The big Choo Choo trip

Hi Ho again folks....well we are not where we were, but we are where we planned to be. We jumped abroad the Tazara train at 4pm on Tuesday to head somewhere not in Dar - as we had enough of this city.
Visa - check, tickets - check : we had to book all 4 sleepers of a cabin (as we were mixed sex) costing us a small fortune (well a 100 quid) - as I quickly compared to UK train prices was actually a bargain for 46 hours of x-country travelling. Mind you, the locals queuing behind in the ticket office did find this madness and crowded around very close, either to see if we would doing something else daft, or to try and get some of our cash...
But at 3.50pm it was all abroad and off we went. And let me tell you, after about 1min30s I was a train convert - you can stick your buses and planes as there is no better public transport than a train... I guess it has a certain ambience that all the others lack, with the rythmic motion and the landscape blurring past - plus the fact you can move about like a human, rather than a sardine. Not to mention the loo's don't block up, as well, they are a hole onto the tracks, but more on that later. And also this train was old school - big ass deisel engine, must of been about 30 carriages and windows wide open for you to hang out of...

To be honest, Josie and I were a bit like kids on a school trip, somewhere good. We were done to death with Dar, the heat, and our noisy backpackers...and looking forward to going somewhere interesting - and having our own private sleeper carriage to get there. The train here still has some novelty factor for the local kids too - as they all rush out to watch it go past and wave - much more acceptable than those blokes who loiter at the end of the UK platforms 'trainspotting'...

Josie felt close to royalty and started to perfect her wave to the kids... as we moved out of town we realised the other good thing about the train is all you get to see, especially when it is going through national parks! At about 6.30 we started seeing the first signs of wildlife - baboons, followed by gazelles and then loads of giraffes - but our excitement was short lived as the sun went down and our little LED tourch failed to light up the wilderness at night :( We strongly suspect the trip the other way would have you in the National Parks in daylight.

Not much longer into the trip, Josie started her exercise routine. In all, she must have clocked up about 2km in distance over the journey which is not bad when you expect to be sitting in a train carriage. However, Africa and its wonderful surprises brought on Josie's first case of 'the runs'... and let me tell you, the loo in the train was no place to be spending that amount of time.

Now I apoligse now if toilet humour is not your thing, as it is mine and you should have expected to read something shitty (pun intended) in this blog at least 5 times. I am unable to comment on my own situation lest I incur the wrath of Karma. I will say I wish I was sharing the cabin with Simon and Brett who could have fully appreciated how Africa was affecting me ;)

But poor Josie, on the bright side, was she was expecting this and had planned to use the 'experience' to counter the over indulgence at Xmas - which is quite a cunning plan although a little extreme for my tastes.

Overall though - the trip was a cracker. They served us meals for about 50p, we stared out the window at the stunning landscapes and played some 500. This is travelling !

We ended up where we supposed to only 6 hours late. Not bad for Africa time...and being late on the train is 'easy time'...kind of like in the movies about criminals, you know, the opposite of 'hard time'. In a train, getting delayed is almost pleasant. And no major events, well none that we could understand. There was a great deal of shouting last night at 2am...and today 2 men handcuffed were escorted off the train under machine gun supervision - but this is not newsworthy here in Africa.

I now must confess some startling news - I have something nice to say about an American [not like one yankee in Dar who was followed into the resturant by her cab driver - when she said "I thought you said FREE! No lady, most cabbies charge, in this case 3 (thousand shillings)!!] ...

But anyway, back to this nice american (Not every day you hear that now is it)... well this young bloke on the bus, helped out by changing some US dollars for me (at the right rate), recommended the backpackers we are in now, and sorted a taxi for us form the chaos that greets you at the bus terminal. Not only that, but he is in the peace Corp and has been working in Zambia for 2 years helping the locals improve sustenance farming... Bugger must have been no more than 21y.o. too - makes you think maybe the world isn't go to pot that quickly!?
Another local also split a cab and sorted us onto the right bus - these bloody Zambians are a friendly lot I can tell you.

So tonight we cool our heels in Lusaka (the capital), tomorrow either we high tail it to Livingstone, or sneak away for 3 days fishing on the Zambezi for Tiger fish - it all depends on how flooded the river is and if it is worth the time and cost to sneak away. Either way, things are on the up again now we have left Dar (he says recklessly)...