Nyika National Park

Nyika is a high montane plateau in northern Malawi, mostly above 2,000 metres, a landscape of rolling grassland, orchids and forest patches that looks more like the Scottish uplands than Africa. It is cool, sometimes frosty, with roan antelope, eland, zebra and leopard on the grassland and one of the highest densities of leopard in Central Africa. It is a walking, mountain-biking and horse-riding park, with over 400 bird species and 200 orchids, a lodge and campsites at Chelinda, and a long road in from Rumphi. The wet season from November to April is when the orchids flower.