Mai-Wui Hot Spring

Mai-Wui Hot Spring is a natural thermal site near Chiweta in northern Malawi's Rift Valley, where bicarbonate-mineral waters emerge in a remote and scenically dramatic setting beneath the Livingstonia Escarpment at the northern end of Lake Malawi. The springs are part of the geothermal activity associated with the East African Rift System that created Lake Malawi itself — the world's ninth-largest lake and a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its extraordinary cichlid fish diversity with over 1,000 endemic species. Accessing the Mai-Wui springs from the lake shore involves navigating the steep escarpment terrain that defines this compelling and little-visited corner of northern Malawi, where the Scottish mission station of Livingstonia on the plateau above adds a significant layer of 19th-century Protestant missionary history to the natural landscape.