Returning to Ifakara

We left Zanzibar, its beautiful beaches and tasty food. We took the ferry to Dar and spent two days shopping for all the “goodies” we can’t find in Ifakara. In the end we had about 100kg of baggage! We don’t know when we get the chance to return to Dar so we decided to buy as much as we could possibly carry. There is no cheese, nor butter, nor yogurts, nor sausages, etc, etc… There are lots of good things, but not these…

Our train left two hours later than scheduled and we set off once again through the Selous Game Reserve. We got the chance to see some elephants, zebras, warthogs, antelopes and giraffes. It was a nice train ride. However, our train stopped mysteriously for four hours in a small town called Kiskasi. We thought it was because of the bush fires but four hours later “The Pride of Africa” railed into the station. Suddenly next to our “Made-in-China-Tazara-train” was the most luxurious train in the world with rich people dressed in evening gowns having a cocktail. We felt like poor hungry peasants looking into a mansion. All the Africans on the Tazara were staring inside and we could notice that this made the rich ladies uncomfortable, pointing into the dark cabins of the Tazara “Oh dear, look at those dirty locals, they’re blocking our view…” I felt embarrassed of being a white. Apparently, because there is only one railway line (except on some stations) our train had to wait until their majesties traveled from Ifakara to Kiskasi which takes about 4 hours. Finally we could leave. During the rest of the trip we tried to figure out where we were. This isn't easy because there is no list of stations, and there are no names on the stations, so we had to some how guess when we arrive in Ifakara. We asked many people and Ifakara was always “the next” station…it wasn’t. We almost got off at the wrong station but a nice lady who was also getting off in Ifakara prevented it. The train stopped and we had to jump two meters to the ground, carrying 100 Kg of luggage and Clara, then walk about 300 meters of bush until we reached the station. I was happy to see the IHI driver waiting for us although we were 6 hours late and only arrived at 02:00 a.m.. It was good to be back at our little house.