Tazara Day 2/3

Throughout the night we could heard the familiar sounds associated with the movement on the train. But also, we felt the cold air blasting in through the open window. Along with the air came some sort of allergen and I awoke unable to breathe and my eyes almost swollen shut.It was another experience to add to those already had. One of the stops made during the night had people milling around, noisy and boisterous, and not all getting on the train. Were they vendors, those who stayed behind? How did they expect to sell anything if everyone on the train was asleep? Even the children were running around in excitement emitting the cries, squeals and delight that can only come from children.

Danny and Gary got their one and only trip to the dining room where they indulged themselves with hard fried eggs, very pink wiener/sausages, beans, and Mrs Bairds-like white bread - a full English Breakfast as I was to learn soon enough.

 

  Of course, with the subsequent room service, one was faced with the problem of too much rice, too much boney chicken and too much .....  There was one garbage can on the whole car and it was filled with whatever you can imagine, although often emptied at each stop, the idea of putting more into it was unnerving. So ... a natural garbage disposal was used, even by the porter 

As for the commode accommodations, water was not hooked up: There was a bucket of water in the bathroom that was filled at each stop. The water was forever sloshing on the floor which was a good thing actually as I am sure that the men had a hard time with the seesawing and bouncing as the train trundled down the track. The porter was fastidious as he could be, always washing up with bleach but still ... need I say more? The sink was the driest place in the room, also not being hooked up to water. I discovered real early that the clorox wipes that I hesitated in bringing came in real handy. As to the disposal? True early Americana, an open chute down to the tracks below and no bucket for paper so off it went as well. One can only hope that it disintegrates easily in the outside environment.

We continued our 2nd and then, 3rd day, as yesterday but with as much enthusiasm or even more.  and yes we leaned this much and often more ... 

We swayed and bumped and screeched our way through some beautiful scenery and a variety of ecosystems. We went from the coastal plains up into piney wooded mountains and then down into fertile valleys.  

      

Rural areas and towns of "zero lot line"closeness.  

 At different parts of the country we would pass factories or refineries or whatever. At one point we passed a pulp mil, you knew what it was by the smell emanating from the 6 stacks. The surrounding valley was enshrouded in pollution

 Prosperity yes, to the local people? Who knows! We became grimier and dirtier as the hours wore on: How could we not, for the windows were open and the wind blowing in that cooled us also brought dirt, dust and diesel grime.  Will our clothes ever get clean after this? I am sure that my white t-shirt will forever be grey from now on. Each and every stop afforded us an opportunity to view more of the workings of inner Africa, even if only from a superficial viewpoint.

Each stop afforded us the pleasure of the vendors; men, women, and children. They were all geared towards the locals however as nary a souvenir was seen excepting this man, who was trying to sell bows. Now how would we pack one of these in our one, lonely suitcase?   grapes, oranges, pineapples, bananas, as well as deep fried pastries and chicken. 

 If you bought from one, you would suddenly be inundated with everyone shoving their wares towards you trying to get ahead of the others. It could be quite overwhelming at times and with this in mind, we bought very little except fruit. A rail platform is also a good place to view life, but often times with sadness, for railways attract the less fortunate, "the good, the bad, and the ugly".    

To me, of course, the children were the most wondrous.  Even in circumstances that would knock the most hardened American to the floor, they were full of smiles and playful antics. A train passing by was cause for stopping what they were doing, run towards the train, waving furiously and shouting gleefully, and not just the kids did this. Children are the same anywhere you go!   People often walked beside or on the tracks, blissfully accepting the fact that the trains passed them by as they walked.  

 of course, they were also congregating points for the children. 

 Begging was the norm and not only for candy as is always for children but for the more basic of items: soap, toothbrushes, pens, paper, shillings and kwachas. At times a more adventuresome youth would hop onto the train with a hard luck story. If they were luck enough to make a sale they would return and return again, each time with a different but plausible story.

  we started with 2 bottles of water from this young vendor and he kept coming back with snacks and such, stating that he was trying to make money to go to school, for a school uniform, for supplies: You name it he needed (wanted?) it!

