Lagos

Katchie lives up to her name, she lives life free and rebellious, always wanting to redefine the status quo.

Katchie is a Pan-Africanist travel blogger with a curiosity of the African continent, her people, cultures, music and her cuisine. She wanders across the African continent solo, exploring the life, street food or language there.

Port Harcourt

Katchie is going beyond borders and breaking the misconceptions and stereotypes that Africa is a country. Africa is made up of 54 countries, and Katchie has traveled to 15 African countries, with a goal of 50 African countries when she’s 30.

‘Breaking Borders” is a project embarked by Katchie to change the narrative about Africa, celebrate differences and similarities while also portraying Africa, as a safe place for solo female travellers.

    Uyo

On 29th of September 2017, Katchie arrived in Nigeria, and explored the richness of Abuja, the madness of Lagos, the oil city of Port Harcourt and en route to Calabar, Katchie stopped by for lunch with the gang and me in Uyo.

Calabar

What struck me about Katchie, when we met was how blunt and open minded she was. It showed in the way she dressed in a pair of short shorts, a T-shirt, sandals and a string of bangles adorning her hands. It showed in the way, she would rather order her favorite brand, a Star beer, and she puffed on four sticks of cigarettes.

While the gang settled to plates of Afang soup and Eba, and I had a quite impressive pepper soup with white rice, Katchie thrilled us with her travel stories. Katchie looked at my plate of pepper soup with a lot of meat and a boiled egg and joked about how it was too much protein, enough to feed a nation.

I loved that Katchie had strong opinions about Nigeria, about how she loved the egusi soup, hated the plantains and thought it was crazy that anyone would eat roasted bole and fish, about how she was still struggling with learning Pidign English. She was shocked at the madness of the city of Lagos, the incessant sound of generators, the maddening traffic and noise. She joked about how the mosquitoes in Nigeria were the most deadly ones. She was disappointed at how the average Nigerian lived on less than a dollar every day and how tough Nigeria was. Katchie experienced first hand, how real the Nigerian struggle is. Katchie wasn’t just a South African girl traveling solo across Africa, she is a small body filled with a sea of stories about her perception, the lifestyle, culture, people, food, of Africa.

To connect with Katchie and her travel stories more, you should check out her blog, Travel with Katchie, which focuses on affordable intra-African travel and shares magnificent destinations, breathtaking sunsets, music festivals, heritage and also great travel tips. You can also follow her on all her social media platforms @TheSoloWandera.