake Malawi