By Jed
After our 30 hour train ride from Cape Town to Johannesburg went relatively smoothly, Caitlin didn't have much trouble trying to convince me to try another long African train ride, this time an alleged 40 hour ride from Zambia to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We took a bus from Lusaka, Zambia to the train station that was supposed to arrive at the train statino 3 hours before the train left, to ensure that we didn't have any troubles getting on the train (we still hadn't purchased our tickets). After a 30 minute pre-departure sermon, broken tail-light (which caused everyone to have to switch buses), a car randomly pulling the bus over and one of the passengers having a seizure on the bus, we pulled into the train station at 3:58pm for the 4pm train. As literally nothing has ever left on time in Africa, and we had read stories of the train leaving up to 19 hours late, we weren't that panicked. However, people were yelling at us to get moving, but we assumed they were just randoms trying to hassle us, so we took our time. But not later than 30 seconds after we got on the train, it was moving (we still hadn't even had time to buy our tickets yet!) As the train only leaves twice a week, we were 30 seconds away from a long, uncomfortable stay in the middle of nowhere.
Compared to the South African train, this train definitely was in rough shape: there were holes in the floor, most of the cars did not have running water and the electricity could only produce a flicker of a light in our rooms. The train was also very, very bumpy. All through the night, I would be awoken by extremely violent shaking, screeching and large jolts which caused me to panic that we had just falling off a cliff. Not surprisingly, the train arrived late...the whole journey ended up being over 52 hours. Despite the long, arduous ride, it was actually a pretty enjoyable experience. The scenery was beautiful (lovely mountains, villages and the train even went through a game park). The food was surprisingly good; I ate the $2 roasted chicken for all 3 dinners! We also made a couple of American friends on the train. Sipping down some beers with some friends helps make 52 hours feel like 48.
    | Watching one of the many villages go by out our window, which had to be propped up by a stick. At each of the stops, all the villagers would come around to the windows and sell food. It was vital to sustaining us for the trip. Green bananas were a popular item at this stop. Often there would be de-railed train cars on the side of the track, Not a reassuring sight This was our light "switch", i.e. two wires you need to twist together. |
 | The scenery was quite pretty |  |
Here's a brief look at how our nights went on the train (our first "Vlog", i.e. video blog)!
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