Niassa
Lake Niassa
The Mozambican shore of Lake Malawi: clear freshwater, rocky coves and hundreds of endemic fish species.
Lake Niassa — known as Lake Malawi on the other side — is one of the deepest lakes in the world and holds more fish species than any other lake on earth, most of them cichlids found nowhere else. The Mozambican shore is the quiet one: rocky bays, sandy coves, fishing villages and almost no development.
A reserve protects a stretch of this coastline, and snorkelling here is remarkable in a way most people do not expect from freshwater — clear visibility and dense clouds of brilliantly coloured fish over the rocks.
Metangula and Cóbuè are the main settlements, and the historic mission church at Cóbuè is worth the trip on its own.
Things to do
- Freshwater snorkelling with cichlids
- Metangula and Cóbuè
- Likoma Island crossing
- Fishing villages and dugout canoes
- Lake Niassa Reserve
