| | |  Travel & Outdoors 
World Cup Travelog Part 2
 Peter Engel - PVNN
November 02, 2010
| | The 54 Hour Train Ride from Tanzania to Zambia | |
We had in mind to travel by train and there are only two leaving weekly for Zambia. Our intention was to travel directly to Lusaka, the Capital of Zambia. However this was not possible because about 200 km north of Lusaka, in the city of "Kapiri Mposhi," the railway track has a different size.
Kapiri Mposhi was the Zambian destination of the old copper train from Zambia to Tanzania. As Zambia is an inland with no sea access all of their mining products, mainly copper, was transported by train to Dar-Es-Salaam. And this was exactly the way we wanted to travel - just in the opposite direction.
At the railway counter in Dar-Es-Salaam we were told about the four different types and rates of transportation. Besides the class 1, 2 and 3 they also had a first class sleeping car and this was what we booked for this 48 hour train ride. As told, we arrived at 11 am at the main train station in Dar-Es-Salaam, but we could not spot a single train. However, there were hundreds of people waiting so we knew that we were in the right place.
When the railway employees saw our boarding cards they guided us to an air conditioned waiting room with a flat screen TV, I could hardly believe my eyes. On the other hand it was very convenient because the train arrived 5 hours late. You might now think that we paid a very expensive fare for our train ride in the sleeping car, but it was exactly $50 US Dollars for the two day ride in the most luxurious class!
To be honest, I have no idea how much a third class ticket was, but believe me, those wagons were very crowded and not meant for foreigners. As soon as the gates opened for boarding the locals were running to their wagons because they had no reserved seats and I am convinced that the train was over booked.
In our sleeping compartment were just my friend Markus, myself and a fellow Canadian who had traveled from Egypt south through 25 African countries and he was an interesting addition to our group. To say the least, this train was fully loaded when it finally left the train station.
Our compartment was equipped with 4 beds, a comfortable overhead storage room and a huge window, which could be opened for better view and fresh air. We were also provided with linen, a pillow and a woolen blanket. There was a toilet, a bathroom with two washbasins and, believe it or not, a shower in our wagon.
Right next to us was the wagon restaurant which was open all day and they served a menu as well as cold drinks and beer. Around 6 pm, we felt like having a cold beer and made ourselves comfortable in the wagon restaurant.
At this moment the train was driving across a National Park and we could not believe our eyes when we saw all of a sudden some gnus, zebras, giraffes, monkeys and many other species of African wild life. It was like watching a movie without paying admission, absolutely fantastic.
This train stopped rather often at small villages, which was most probably the only communication people have in those rural areas. They all came with their local products to the station, trying to sell whatever they could. Nobody left the train though, all the deals and negotiations were done through the window.
About 30 seconds before the train continued on, the conductor was blowing a horn 3 times and everybody knew they had to close the last deal. We also bought food from those people, but did not always like what we bought. As we were brought up to never throw food away in any country we offered it to children at the next station.
Someone who has not seen this would have a hard time to believe how greedy the children were. They grabbed our food and swallowed it before another child could take it from them. Where I grew up everybody has to eat, not so in Africa though.
They train was moving very slowly with about 35-40 km per hour on the flat and even much slower on hills. We started at sea level and went up to 1,500 meters. There was only one Diesel engine pulling the 23 heavy wagons behind.
On steep hills I could have walked faster than the train was moving, but we had time and did not care about this. Going so slow allowed us to watch through the window and observe the country side even better. I guess that we got a very good impression of the way of life in the rural areas. Their houses are very primitive from the outside but also clean around the house. I assume that it also has to do with animals like snakes or insects to keep your property clean.
Practically everybody in the countryside works in the fields with their pure hands. There is no such thing as tractors or machinery in Tanzania or Zambia, a shovel and an axe is just about all they work with besides their hands. Whatever they carried around was being transported on their heads with one exception; the children were being carried in a blanket on their back.
But one thing struck me while traveling in this train. Some people in the wagon restaurant had a cell phone and it worked in the middle of nowhere.
After about 40 hours of train ride in Tanzania we reached the border to Zambia. The immigration and custom officer came into our compartment and it only took a few minutes to get another stamp in our passport. But let's not forget that we needed a visa for those two countries - and that was rather costly.
When the train arrived at our final destination in Kapiri Mphosi, Zambia, we had spent 54 hours instead of the intended 48 hours on this train - but every minute of it was a true experience.
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