Nowhere in Africa

We crossed 2000 km through SAR, Botswana and Zimbabwe to find ourselves in a lost, tiny Zambian village Kapiri Mposhi, where a railway with a romantic name “The road of Freedom” takes its beginning. So it was time to start the wildest and the most desperate part of expedition and to take a 3-day train trip to the capital of Tanzania – Dar-Es-Salaam.

The first shock we faced was the discrepancy between the schedule and the real traffic which seemed to exist in parallel worlds. Despite that and with a wave of a magic wand, we departed in time and were just about to start preaching up our pimped up Karma when our train suddenly stopped somewhere in prairie leaving us in the dark guessing if we were to meet some Dementors. It became even more intriguing as we met two local guys carrying a cool box everywhere they went, mealy-mouthing while answering very dubiously our questions regarding their business. Word on the street was that they were transporting human organs. Thanks God, things straightened out when they pulled out some home-made food from it.
Old rusty wagons wabbling along the railway were creating the atmosphere of a Wild-wild West where we had to either survive or die like an old animal. Yet it was an incredible head-spinning feeling of freedom as we were moving ahead towards the heart of Africa, watching the same endless landscapes dotted with rare animals, finding ourselves beyond ordinary world, out of time and stereotypes.

And surely I cannot help sharing some tips with those brain-sickers who will venture to repeat our jeopard journey:
Dress up! Warm hat and Africa fit together. The temperature falls down to 5°C at night.
Stock up with food! Surprisingly the meal in the local dining-car is quite tasty, though it finishes long before you arrive to the destination.
Take presents! You will be meeting a lot of children who need clothes. Do your best not to give all away on the first stop though your heart will be willing to do so.
Shape up your nerves! The conditions will be far from a 5* hotel so I would suggest having some one-use rubber gloves. Having those made me “unexpectedly” popular among girls during the trip.

Summing up, I can say that those 3 days turned out to be a real adventure, the one that I had always been dreaming of, where everything was running out of plan, giving the possibility to absorb all the colors of local life. And let it sound as a banal cliché, but I truly believe - life starts outside your comfort zone!