Backpacking from the east to south of Africa

Seven strangers set out from Kenya on an adventure to visit new lands hoping to unravel magic, mystery, thrill and paradise.

They strapped their few possessions on their backpacks and with an unswerving wanderlust set out on a one-month journey by land from the east to the south of Africa.

Theirs was a journey triggered by a single tweet that would inspire a group of like-minded travellers over 7,000KM by road and railway.

Zeddy Msagha, one of the backpackers, put out the tweet hoping to find fellow travellers to visit Mosi-oa-Tunya in Zambia. The group of seven was formed after a series of Direct Messages on social media in response to the tweet.

The planning of the whole trip took the effort of all members. They would converge over virtual platforms like Google Meet and Zoom to set up an itinerary to travel across Kenya and visit three other counties: Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi.

Bus rides

Their adventure began in Nairobi where they took the Standard Gauge Railway train to Mombasa. Although they were excited about the tour, they were also anxious about the hurdles they would imminently face. The first was a long gruelling bus ride from Mombasa to Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania.

Wearing T-shirts written‘Me I love Nairobi’, the seven were excited to explore new cultures and possibly understand the history that influenced different countries.

It is no surprise then that visiting museums was at the top of the explorers’ itinerary. The first museum visit was the National Museum of Tanzania whose picturesque ornate entrance is covered with turquoise and burnt orange tiles.

Their stay in Dar-es-Salaam was brief because they still had a long journey ahead. They bustled through noisy hostels crossing Mbeki, Mbeya and eventually arrived at the Tanzania-Zambia border town, Tunduma.

“The road network in Tanzania is amazing. I think Kenya could borrow a leaf from our neighbour,” Zeddy, the only male backpacker in the group, tells Lifestyle.

The team got quite the culture shock when they crossed over to Nakonde, Zambia, because they could not tell the boarding time of their next bus.

“Tanzanians tell time differently from Zambians, which was still very new to us. We couldn’t tell if the boarding time was 9am or 3am,’’ Rheen Ruby says on her Instagram stories.

Language barrier was also a major challenge for the team. “Zambians speak their local language with just a pinch of English, this made it hard for us to navigate around,’’ Terry Nyambura says.

They also had to find accommodation in the remote town in the middle of the night while trying to find a bureau to buy Zambian Kwachas.

“Jessica Otieno and I hoped on a motorcycle and requested the immigration police at the border to let us go back to Tanzania to exchange our money,” Rheen Ojiambo says.

But that was not the end of their challenges. The backpackers took a bus from Nakonde to Lusaka. The bus they boarded dubbed ‘Jara Power’ was crammed with cargo and excess passengers on its aisle.

Lusaka

They endured a 26-hour bus ride with just a small break in Mkushi town, where passengers slept in open verandahs.

“We had done a lot of research and knew that the journey to Lusaka would be long but that was the longest and most uncomfortable bus ride I have ever had in my life,” Jessica Olisa says.

They eventually arrived in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, which they found to be surprisingly hot. The Lusaka National Museum and the Presidential Burial Site Embassy were their first stops.

The museum had bold and colourful paintings and interesting artefacts that were well documented on Hilda Oryda’s Instagram page. They also got a glimpse of the flamboyant night life in Lusaka in various popular nightclubs like Chicago’s Reloaded and Dacapo Lounge Bar.

“You realise how similar societies are when you travel. The local market in Lusaka is very similar to the ones back home in Kenya. Despite speaking different languages we still have a lot of similarities,’’ Terry Nyambura, who was travelling for the first time out of Kenya, says.

Collecting souvenirs is quite usual for any frequent traveller and this particular entourage was no different. Rheen, for instance, collected old notes and coins that were no longer in circulation in Zambia.

“I exchanged some of my Kenyan and Tanzanian notes for the two Kwacha note,” Rheen told Lifestyle.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was visiting the tourist hub of Zambia, Livingstone. A befitting visit to the Livingstone Museum was mandatory before they left for Mosi-oa Tunya National Park, a few kilometres from Livingstone.

