By David Jenkin

Nzama says that envy is a common reaction from people when they learn about what she does, but that’s not to say everyone would be cut out for it. Nzama put her travel blogging career on the map when she went straight into the deep end, traveling from Cape Town to Cairo on public transport – by herself. Calling herself the Solo Wanderer, going solo is, in fact, Nzama’s preferred style.

It began with an unfulfilling corporate career, she says, that denied her the chance to be creative. Defiant, she decided to make a change and pursue her passion. She has since been to 15 African countries and aims to make it to 50 before the age of 30 – just two years and 35 countries to go. Her blog’s success has meant that her goal is now quite achievable, and she has no plans on slowing down. Nzama was even named as one of Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans for 2016.

“I was just sharing nonsense on social media and I said I wanted to backpack Cape to Cairo, and so many people were like ‘oh my goodness, you could actually do this’ and they started championing me on. And I was like ‘well I can’t really let these people down, now can I?’”

She soon realised that funding would be an issue and she approached lodges to propose working in exchange for accommodation – a number responded, but many did not. It was then that she discovered CouchSurfing, she says, a hospitality exchange and social networking site through which she found locals along her route willing to accommodate her free of charge. “There were no issues whatsoever,” she says, “People just accepted me like one of their own, they gave me a place to stay – I think more people were sad that I was leaving so soon.”

She says that affordable travel is a big focus for her because there are a lot of people that don’t have the means to travel any other way. “If you look, it’s always the bigger hotels that can afford to actually advertise. But there’s the backpackers and lodges and those smaller guys that don’t have the funds – I find all of those tiny little places then I give tips on the best way to travel to that destination, an affordable way that will let you experience the culture. So from my blog, you will actually learn how to become a traveller and not a tourist.”

Nzama explains that there is a key distinction between a tourist and a traveller. She says that while the former sees only what they came to see, travellers see what they find. And while tourists tend to remain detached from the local culture, travellers immerse themselves in it and aim to blend in.

Technology and social media, in particular, form a key part of Nzama’s journeys and she believes that it has completely transformed the way people travel. “If you want to travel and you’re not on some kind of social media platform or whatever, you really are behind, because how do we find you? How do we communicate with you? How do we share our experiences of going to different places?”

Nzama says that she draws inspiration from the cultural similarities of people from across the continent, and Africans should celebrate these similarities and learn from one another. She has also had a few frustrations, however. “I look like everyone in every country that I went to and people got frustrated with me because I didn’t speak their language. Some of them could not understand it,” she says. “Also in Muslim countries, like Zanzibar for instance, I could not wear shorts at the beach. But a white girl my age could do it and she was allowed to do it because she was white, but as a black woman I could not do that.”

She has found that Africans are often poorly informed about African geography, and on her next trip (with a target of 24 countries) she hopes to visit underprivileged schools to teach children about the continent and its people.

Nzama’s advice to young South Africans curious about travelling Africa is simple: “Go out and do it.”

She then adds; “And if you feel like things are getting too tough, find the next person, smile and say hello. I don’t know how many hello’s I’ve said but they opened all my doors, simply because I smiled and said hello and somebody was willing to open up to me.”

For more information, visit www.travelwithkatchie.com. Alternatively, connect with her on Twitter.