Photos were often times hard to get without being sneaky (one learns to take photos with a digital while looking like you are simply holding the camera :) )  This young lady was beautiful and in spite of her situation, had the elegance and poise of a young woman beyond her years.

The young girls would often shield the faces of the babies and toddlers that they were carrying on their backs or even turn away to protect them from the camera. 

The second night on the train found us going through the border crossing to Zambia at midnight - an easy situation for us as already had our visas.

Our friends had to get up out of bed and buy theirs. As we stopped to exit and then pass through no-man's land, all on the train, we were astounded to hear music blaring and people shouting. What in the world? At this time of night? Looking out we discovered a beauty/barber shop open for business. Do people actually partake of these services this late at night while waiting for a train?  The vendors were actually shouting and carrying on conversations with the people on the train.

We arrived after dark on the 3rd day in Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia  to another stark and empty Chinese-built terminus, A little better than 7 hours late, and we still faced an hours drive at least to our final destination. We should have arrived around 3pm but better late than never! A harrowing drive on the wrong side of the road with no delineating lines on the tarmac with oncoming trucks, buses and cars who blinked on their high beams as they came close! Phew! What a heart-stopping ride, and I was in the back, behind the driver. Imagine Danny's experience in the front seat watching all of this. Potholes the size of small ponds, the driver apologized saying that the road was in the process of  being repaired. The reason is that the road is the main thoroughfare from the Congo and is used by heavy loads constantly to and fro. We saw the loads passing within inches of the car and often times they had double trailers on the back.

We arrived in Ndola, a dreary site or so it seemed in the dark, with pollution from the various refineries and mining operations all mixed in with the dust of the unfinished road and barren landscape. This all seen from the car, as we hoped that we were only seeing a small part of the town. Tired and beat we arrived to a beautiful BandB/guesthouse and slept.

Tazara Railway, train travel adventure

Making a quick dash first thing in the morning to get our tickets, Danny came back with 4 tickets and a puzzled look on his face. Why 4 tickets? Well, turns out we actually bought 4 seats when we bought the compartment, so 4 tickets.

The railroad was built in the late 1960’s by the Chinese government. The president at the time told the international community, as they were condemning him for allowing the Chinese to build the train, that he would take it from whoever was willing to give it. No one else other than the Chinese came forward. Of course, as always, all supplies and workers were brought in from China, with very little of the Tshillings going to the local people. The station, Tazara Dar es Salam 

is very utilitarian and stark with little ornamentation that so often accompanies a main railroad station. The pictures seen up the "grand" staircase are ones that project the greatness of Chinese assistance to Zambia specifically and Zambia in general.

Finished in 1970, it now looks far older and like it could disintegrate within a matter or years. A little elbow grease and soap and water would spice things up considerably as the furnishings, etc remian intact.

Friends, Peggy & Gary arriving to sign the manifest before getting on the train

 

 

 

As we waited in the first class waiting room, we could hear classical music being piped in to the waiting area of the masses. Reminiscent of a bygone era, I felt like we were waiting for the Titanic or something, rather than a train in the middle of Africa. I could visualize all the patrons in their morning coats, top hats and embellished dresses and ornate head dressings, milling around waiting for the embarkation in colonial times. Alas, what really was, was a little different.

“All aboard” I thought I heard but in reality, it was an unintelligible announcement for boarding, followed by a flood of people shoving and pushing to get to the quay and cars. A cacophony of colour, smells and voices followed us as we, along with the rest of the wave of humanity, headed out to our train car, C2, dragging our one case each.

 Wow, we are the third to last car on the train that has at least 15 passenger cars plus a dining car and a lounge, and every car is full. That is a lot of people. Boarding was a matter of shoving your case up into the car, and then dragging it down a narrow corridor to our compartment, no porter other than an attendant outside on the quay verifying the correct car, waiting to direct us to our compartment as would be found on Amtrak. People milling in the corridor, parting as we needed to pass, we found the compartment, numbered in roman numerals, C-IV.

