At Manchewe in the north of Malawi a river spills over a precipice and falls onto rocks maybe a hundred feet below. Thick forest grows along the course of the river and over the rolling hills, on down to the edge of Lake Malawi. The falls sit a mile or so from the road. Not long after you leave the road and get into the forest, families of monkeys gather around in the treetops. They screech and squawk at a safe distance but soon find the confidence to come down for a closer look. The really brave ones swing down to see what they can grab, and they follow you on down towards the falls before they loose interest or reach the limit of their territory.
The sound of the falling, crashing water is the only guide to lead you to the falls. Around the top there isn't much to see, and no convenient viewing platform for a good view of the water as it tumbles down the sheer drop. Nor is there any way other than chance of finding the steep slippery path that zigzags along narrow shelves cut into the rock face leading down to the bottom.
It's certainly scenic, but the real intrigue is what the waterfall hides rather than the spectacle itself. Behind the curtain of water a cave eats far back into the rock. It's accessible by another hard to find path and it is that inaccessibility that gave the falls added value back in the days of the Slave Trade.
Arab traders used to ply the area around Lake Malawi. They would leave their Dhows at the shore and spread out inland to see who they could find, and in a sparsely populated area like this they had to look far and wide. Whoever they caught was transported to the ports in Mozambique to be sold on to European traders and eventually they would arrive in the trading centres in the Americas. The Ngoni lived around here. They were big and strong, ideal slave material, and at the first sign of Arab Dhows on the lake it was behind the falling water at Manchewe that they hid.
The falls are well worth the trouble to visit. A good deal of care is needed, and the combination of the history and the location will appeal to the dramatic imagination.
