backpacking southern Africa – Page 2 – Wangechi Gitahi Travels

Africa

Historical Great Zimbabwe

By Wangechi Gitahi

We heard about the town of Maswingo which is credited with being home to the “Great Zimbabwe ” ruins. Great Zimbabwe is famous as it is not only the previous capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, but, it is also classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its construction in the 11th century. It is believed that it was built by the Shona community and may have been the location of the royal palace for the royal monarchs. I highly highly recommend a visit as it is not only quite an adventure through their history, but is quite educational and beautiful. The main layout within reveals several small “cities” or villages that were fortified with stone walls. In some areas, these rocks seemed to be like a fort, an outer high wall protecting an inner city or homestead and stood at over five meters high. Within the forts…

Africa

Enchanting Victoria Falls

By Wangechi Gitahi

As we crossed over into Zimbabwe from Zambia, I was not too sure what to expect as most of what I had heard was negative. However, I chose to sidestep the stereotype and the negative narrative and decided to “explore” and define my own narrative. One of my main driving forces was that I wanted to see the majestic Victoria Falls locally known as “Mosi-oa-Tunya” that means the “The Smoke that Thunders” from the Zimbabwe side. While viewing them from the Zambia side, all the “smoke”, seemed to be in Zimbabwe and thus I opted to venture into Victoria Falls town that is home to the falls and is the border town. Sure enough, in December 2016, Victoria Falls was showing off more on the Zimbabwe side than the Zambia side and I am happy I opted to venture there. Zimbabwe thereafter chose to unravel more of its beauty to me…

Africa

Suprising Zambia

By Wangechi Gitahi

Zambia is indeed a tranquil country and I found most of its citizens to be very soft spoken. My main driving force to go to Zambia was to see the Victoria Falls but I am happy that Zambia decided to show more of itself to us, as the Victoria Falls were not showing off at all. My main highlights were: 1) Riding the Tazara Train We rode the famous Tazara train from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. The train we used was new, it was comfortable and gave us some of the best ride and scenery experience. We went through dark tunnels, listened to the train chug, made friends and observed beautiful changing landscapes enroute. This ride took us two nights and three days and it is a ride I highly recommend to everyone-You Must. If you are riding the whole Dar-es-Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi, I highly recommend you…