Hippos and Hansard

Last Thursday, my words were immortalised in Hansard as part of a House of Lords debate on the economic and social development of Malawi. You can see the speech I wrote being read out by Baroness Northover - DFID's spokesperson in the House of Lords - here.

At the weekend I travelled to Liwonde National Park, at the southern end of Lake Malawi, on the Shire River plain. It's pretty much Malawi's premier wildlife-viewing destination, and I got to see lots of hippo, elephant, crocodiles, impala, waterbuck, bushbuck, warthogs, baboons, and a retreating kudu - plus a huge array of birds, including a fish eagle. Because the park doesn't contain any big cats, it was possible to do a game walk, as well as a game drive. We also took a boat out on the river, and I narrowly avoided getting eaten by a croc...

First elephant sighting

Elephants at the river's edge

Waterbuck at sunset

A bloat of hippos

The 'sausage tree'

The croc that nearly ate me

Warthog family

Leaving Liwonde - waterbuck in the foreground, hippos in the background