Birdlife is prolific, “specials” include churring - and mountain cisticolas, malachite sunbirds, Fulleborn’s black boubou, bar-tailed trogon, mountain nightjar and several species of greenbul which occur deep in the canopy of the forests.

Chelinda camp is situated in the centre of the Nyika Plateau’s high grasslands. It consists of basic rooms where accommodation is offered on a full board basis. The rooms are constructed from stone and are all en-suite with either bath or shower and each room has a fire place. The accommodation is built around a dam and surrounded on 3 sides by Chelinda Pine Plantation. The climate is always cool due to the altitude and night time temperatures, particularly in the winter months, can be very chilly.

With panoramic views over the rolling grasslands of the Nyika Plateau, Chelinda Lodge has one of the most magnificent settings in Africa. Sixteen guests can be accommodated in eight individual en-suite log cabins, each with its own log fire. The log cabins surround the main dining area and are connected by raised wooden walkways.

In the 1960’s three dams were constructed on the Nyika Plateau and soon after they were stocked with rainbow trout as were the major rivers - the Chelinda, North Rumphi, North Rukuru, Dembo and Runyina. Since then there has been no stocking but the rainbow trout have bred very successfully in all the rivers and upstream from one of the dams - so all trout on the Nyika are classified as “wild fish”. The dams and rivers are at this stage open all year round for fishing, but fishing permits are required and is limited to a daily bag limit of six fish per permit – catch and release is encouraged though…

HIKING ON NYIKA
Livingstonia Trail - This is by far the most popular hiking trail on the Nyika and can also be done as a fully serviced trek. The route runs from Chelinda in the heart of the plateau to the famous Livingstonia Mission on the Khondowe plateau on the eastern edge of the plateau overlooking Lake Malawi. It is a two night/three day hike with approximately six hours walking per day. There is a final ascent to Livingstonia and accommodation either at the Stone House (built in 1903 by Robert Laws the founder of the mission) or at Lukwe Camp overlooking the Manchewe Falls - the highest in Malawi.

Apart from this very popular hiking trail there are also the Chelinda trails which go around the Chelinda plantation areas and are shorter routes for full day or half day treks. Then for the serious hiker there is the Full Plateau Traverse. This trek goes all around the park and to the most scenic spots thinkable. This 7 day trek takes you around the National Park past points like Domwe, Jalawe, Nganda, Juniper, Fingira and many more…

SEASONS OF THE NYIKA

APRIL
By early April the rains are coming to an end and the temperatures are starting to cool down. The grasslands are still green but starting to seed so looking more reddish brow. The views are at their best with clear air and so looking eastwards from the high points (Nganda, Jalawe, etc) you can see approximately 100 miles of Lake Malawi including the northern end and the Livingstone Mountains very clearly in Tanzania. Most of the migrant birds are now gone and the summer flowers are nearly over with a few species of grassland orchids left (primarily Habenaria sp. which have green flowers and so are hard to see in the grass). However, the winter flowers have started to bloom so a number of species of the everlasting family are out, as are many of the protea bushes at lower altitudes.

There is still a lot of wildlife on the high plateau with eland herds up to 50 in number, roan, reedbuck, bushbuck and zebra all around.

MAY
In May the grasslands start to turn yellow and by the end of the month the whole plateau is the colour of a wheat field. The days are still generally very clear but occasional winter ‘chiperones’ can come in with the cloud staying low to the ground for a day or two. The everlasting flowers are everywhere but birding in the forests becomes more difficult as temperatures start to drop. By the end of May maximum day time temperatures are +/-20˚C and maximum night time temperatures are +/- 10˚C. There are still a lot of zebra around but eland start to disperse away from Chelinda to lower altitudes so game drives need to go further a field.

JUNE
In June the DNPW starts its early burn programme to protect the grasslands and forests from late hot fires. So the air starts to become hazier and stays like this until the first rains in October. Due to the cold a lot of the wildlife drops to lower altitudes but all the usual Nyika wildlife species will still be seen but in smaller herds and more scattered away from Chelinda. It is now getting fairly cold and by the end of the month you may have the odd frost!

JULY
This is the month of frosts (on 25/26 July 1985 a record low of -6.7˚C was measured) - so usually clear cold days! By the middle of July the early burnt patches are sprouting a green flush and this brings a fair amount of wildlife back to the high plateau and on these burnt patches the concentrations of wildlife can be fantastic. If the burning has been a little excessive then the plateau can look a bit bleak but drives etc are taken to the more productive, more attractive areas. Grassland birding is excellent with Denham’s bustards congregating on the burnt areas as well as smaller species of francolin, quail, pipits and larks. Very few flowers are around at this time. Forest birding is difficult as the birds are not very active in the cold weather but we can usually find the more common species such as bar-tailed trogon. By the end of the month the eland have started to drop their young at lower altitudes so the first of these are often seen.

