Cape Maclear
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Cape Maclear

Cape Maclear

Lake Malawi beach village backed by granite hills and protected waters rich with cichlid fish.

Cape Maclear is Malawi's most famous backpacker beach, strung along a five-kilometre arc of sand on the southwestern shore of Lake Malawi. The lake here is at its most dramatic: crystal-clear, warm, and ringed by granite hills that tumble straight into the water. The National Park designation — Lake Malawi National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site — has kept development low-key, and the village that lines the beach remains a scatter of guesthouses, bar-restaurants, and fishing boats rather than a resort strip.

The beach has a slow, easy rhythm that lends itself to staying longer than planned. You can snorkel straight off the sand among hundreds of species of cichlid fish, take a dhow trip to Thumbi West Island, or hire a local guide for a short hike up to the rocky viewpoints above the bay. The best snorkelling close to shore is around Otter Point at the southern end of the beach. Diving courses are available and the visibility, on a calm day, is remarkable. The fishing village at the northern end of the beach is worth a walk: Chembe is one of the oldest communities on the lake shore and the contrast between tourist Cape Maclear and working village life is only a few minutes apart.

Accommodation runs from basic reed-and-thatch bandas to more comfortable en-suite guesthouses. The popular spots fill up fast in peak season (June to September), so arriving before midday gives you the best choice. Fish braais — lake fish grilled over charcoal — are the thing to eat here, usually arranged through your guesthouse with a few hours' notice. Prices for everything, including boat trips, are negotiable and worth asking about before you commit.

Guide

Eating Out

Eating in Cape Maclear is almost entirely a lodge affair. The bar-restaurants attached to the backpacker lodges along the beach — Mufasa, Gecko Lounge, Thumbi View, Fat Monkey at the southern end — all run open-air kitchens with similar menus: lake fish (chambo, the lake's signature tilapia, is what to order), curries, pizza, vegetarian options, cold Carlsberg Green.

For something more local, the chip-and-chambo stalls in Chembe village do whole grilled lake fish, nsima (the maize-flour staple of the Malawian diet) and beans for a fraction of lodge prices. The Cape Mac Lodge restaurant a kilometre back along the beach road is the only sit-down restaurant in the area that consistently does formal three-course dinners.

Guide

Getting There

Cape Maclear is at the end of a 17-kilometre dirt road that branches off the main M10 highway about ten kilometres north of Monkey Bay. The turn is signposted; the road is rough but passable in a 2WD car in dry weather. From Lilongwe, allow about four hours; from Blantyre, around five.

Public transport: take a minibus to Monkey Bay from any major southern town, then change to a shared pickup or matola for the run out to Chembe. Most backpacker lodges offer pickups from Monkey Bay for a small fee if arranged in advance. The MV Ilala lake steamer calls at Monkey Bay on its weekly circuit.

Guide

Things to Do

Cape Maclear is a place where the headline activity is doing nothing — the beach itself, the lake water, the sunsets behind the granite hills. The structured things to do are mostly variations on getting into or onto Lake Malawi: snorkelling among the cichlids straight off the beach, a dhow or kayak day-trip to Thumbi Island, a PADI dive course, or a hike up to one of the rocky viewpoints behind the village. Chembe village at the northern end of the beach is worth a walk through for the contrast with the backpacker strip.