What to Expect When You Travel in Africa

Sam and I have been visiting some epic sites all throughout Africa. We feel so lucky to have the opportunity so see and do everything we have so far. But there are still barriers, stress, and uneasy feelings at times.  These usually center around traveling from one city or country to another. We've had our "Oh shit, do we have enough cash on us, because we cant get to and ATM right now" moments. We've had street vendors hounding us to buy something or book a tour, even when we were sitting on a restaurant patio. When we arrive somewhere, everyone wants to give you a taxi ride, and they practically grab your backpack off your back before you can say "No."

Our favorite trials though are with the actual transportation itself. For example, during our first week in Uganda, the 12-hour public bus coming back from Bwindi Forest broke down with a flat tire. We waited 2 hours before getting up and running just to stop again about an hour outside of Kampala. They kept telling us another bus was coming, but we waited for quite some time, and the sun was starting to set.  So we set off to find a matatu with our newfound friend Jeffrey, who lived in Kampala. Thank goodness he was with us, because the matatu dropped us off in one of the worst parts of the city.  Jeffrey led us to an area we were familiar with so we could safely get back to the hostel at night.

The most recent journey was the 4 day trip from Zanzibar, Tanzania to Livingstone, Zambia. Our first mode of transport was the ferry to Dar Es Saalam on the mainland of Tanzania. We made sure to arrive early, as we heard the locals get pretty crazy trying to get a good seat. We've noticed that lines don't really exist in Africa, so we weren't surprised when we got caught in the mosh-pit like crowd trying to get on the ferry. Other than that, the ride was really easy with AC and TVs (because we managed to get the good seats).

Next us was the 42 hour train ride into Zambia. It was a sleeper train and we took the luxury of booking a whole cabin with just the two of us.  There were other Western  travellers there, and were surprised when they went to the restaurant next door at 3:30 pm for drinks when the train was scheduled to leave at 3:45 pm. We soon found out that the Tazara train is notorious for being late. That day they claimed that they didn't have enough money for fuel. Then, later we heard that the dining car was also broken and needed to be fixed before we left. We finally pulled out of the station at 8:30 pm that night after teaching a Californian couple how to play Euchre, hoping that the train would hold up for the entire trip.

Our cabin on the train (it looks even dirtier than I remember!)

We didn't find it very comforting when we would pass old train cars laying next to he tracks that had previously derailed, but we hadn't heard of this happening recently. The train made many stops along the way, and the vendors would come out to sell us food through the windows. Most of the time our stops were planned, but the second night we ended up stopping for almost 4 hours for more fuel. Apparently fuel is a very difficult thing for the train.  Luckily, we brought enough books to read along the way.

The view from our sleeper car

On the last day of the train, we started to smell burning. The train made an impromptu stop and several (probably not very qualified) men hopped off to take a look. Of course, it was coming from our car, but they somehow quickly determined that everything was okay and we started up again. Within an hour there was more burning and yet again we made an unplanned stop for everyone to take a look.  This time, they decided that the problem was one of the rubber belts on our car. The solution apparently was to just remove the belt because they thought we would be alright without it. We decided that laughing about this was the better alternative to crying, and said a quick prayer as we started up once more.

The train finally arrived in the small station of New Kapiri Mposhi, but we still had a long way to go. Instead of arriving at the scheduled 9:30 am (which would have been perfect), we ended up getting in at 11:30 pm that night.  The vultures of taxi and bus drivers attacked, but we managed to find the bus headed to Lusaka, which really ended up being a matatu (15 passenger van). Sam and I drew the short straw on his one because we ended up in the very back row in the middle two other people, one of which was a mom holding 2 kids. Counting them, we had 6 people in one row. We were so packed in that one person had to lean forward and the next in the row lean back....for 4 hours.

Somehow I managed to sleep on the matatu though, and Lusaka seemed to come pretty fast. The last leg of the trip was on a nice charter bus! We only had 7 hours left to go to get to Livingstone, Zambia (which really seems like no time to us now on a bus). We got some luck here because we heard the 6 am bus was fully booked. But when the company opened, we found out they added a new bus and we were on it.  It was a relief when we finally arrived in Livingstone, Zambia and reached our hostel, Jolly Boys.  Hopefully we don't have such a long trek again for quite some time!

(Written December 23rd)