Riding the Rails of the Tazara Train to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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Derailed Train Cars on the Tazara Line

Finally aboard the train and actually moving, we had a beer to celebrate.  It was also Australia Day, so the girls had more reasons to celebrate, and we needed little excuse.  We all enjoyed the dining car area as it was a good place to hang out, and you could see lots out the windows.  Tanzania is quite a lush, green country in the south.  We passed through loads of small villages, where all the kids were out waving.  Some great scenery, and a little scary stuff too, as we passed multiple rail car derailments.....  always makes you feel safe when you are traveling in the same mode of transport.

The sleeping compartments were comfortable, and we were sharing with our two Kiwi friends Hamish and Jan, along with their surf boards.  Being in the upper bunk, when the train lurched I felt like I was going to fall out of the bunk, so found myself sleeping with my arm wrapped around the metal handle.  In the morning, I joked to Hamish about it as he was in the other upper bunk, and he had a similar story of holding on during the night.

Locals at one Train Station on the Route

The TaZaRA (Tanzania-Zambia-Rail-Authority) train tracked through a major game reserve in the South of Tanzania called Selous.  We had heard from others that there can be some great game sightings whilst traveling through.  But alas, we only saw a couple of elephants, and some antelopes - but not for lack of looking!!  You win some, you lose some.

Arriving in Dar es Salaam, we quickly parted with all our train-mates as the boys were trying to get to Zanzibar, and the girls to Moshi to climb Kilimanjaro.  We tackled the rush hour traffic in local buses to get to the ferry over to Kigamboni.  A crazy, bustling ferry which traveled a whopping 5 minutes or so across the river mouth, to the southern beaches area.  From here, it was a quick tuk-tuk(bajaj) ride to Mikadi Beach where we surprised Georgia and Arek (travel mates in Malawi) with our arrival.  Always great to meet up with them, but only for a couple of days before they were off to Mozambique.   We caught up with travel stories and finding out about their adventures and mis-adventures.  Turns out Arek sprained his ankle badly falling into a drain, and was unable to really take the load of his pack and walk.  That meant they spent a lot of time in Zanzibar and on Mikadi Beach. Could be worse!

Catching up on computer chores at Mikadi Beach Lodge

Mikadi Beach was a chilled out lodge on a pretty, white sand beach - you would never know you were only 5 minutes or so from the heart of Dar es Salaam (the biggest city in Tanzania).  The only problem was, that they recommend you not stray from the lodge after dark, and we witnessed a couple of attacks (or at least the aftermath) and burglaries of a couple of people.    There was also hundreds of local people that were at the beach club next door - but they were all enjoying the surf and sand - not planning any robberies we hope!
We also hung out with Dirk, a German guy with some amazing photos of his safaris, and a brilliant soft top Land Rover with roof tent.  Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Georgia and Arek, but not before they introduced us to Chips Mayai - a popular local food basically consisting of chips/french fries and an egg mixture similar to a Spanish omelet.  We would have many more of these on our travels in Tanzania.

Locals on Mikadi Beach

We basically spent a couple of days in Dar doing some chores, like heading to the Sudanese Embassy (and meeting a very rude Sudanese office guy which didn't really make us feel excited about wanting to travel there!) But on a happy note, we also got to meet up with Charrie "Danger" Steele, who had been up in north Tanzania, but returned to Dar for his flight home.  Great to meet up with Charrie again, part of our Malawi contingent, catch up and get some good Tanzania travel tips.   Our next job is to head up to Moshi, at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, to arrange a climb of the prestigious mountain.    *Stub