The Tazare train line starts on the far coast of Tanzania, picking you up at Dar Es Salaam, and runs all the way through to Lusaka, Zambia, with several stops along the way. In theory, I think this journey is supposed to take something like 24hours from start to finish. This being Africa, however, it took us closer to 36hours just to get to the roughly half-way mark of Mbeya, a town in Tanzania closer to the Malawi border, where many people exit the train to make their south to the lake. The comforts on this thing are a little limited (I did not take a picture of the bathroom, because nobody needs to see that), but my brother and his wife had thoughtfully given me a little travel spice kit which added some delicious flavor to the rice and chicken (which was totally delicious, if a bit light on the chicken) and every rest stop held the promise of local villagers selling additional snacks and drinks once the train's bar cart ran out. Other than rest, eat, and drink, there wasn't a whole lot to do. I shared a cabin together with two lovely german tourists and the three of us passed the time alternating conversation, card games, reading and just taking in the view. Speaking of the view, it took on an oddly television-like quality if you sat back in the cabin and let the frame of the window really shape what you saw. I tried to capture that a bit in the above photo, but more pictures of the view in the next post. Short assessment of this train thang: it's not the easiest or most comfortable way to see, well, anything. But! It is a really cool way to travel across Tanzania, meet some like-minded travellers and do it all knowing you have a destination in mind... you just don't know exactly when you will get there. Don't do it if you're on a tight schedule, but if you've got the time, its a fantastic experience.
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