Zimbabwe has its own inland beach tucked away in Binga along the vast shores of Lake Kariba. This golden stretch of Binga Sand Beach, about 200-300 meters wide and framed by rugged rocky hills in the Zambezi Valley, marks the country’s only natural sand beach, where calm, shallow waters invite swimming, sunbathing, and lazy picnics without a hint of ocean nearby.The beach emerged naturally after the Kariba Dam flooded the valley back in the 1950s, creating a hotspot for anglers hooking bream, tilapia, and feisty tigerfish while boaters soak in sweeping lake panoramas. Binga District hums with life from the BaTonga people, known as the “people of the Great Zambezi River” or Basilwizi, who number around 192,000 as of recent 2022 estimates up from 139,092 in the 2012 census with roughly 54% female and 44% under age 15 living across 25 communal wards under 17 chieftainships and 668 village heads.
These resilient BaTonga, all from the ethnic Tonga clan speaking ChiTonga one of Zimbabwe’s 16 official languages were uprooted without compensation during the dam’s construction, scattering families across Zimbabwe and Zambia borders, yet they hold strong to fishing traditions, intricate wood carvings, basket weaving sold at lively markets, and ancient river-tied customs amid the arid Zambezi Escarpment’s heat and poverty challenges. With 37,000 primary school kids enrolled, their youth signal bright tourism prospects.Chibwatata Hot Springs bubbling with healing minerals for traditional rituals, plus croc farms, elephant-filled reserves, gorges alive with birds, and immersive BaTonga heritage tours, all boosted by improving roads to spotlight this serene cultural gem for adventurous souls
