Where on Earth, Week 3: Senga Bay, Malawi!

Madagascar, Spain, Tanzania, Kenya, Vietnam. These were some of the guesses people offered up for this week’s Where On Earth. However, none of them were right. I was beginning to wonder if anybody’d get it…

Then along came Saki, who knew exactly where kevinalaska92 had made this shot: Senga Bay, Malawi. Saki was there in February.

Though it’s only about 2 hours by car to Senga Bay from the capital, Lilongwe, if you have to take public transport, you have to take a bus from Lilongwe to Salima and then hitch a ride to Senga Bay. In other words: it could take all day.

There isn’t a lot to do in Senga Bay. There’s a hammock to the right. About 500 feet behind is a small bar, and 1/4 mile up the beach is a dude who rents a plastic boat by the hour. And just beyond that is a pretty posh hotel — the Livingstonia Beach Resort — which struck me as oddly out of place. The cool thing is that the campground here attracts lots of different kinds of travelers — and it’s a favorite stop for overlanders — so there’s a continuous stream of fresh faces. However, if you get tired of roughin’ it, you can always hike to the Livingstonia, have an iced drink, and order a sandwich from the bar.

I spent 4 or 5 days on Senga Bay over Y2K. No, we didn’t see any hippos, though we heard some snorts at night.