The freshwater snorkeling capital of Africa — Lake Malawi's endemic cichlid fish visible from the shore, the clearest lake water in Africa, and the most relaxed backpacker beach in the continent
Cape Maclear (Chembe village, the local name for the settlement at the southern end of the Cape Maclear peninsula on the western shore of Lake Malawi) is the focal point of Lake Malawi National Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1984 — the world's first freshwater national park, protecting the fish diversity of the lake's southern section) and the primary visitor destination for Lake Malawi itself. Lake Malawi (the southernmost of the East African Great Rift Lakes, 560km long, 40-80km wide, 706m deep, covering 9% of Malawi's total area, the ninth-largest lake in the world by area) is the most…
Lake Malawi (called Lake Nyasa by the Yao and Nyanja peoples of the lakeshore, and renamed Lake Malawi at independence in 1964) was 'discovered' by David Livingstone in 1859 during his Zambezi Expedition (though the lake had been inhabited and mapped by Arabic-Swahili slave traders since at least the 16th century; Livingstone's contribution was introducing it to the European geographic record). The Cape Maclear peninsula was the site of the Free Church of Scotland's Livingstonia Mission (established 1875, named for Livingstone who had died in 1873) — the mission moved twice due to malaria bef…