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Published: December 23rd 2007
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After a week in Arusha, (while the family went on Safari and we caught up with friends), the trip proper was about to start. We were planning to fly to Dar es Salaam (to save 10 hours on a bus) and then catch the train to Malawi and make our way overland down through Malawi then Zambia and ending up in Victoria Falls. Of course plans sometimes need to change!!!
The train from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania travels some 1800kms over 3 days all the way into Zambia but we were only going to go to the Malawi border (about 840kms) - but that was still going to be 24 hours. We decided to travel First Class, which meant that we had a cabin to ourselves, and that we could order dinner and breakfast from a 'waiter' without going to the buffet car. Yes it sounds very luxurious!?!? Well after spending 6 months already in Africa we knew the above would all be very much 'relative'. The train itself was obviously very old and not particularly clean. Third Class consisted of very old seats and people in every available space - yes, the seats, the aisles, the luggage racks,
the gaps between the seats, etc. Second Class consisted of carriages with 6 bunks, shared with as many people as could possibly fit in, and then First Class had 4 bunks and had a maximum of 4 people only. Toilets were traditional African (hole in the floor) and shared by all - so you can imagine the smell at the end of the 24 hour trip! At one stage in the night I actually got up and closed the door because the smell with the door left open really did wake you up! The food was probably close to the worst we had had, and although we did attempt to get to the buffet car to get some drinks during the trip, we just physically could not get through all the people crammed into doors and corridors. We had attempted to get some supplies in Dar before getting on the train but there were not a lot of options, so we ended up with lots of packets of biscuits.
The train travels along at a very modest pace and the surrounding world comes to meet the train as it passes some very remote places. In true African style, no
matter where we were, people came running with food and various things to tempt the locals. Despite having a very very long night, we arrived on time at our destination and started on our next leg which was a mad dash to and across the border to get to the shores of Lake Malawi for a 2 night stay.
Anyone who has travelled in Africa will know that wherever you go you will have people offering to help you on your way - which is not always helpful or not always with the best intentions. You will also know that border crossings can sometimes be a challenge.
When we stepped off the train we really didn't know how we were going to get to the Malawi border as the good old Lonely Planet seems a bit silent on the topic, but we knew a bus went to the border from the bus station, but we didn't know when or where it was. Needless to say a couple of trusty local blokes were meeting the train looking for the tourists travelling to the border with an offer of a luxury bus that would not only take us to the
border, but also onto our destinations in Malawi (which should have been our first warning). After teaming up with another 2 people going to the border (making 7 of us) and much discussion and reassurance that they were running a legitimate business we agreed a price all the way to our Malawi destination town (about US$20 each). With our 'rip off' radar running at full speed we refused to pay until we got to the destination, and ended up agreeing that we would pay half now and then half at the final destination. Fortunately, that saved us getting ripped off completely as the luxury bus ended up being just the regular public minibus going to the border. To add to the deception, they kept all the locals off the bus until they had put us on, charged us half of our fare, and then disappeared - at which point all the locals suddenly got on the bus filling every available position. We quickly realised that not only had we paid double what the locals were paying, but the bus was actually only going to the border so we would have to make our own arrangements from there - surprise surprise.
The locals on the bus were very friendly to us and were very angry that we had been ripped off, so when the driver wanted to drop us off in a town near the border leaving us a very long walk, they supported us in our refusal to get off anywhere but at the immigration office, which we had been promised.
So a friendly travel warning to anyone getting the train from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya and wanting to cross the border the same day - tell the blokes that meet you off the train to "p%ss off", get a cab to the bus station and get the bus to the border (deal directly with the bus driver). Local buses do not cross the border so whatever they say it will not happen. The only buses that do cross the border are the long distance buses between Dar and Lilongwe. If the train arrives on time you have enough time to make the border, but don't hang around too long in Mbeya. It took about 3 hours to get from the train station to the border, you'll need an hour for the border (at worst) and then it's
about an hour or so by taxi to the first major town in Malawi (there are no buses that we saw - make sure you agree a price up front).
We finally ended up at our great little accommodation overlooking Chitimba Beach about 8pm (about 7 hours after we got off the train) and nearly 2 days since we had seen a bed. We were planning to spend 2 nights here and enjoy a ‘day off’ from travelling, and despite being knackered from the train and the mad dash across the border to our final stop, we were really glad to have that bit of the trip out of the way.
I have made it sound a lot easier than it was, and I won’t even go into the hassles we had when we tried to get taxis from the Malawi border , but that’s Africa, and when your on a really short time frame you just have to do what it takes to get through.
Now for some relaxing!!
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