Tanzania – Zanzibar and Tazara
What we did
We started this week with four nights at Nungwi beach on the northern tip of Zanzibar. We spent our days lazing on the pure white sand and swimming in the crystal clear waters of the most beautiful beach we’ve ever seen in our lives. Every evening we watched the sun set over the Indian ocean with a cocktail or a beer, whilst fending off touts offering taxi services, tours and cannabis (not canapes Kirsten!)
When our time in Zanzibar came to an end, we caught the ferry back to Dar es Salaam to prepare for the Tazara train – an epic journey of 1860km, all the way through Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in the middle of Zambia. We enjoyed a return visit to our Airbnb hosts in Dar and to our favourite Indian restaurant, and stocked up on snacks, wet wipes and 12L of bottled water for the 2-3 day train journey ahead (the train has a reputation for running at least a day late).
On Friday afternoon we boarded the Tazara train and settled into the 4 bed compartment that was to be our home for the next few days. The train was a pretty decent Chinese train, though the bedding was all stamped TZR in big black letters, reminiscent of something you would see in a prison movie.
The Tazara train ride was a lot of fun. We spent the days reading, writing for the blog, chatting with other passengers and staring out the window at the ever-changing countryside. We sampled all of the meals on offer in the dining car (really only chicken or beef with rice or ugali, with less and less options as the journey went on) and the cheap beers, which were inexplicably much cheaper in the Zambian currency as soon as we crossed the border.
The only downsides were that the fan in our compartment didn’t work, and our compartment was next to the toilet, and rather undelightful smells wafted through our open window every time someone paid it a visit (it’s the kind of train where you can’t use the toilet in a station because the toilet goes straight out onto the tracks).
The second afternoon our trip became much more interesting when Tina, an African American lady from the deep South, boarded the train and stuck her head into our compartment with a quizzical look and a curious tilt of the head, enquiring “how y’all doin?” For the next day and a half Tina kept us in fits of laughter as she regaled us with tales about her adventures in Africa so far, in which it quickly became clear that she did not suffer no god-damn fools lightly!
The train crossed the border into Zambia late on Saturday evening, with immigration officials boarding the train on each side to stamp our passports. On the Zambian side we all needed to purchase visas, with some of our fellow passengers coming unstuck when the immigration officials refused to take Tanzanian shillings or Zambian Kwacha, and would only accept US$ for the visas. We had plenty of US$ on us, having stocked up for Zimbabwe, and found it hilarious that the Australians were bailing out the Americans on our train with their own currency!
The train finally arrived in Kapiri Mposhi, a small town in the middle of Zambia, a little after 6pm on Day 3. We aren’t actually totally sure how late we were, because there seemed to be conflicting information about what time we were meant to arrive. The consensus is we are between 5 and 9 hours late – which is not too bad in the scheme of things.
From Kapiri Mposhi it was still a further 3 hour drive to the capital, Lusaka, and we were glad to have arrived in time to be able to make it through to Lusaka that night. We shared a taxi to Lusaka with our new friends Tina and Jeremy – a bit of a squishy ride in a car that definitely had inadequate suspension for the load of Americans and Australians and their baggage it was now carrying (it bottomed out over every speed bump, and there were many speed bumps). Tina sat in the front and did an excellent job of making sure our driver (who we nicknamed ‘speedy mc nugget’ because he liked to go at 110km per hour when the speed limit was 60) didn’t kill us. We finally arrived in Lusaka around 10pm on Sunday night, very ready for a well-earned shower and a good sleep in a stationary bed.
Favourite thing we did
We spent our last full day in Zanzibar on a snorkelling trip to the magnificent coral reef off of Mnemba Island off the east coast. The island itself is a private resort, which you can’t come within a hundred metres of, but the coral and immense variety of aquatic life that sits just off the island draws dozens of boatloads of snorkelers. The beautiful coral reef was full of a breathtaking array of different kinds of fish and aquatic life. We even saw some pods of dolphins on the way out!
Favourite thing we ate
We were in Zanzibar at the hottest time of year, so it was only logical that we required daily samples from the local gelato shop to cool us down. We were still in our post-Kili ‘treat ourselves’ phase, so these felt like a well-earned treat and good chance to get out of the afternoon sun, as well as being delicious to boot!
Favourite thing we drank
A couple of pina coladas was the perfect accompaniment to the beautiful sunsets here every night. If this isn’t the place for pina coladas then where is?!
Biggest splurge
Zanzibar… every minute of every day… it was a very pricey place! Eating out seemed to cost an exorbitant amount here, although the quality of the food was often pretty average for the price.
Cheapest meal
I don’t know if you’d necessarily call it a bargain, but the meals on the Tazara train were definitely cheap, especially after Zanzibar! Breakfast included toast, omelette and sausage (or any combination thereof) and lunch and dinner were beef stew (two dry chunks of beef) or chicken with rice or ugali. Everything cost less than $3, even if the quality was mediocre at best.
Dinky-Di Duo 