Ng'ona Lodge

Arriving by road from Blantyre, guests drop nearly a thousand metres down the escarpment before reaching the Shire River and, a mile and a half beyond, Majete Game Reserve. Ng'ona Lodge sits on the river's western bank, inside that final stretch, run since 2010 by Monika Steidl, an Austrian who has lived in Malawi since 1992. She took on a rundown safari camp with her late husband Gerhard, whose eye for design still shows in the lodge's details. It is a small operation. Four self-contained chalets sleep two to four each, with showers, mosquito nets, fans and a shaded verandah apiece. Two newer air-conditioned rooms face the river directly, and a campsite with its own braai area takes overflow groups. Meals are served in an open-sided thatched restaurant raised above the pool and river, with a bar for residents and day visitors alike. Crocodiles bask on the sandbanks below the rapids in front of the lodge, the same stretch where the explorer David Livingstone once had to strip down his boat to pass. Majete itself holds elephant, reintroduced giraffe and more than 300 recorded bird species. Guests can arrange a guided drive into the reserve or take up pottery with Ruari Maclean, a retired art teacher who runs a small studio on site. Wi-Fi runs on Starlink.