 Could the paint job have given us an indication as to the train ride to come?

The embarking seemed to take forever with people waiting in the corridors, in their compartments, and on the quay

as last minute people kept coming.

 Finally a car drove up with 4 armed guards and a person – ah hah, our reason for delay.

 He and his escorts/guards and guns boarded the train and within a short time (maybe 15 minutes) we slowly crept out of the station. We were on our way! The excitement in the compartment was everywhere with all four of us expressing our opinions, hopes and expectations. 

 

The compartment itself was a two-tiered bed on either side, with the bottom bed the seat. The upper tier was not put up during the day and our bedding laid out on the beds.

The little table, under an open window, was covered in dust, which I wiped down with a Wet-One. The operative word here was “open window” as we soon found out. The window across the corridor from the compartment was also open allowing for a wonderful cross breeze. By leaving the door open, there was a constant breeze as well as a parade of passengers going by, affording a great opportunity for people watching. A young girl actually said hi as she passed, otherwise people looked in but said nothing in the way of greeting – but why should they, we did the same as we walked by other compartments later on.

Glued to the open window, watching the passing scenery, soon my hair was plastered down to my head with dust! Yup, the open window not only allowed for a wonderful cross-breeze, it also carried all the dust to be found on the outside. Oddly enough, however, it didn’t carry a lot of bugs. As the sun beat in the window, the breeze cooled allowing for a great experience seeing the countryside for the first time.

Our route started to climb immediately after leaving Dar es Salam. According to the map/sign in the station [photo] we would climb rather sedately up to 300m from the 34 m of Dar es Salam, then quite quickly to 1700m. As we climbed it seemed like we would slow down to nearly stopping and then go again. This continued for some time. Then we stopped. We waited and waited and waited some more when a man next door said that they had engine problems and we were waiting a new engine that was coming from Dar es Salam. The first breakdown has occurred and we have only been traveling for 1 1/2hrs. Maybe if we get it out of the way now, we won’t have any more.

On the move again, with a new engine, we settled into the evening. Dinner was the first thing on the list. The attendant came around trying to lock the doors for us to be able to go to the dining room but they wouldn’t lock – none of them. So Peg & I went to the dining room first while Danny & Gary stayed in the rooms. Walking from car to car, swaying back and forth, bouncing with the cars, we were amazed at the lack of safety features in the car joining/linkage area. One could easily loose a foot here. Still, we had fun as we moved from car to car, trying not to fall into someone’s lap in the lounge car and going from side to side in the compartment cars. The dining room with all the inherent smells of bodies and fried foods met us before we even got to the door. All tables were full so we had to wait. Wait but only for a few minutes before 2 burly men got up and moved to single chairs so that we could sit down. The third of the burly men continued to eat at the table. Striking up a conversation we found that he had traveled this same route for over 20 years and that the train had actually been shut down for a while, having started up again only a week or so before our travels. How fortunate for us as we had no idea that it had been closed down. They have a unique way of serving food: Only a soup spoon with which to eat the meal of which the protein portion is fried fish or chicken, eaten with your fingers; no serviettes to be found; and no drinks offered. At the end of the meal we noticed that one of the girls came around with a basin, a pitcher of water and a liquid soap container. They squirted the soap on the diners hands and poured water over them. Ha, no need for serviettes here. We requested to wash before we ate and then weren’t offered the same service once we had finished eating. Guess they only allow for one washing per diner per meal. After all of this, we returned to the car to discover that Gary and Danny had room service. Ha, no dining room experience for them.

Darkness overcame us very quickly. As the sun was setting I grabbed my camera to try for a photo.

Within 30 seconds the sun was gone. I barely had time to catch the sunset before it was gone. And the black of night came just as quickly. The stars were as bright as I had ever seen them. I laid on my bunk, looking out the window, without glasses, and saw the stars. They were beautiful. And oddly enough, being south of the equator, we could still see the Big Dipper just over the horizon. Would I have been able to hear the crickets in the moonlight if the sounds of the train hadn’t overshadowed the night? What an awesome feeling to go to sleep by.