Tour Africa Like a Pro

Have Swahili Street food at Forodhani Market

Forodhani Market in Stone Town Zanzibar is a bustling haven for food lovers. It is a place where tourists sample local cuisine while children jump off high walls into the water during high tide, strategically evading the rocks below.

The market is most known for the Zanzibar pizza which is made with a rather complex technique where the dough is rolled very thin, gets constantly brushed with oil and is seared on a pan. Unlike the traditional pizza, it is closed with the ingredients being stuffed inside, although a mango and nutella pizza is for instance more like a crepe than anything else.

Try chipsi mayai which is popular among Tanzanians for a reason.

As for seafood, you will find an array of octopus, squid, lobster, prawns, crab and more, although be warned that since there is no refrigeration, it might not always be fresh.

Go local in Djibouti

Bordering Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, Djibouti is still unexplored by East Africans and most people still associate it with foreign military bases which are admittedly rife in parts of the country.

But if you look past that, there are wonders to explore ranging from Lake Assal — a salt water crater lake in the Danakil Desert found at the centre of the country, Lake Abbe which is famous for its limestone chimneys and flamingos, the port of Tadjoura with magnificent beaches and uniform whitewashed buildings as well as the mountain villages like Bankouale (in the Tadjoura region) which is great for hikers.

For foodies, try traditional food at one of the numerous Yemeni restaurants available, such as Chez Youssouf where the owner will serve up delectable fish doused in Arabic spices, a honey-banana mash and freshly made focaccia.

If you fancy something a little more upscale, stop by Tentazioni at Kempinski Palace Djibouti or perhaps flirt with idle French military men over an overpriced bottle of water at the Sheraton. Don’t go around taking pictures around town, otherwise you’ll see just how swift the security is.

Go white water rafting on the Nile

Jinja is the adventure capital of East Africa and here you can expect to find everything from bungee jumping (the company actually just moved to a new site) to horse riding and stand up paddle-boarding.

I signed up for white water rafting with Adrift, a company that introduced commercial rafting to Uganda. There were about seven people on the boat and we started off with a safety briefing and practical lesson on how to paddle and navigate the river’s rapids.

Nothing could have however prepared me for our first flipathon which happened at a grade 4 rapid cheekily named Bubugo, which translates to “condolences”. We paddled towards the centre of the rapid and as expected, out boat tumbled upside down from the sheer force of the water sending us all hurling into the cold violent water, and I came up to find myself trapped under the boat.

Climb Mount Nyiragongo in DRC

For most Kenyans who grew up listening to Koffi Olomide and his counterparts, the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of Congo is Lingala. Beyond that, however, located right inside Virunga National Park which is popular for gorilla trekking, lies an active stratovolcano unlike anything you have ever seen before.

It looms above Goma and Lake Kivu and its main crater actually has a lava lake- the largest in the world; when it gets dark, you can easily see its fiery orange glow from some of the surrounding areas. There are loose rocks to contend with and you will want to cry, give up or both.