Mosi-oa-Tunya, which locally translates to ‘The Smoke Which thunders’’ is the home of the spectacular Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The backpackers visited the falls and enjoyed ziplining over the various gorges in the park.

“I think everyone should experience Mosi-oa-Tunya, It’s a marvel and was the best destination in the trip for me,” Zeddy says.

Another highlight of their trip was a visit to Mukuni Big Five Safaris, which is about 3km from the Victoria Falls. The park, which is situated on the road to Chief Mukuni’s Palace, gave the group an opportunity to pet and walk lions and cheetahs. They all seemed to have received a dress code memo as they were dressed in cute short jean dungarees whilst sharing photos of petting the big cats.

Devil’s pool

Border towns might sound uninteresting and tedious to most travellers, but not for Kazungula town in Zambia. The town was an exciting visit as the territories of four countries (Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia) almost meet at a quadripoint. Instinctively, they danced to the popular ‘Understand’ Tiktok challenge on Kazungula Bridge when they visited the town.

What would be the essence of the exhilarating trip if they didn’t push their adrenaline boundaries? Swimming at the edge of one of Victoria Falls rock pools that plunges over a hundred metres was, as expected, on their bucket-list.

The famous rock pool dubbed ‘The Devil’s pool’ is an adrenaline-rushing swimming hole that allows one to have the view of River Zambezi’s waters crashing over the cliffs.

“The only way to access the devil’s pool is to either swim across River Zambezi or using a rope. I chose to swim!” Rheen, who enjoyed the adrenaline rush, says.

While the world celebrated Christmas festivities in the comfort of their homes; Rheen, Zeddy, Jessica, Hilda, Terry and Becky got on a bus ride from Lusaka to Malawi.

The arrived in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, on Christmas Day. Most hotels and restaurants were closed and the Airbnb they had booked turned out to be fraudulent.

“Some people started getting cranky because we were all anxious about where we would spend our first night in Malawi,” Rheen says. Luckily, they found an Airbnb out of town and squeezed in for the night.

A jalopy ride from Lilongwe to Salima was inevitable as moving around in Malawi proved to be as cumbersome as it was in Zambia. They eventually arrived at Senga Bay, the closest point on Lake Malawi from Lilongwe.

Becky’s Instagram stories gave a resplendent view of Senga Bay.

“Lake Malawi beaches are so different from the white sandy beaches of the Indian Ocean but equally beautiful,’’ she says.

The bay, which is covered with brown sand, little pebbles and occasional boulders, was a favourite spot for the explorers.

Unfortunately, it was at that point that one of the team members, Zeddy, had to cut short the trip and return abruptly to Kenya to attend to a family emergency.

After a bitter-sweet goodbye, Rheen and the others continued with their journey, travelling along Lake Malawi and its lake towns.

It was at Nkhata Bay that the group got to experience the clean, cool clear waters of Lake Malawi. They had got accommodation at Mayoka Village, a lush green lodge that overlooks Lake Malawi.

Rheen and Jessica enjoyed skinny dipping while watching the sunrise in the wee hours.

The daredevils among them cliff-jumped into Lake Malawi. “Snorkelling in the turquoise waters of Lake Malawi was pretty enjoyable too. I loved how the water was clear and serene,” says Rheen.

It would not have been a worthy visit if they wrapped up their trip without a nod to the viral Tiktok ‘Understand’ challenge on the shores of Lake Malawi.

The backpackers began their return trip to Kenya after visiting Malawi. They still travelled by road and train through Zambia, Tanzania and eventually back to Kenya.

Finally, on the last day of 2021, at 4am in, the explorers were back in Kenya after a one-month backpacking trip.

The journey of over 1,000 kilometres, four countries, numerous borders and hurdles but unforgettable memories was beautifully documented on the team’s Instagram pages. One could not help but get a spike of wanderlust reading about the trip.

Perhaps, Jhumpa Lahiri’s words in The Namesake sum it all up, “Before it’s too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it.”

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