Big Blue Planet - Lake Malawi dive location holiday destination information for SCUBA divers who want to go diving.

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Destinations

Notable Inland Locations

Malawi

Lake Malawi

Location: Lake Malawi (Malawi)

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On this page you can see an overview of the location, including interactive maps, climate data, and photos. You can also see what other divers thought, the top dive sites, what fish to see, and what wrecks there are. We also have detailed listings of dive centres, resorts, travel agents and helpfull websites.

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Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa and sits in the middle of the Great Rift Valley. The lake, formerly Lake Nyasa, is bordered to the west and south-east by Malawi itself, to the east by Mozambique and to the north-east and north by Tanzania.

The lake is vast, and the windy weather, prevalent in the mornings, can make it quite choppy in places. It is full of fish, most notably the pretty colourful cichlids popular in aquaria, as well as larger fish such as catfish and freshwater eels. Hippopotami and crocodiles are rumoured to inhabit the lake, but not in any of the areas that diving is popular. Bilharzia has also been recorded in various places around the lake, but principally in those areas where reeds and grass grow on the bed - the breeding ground for the snails that breed the parasite. Bilharzia is not really a problem as long as theswe places are avoided and booties are worn. It is also easily treated if encountered.

Diving is centered on only a handful of places around the lake, most notably Cape Maclear, Monkey Bay and Nkata Bay in Malawi. A number of companies in these areas offer boat and shore diving including tank and weghts for $20 a dive or $30 for two. PADI courses are also amongst the cheapest in the world here and conducted in a safe and secure environment - no stinging seawater, no predators or poisonous fish, nice sandy bottoms and fantasic visibility.

Accommodation varies in quality and price from fairly average state-run 3*/4* hotels for about $50-$80 per night, to the more popular lodges, which will get you a comfortable en suite double room for $3-$5 per night - you might then have to pay a further $1-$2 for an evening meal!

The diving itself is fantastic. The bottom is either sand or rock - the cichlids tend to prefer the rocks. Fish vary in size from the 2cm to 10 cm cichlids all the way up to 1m long catfish, although these are much deeper. Most likely the largest fish you will see on an average dive is 10 cm, but there are lots of them!

The lake is an unusal place to dive, but will continue to be the focus of a growing tourist market in Malawi, the world's second poorest country.

Location Photos: