Home » Tanzania » Day 12. Wed 2nd October Kigoma to Dodoma

We are awoken in the middle of the night by a tremendous crash which throws Andy's water bottles of their shelf, flooding the compartment and our luggage with 3 litres of water. In the morning we discover this was due to a problem with the engine, and that the train was stopped for 3 hours. Unfortunately delays will accumulate as we miss time slots, so we can expect to be very late into Dodoma.
Breakfast is a spanish omelette, which, in contrast to last night's fish, is served with a knife and fork!

Day 12. Wed 2nd October Kigoma to Dodoma

DaveMidgley
2005-10-22 12:29:17

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We are awoken in the middle of the night by a tremendous crash which throws Andy's water bottles of their shelf, flooding the compartment and our luggage with 3 litres of water. In the morning we discover this was due to a problem with the engine, and that the train was stopped for 3 hours. Unfortunately delays will accumulate as we miss time slots, so we can expect to be very late into Dodoma.
Breakfast is a spanish omelette, which, in contrast to last night's fish, is served with a knife and fork!

The half way point on our journey, and the largest station, is Tobora, where we arrive about 10:00. At Tobora there is a lot of shunting of carriages during which the five first class carriages are completely reomved and apparently attached to a different train. In any event we are now attached to a new engine for the journey on to Dodoma.

We buy water and hard-boiled eggs from traders throught the carriage window. Later we wander down the platform and buy cold drinks, at all times ready to leap aboard the train as no one knows exactly when it will set off again. Ken tells us we will soon be entering honey country, so we buy fresh bread rolls from a kiosk.
We leave Tobora at about 13:30. It is at least ten hours to Dodoma so we will be very late.
As predicted, the speciality in this area is honey, and we can see the hives hanging in the trees beside the line. An optimistic trader asks 1000TS for a jar of honey justs as the train is pulling out, but are are wiser now and turn him down, leaving him no time to revise his offer. At the next station we settle on 500TS for a Konyagi bottle filled with honey (Konyagi is the local gin - recycling is a way of life here and empty bottles, glass or plastic, are always in demand) which we slather on our bread rolls. It's delicious.

We will not get to Dodoma tonight, so we get everything ready, and, without undresing, wrap our selves in our blankets to grab whatever sleep we may.