Nkhotakota

Nkhotakota on the central lakeshore was a major terminus of the nineteenth-century slave trade across the lake, and Livingstone met the trader Jumbe here in 1863 under a fig tree that still stands beside the mission. Behind the town the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve covers around eighteen hundred square kilometres of miombo woodland, and in 2016 and 2017 around five hundred elephants and some two thousand other animals were translocated into it in one of the larger such operations attempted in Africa.

History

In the 19th century the villages here became a market for Swahili-Arab slave traders, and under a tree that still stands by the mission David Livingstone persuaded Chief Jumbe to stop trading slaves; in 1905 Mary Hall came through on her journey from Cape Town to Cairo (Wikipedia, Nkhotakota).

What you'll find

• The wildlife reserve - eighteen hundred square kilometres of miombo behind the town.
• The elephant translocation - the animals moved in from 2016 to restock the reserve.
• The Livingstone fig - the tree by the mission where he met Jumbe in 1863.
• The lakeshore - the beaches and fishing villages along the coast.

When to go

May to October is the dry season and best for game. The rains make reserve tracks difficult. Game viewing is improving as the restocked populations settle.

Things to know

Game is still recovering and sightings are far from guaranteed despite the restocking. Reserve roads are rough. The town itself has limited facilities.

Nearby

Chia Lagoon is south, and Salima further south.

Key facts