AUGUST
The first half of the month is similar to July but by mid August the temperatures start to rise and normally on 17 August we say winter is officially over with the arrival of the blue swallows which are the first migrant birds to arrive for breeding (if we exclude yellow billed kites!). The eland return to the high plateau with their young and start gathering into large herds based around the “crèche”. By the end of the month numbers in the herds may be up to 100. Roan are seen in large numbers as well.

SEPTEMBER
From now until March is the best time for game viewing. The eland herds number up to 300, roan up to 50 and the zebra return to the high plateau in their small family groups occasionally gathering into larger herds up to 30. All the burnt areas now have a good green flush on them and in the middle of the month the flowers begin to bloom carpeting the burnt areas in colour. Many of the migrant birds are arriving and the establishment of breeding territories begin in the forests so birding there becomes very productive - especially for the rarer, more secretive species (white breasted alethe, olive flanked robin etc). A highlight of this month is the bloom of new leaves in the miombo woodland of the foothills of the Nyika with the whole woodland awash in reds, oranges and burgundies.

OCTOBER
Nyika’s hottest month with maximum daytime temperatures up to 26˚C and maximum night time temperatures up to 15˚C!!! Game viewing, birding and the flowers are all at their best with the first orchids even appearing. You may even get one or two thunderstorms during the month so the air is cleared…

NOVEMBER
This month you never know whether it is going to be very wet or remain dry! Game viewing and birding are still excellent but a lot of the colour in the grasslands has gone by the end of the month as the flowers die off. If there has been good rain then the orchids start to bloom in the bogs, and these are the flower highlights for the next few months.

DECEMBER
By now the rains will have started in earnest with big storms most days but these provide some of the Nyika’s most dramatic skies and scenery as you have the green grass against the black rain clouds. The orchids are now coming into their own (terrestrial and epiphytic) and all of the Nyika’s wildlife seems to be concentrated around Chelinda.

JANUARY & FEBRUARY
These are Nyika’s wettest months and it can rain all day (Chelinda receives an average of 1200mm per year). The grasslands are now green again so the game is not as concentrated as the previous three months and the eland herds are breaking up into smaller groups of up to 50. Birding is still good.

MARCH
This is one of the best months for birding even though there is still a lot of rain around. As well as the breeding migrant birds you can experience huge numbers of other species migrating northwards, in particular raptors such as hobbies, falcons, buzzards and eagles. There are still a lot of orchids around and the protea bushes are in full flower for the next two months.

History of the Nyika National Park
The Stone Age – Very little is known about the timings of man’s first arrival in the Nyika area. The earliest record of human presence in Malawi is an early Stone Age site near Karonga, 70km north of the Nyika Plateu, dated 73,000 B.C. Five rock shelters have been located within the present boundaries of Nyika National Park. They would have collected all their food from the wild searching out delicacies such as honey, birds, roots, caterpillars and termites. Hunting trips to the higher plateau were probably taken for large game, but were probably avoided because of the cold.

Iron Age – The earliest records of Iron Age in Malawi comes from a sight in Phopo Hill, near Vwaza Marsh, only 30km south of today’s Nyika National Park. Iron ore pit mines and relict kilns scattered around the Nyika Plateau indicate that this area was one of the smelting centres in the north, undoubtedly because of the abundance of iron–rich stone and evergreen trees necessary for making charcoal.

Colonial Period – In 1894 the Livingstonia Missionaries settled on the Kondowe Plateau, one of the lower ridges of the Nyika escarpment. Missionaries from Livingstania made many trips up onto the Nyika Plateau during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, exploring and making botanical collections. Writings of the missionaries report the presence of the Nyika people living on the edges of the plateau as late as 1895. The approaches to their tiny settlements were sometimes protected by man-traps and vicious spikes hidden in the grass…

Early conservation attempts – The small patch of relict Juniper Forest – located in what is now the south-east corner of the park – was the focus of the first attempts of conservation in the Nyika area. It was recommended in 1937, but it wasn’t until 1948 that this most southerly stand of Juniperus procera in Africa was actually made into a Forest Reserve by legislation. Between 1952 and 1958 the Colonial Development Corporation planted nearly 570 hectares of pines and some small stands of bluegums at Chelinda as trial plots.

The results of the experimental plantations were fair but transport difficulties prevented further development and in 1958 the project was withdrawn and the plantations were handed over to the Forestry Department.

Post Independence – in 1965, following Malawi’s independence, 940km² of the Nyika Plateau was formally declared Malawi’s first National Park. It was originally named Malawi National Park but was changed to Nyika National Park in 1969. The park was officially opened to visitors in 1965, and in 1978 the Park boundary was extended to include all of the plateau escarpments and most of the north-east and south hill-zones, increasing the area of the park to 3,134km².