Africa- Coast to Coast

From Tanzania to Namibia by land

I love smaller and bigger adventures and in year 2018 (after finishing my three years with Sida), I decided to do a journey with trains and buses; from Tanzania to the other coast of the continent, Namibia.

My journey started with purchasing train tickets for my Tazara trip between Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Kipiri Mposhi in Zambia. It is recommended to buy the tickets in advance (such as 1 month), particularly if you want to stay in the first class sleeping compartment. I was late with purchasing my tickets, so I had a second class compartment ticket together with 5 ladies (in the first class you are 4 in total). The compartments are divided into gender, which was really nice for me since I travelled myself.

On the Tazara train

I took an Uber to the main train station of Dar es Salaam during the Friday afternoon of my departure and after some time in the waiting hall, me and the other passengers were allowed to enter the train. I quite easily found my compartment and I was happy be surrounded by two older Tanzanian ladies and three Zambian women, one of them working as a police woman (felt safe!). I saw that none had taken the upper bed so I asked if I could have that bed. I must say that my yoga practice was quite useful in order to get up there... Linens were provided and of fair quality. However, I found it nice to have a light travel sheet with me. In general the train was of good shape since it recently came from China.

The train started going and after leaving my things in the compartment, I managed to find a place with an open window; perfect to spot the landscape shift from urban to rural colors. After ordering some "Wali mboga mboga" (rice with beans and vegetables) in the restaurant compartment (they serve rice, ugali which is cornmeal porridge, beans, chicken and fish), I went back to my compartment. I decided to follow the pattern of my fellow compartment members so around 8 pm I was in bed and actually didn't wake up until the next morning!

Earplugs are great to bring!

Stop in Mblimba

The morning after I had started the journey, I woke up and realized that we had stopped moving. Looking out I recognized a place I seen before; the small village of Mlimba. I had once earlier got stuck in this small town for as much as 2 days when I had taken the train for a visit to our regional office in Mbeya. As I was looking out, I was wondering how many days it would be this time and felt lucky that I had a flexible time table (you need to have this in order to enjoy the unpredicted train trip I believe!).

Luckily, I remembered that Restless Development (my previous job) had one local community volunteer in Mlimba working in the area of family planning. So I sent my former colleague Dorice a message on WhatsApp (the Internet is quite good in Mlimba!) and managed to receive the volunteer's mobile number. She was called Irene and I decided to call her and ask if she would like to meet up and have lunch with me (the staff of the train told me that we would not depart until the evening).

I dialed her number and I was happy that she answered on the first try, saying she would love to come by and meet me together with four of her friends. They came to the train platform and after saying hi they showed me around a bit in the town. After a bit of a walk, I invited the girls for lunch at a small restaurant. Although I didn't understand 100 % of everything being said, we managed to have a some conversations about girls' rights and life in Mlimba in Swahili.

After the lunch we went to one of the girls' work place (a hair saloon) and played a bit of yatzy. I had brought a game for the trip and it was easier to explain in Swahili than card games. We played a round and afterwords I left the game with them since they liked it. On the way to the train, they surprised me and took me to a store and bough a travel kanga (Tanzanian textile) for me. So sweet! The hours with them really became a highlight of the trip and I felt grateful for the train delay!

Staying safe

I felt in general very safe on the trip. It was only one evening when a drunk guy started to shout and knock on our compartment door I felt quite uncomfortable. One strategy I had was to build a strong connection with my female compartment members and make sure that we were looking out for each other. I followed the same patterns as them and also avoided to move to the restaurant/bar compartment in the evenings since they served alkohol there (drunk guys are never fun anywhere). As always when I travel on less touristic routes, I'm doing my best to use simple clothes, similar to what local females from the city would wear (like jeans, loose pants and t-shirt). You stand out enough as it is.

Kapiri Mposhi to Lusaka

On Monday evening (after being on the train for about 3,5 days we arrived at the border of Zambia. Unfortunately, the border control took longer time than expected and it was not possible for me to use my purchased UniVisa for Zambia and Zimbabwe coming from this border crossing. So I had to purchase a new single visa at the border. A bit annoying, but what can you do!

Due to my previous experience with Tazara train delays, I knew I had to have a flexible mindset (and time table!) in order to enjoy the trip fully. Therefore, I decided to wait to do any booking until we reached the border of Zambia (I had 3G on my Tanzanian Vodacom simcard for quite a big part of the ride and had written down addresses of budget hotels).

Earlier I had started to talk with a Canadian/Chinese couple on the train that also were heading to Lusaka, so we decided to go together (also a good way to stay safe). Due to delays at the border we arrived at the end destination of the train, Kapiri Mposhi when it was already dark. This was a bit problematic since local transportation are not allowed in the evenings in Zambia due to safety concerns.

Luckily, me and my new travel companions started to talk to a Tanzanian priest student who were heading in the same direction as us. He directed us to the dean and the priest of his school, whom offered us a ride in his private car to Lusaka. If we wouldn't have met him, I think we probably would have had to find a guest house to stay in. We arrived to our hostel in Lusaka at midnight and the next morning, I took an eight hour bus ride to Livingstone in Zambia, close to Victoria falls.

Victoria falls

After being on the bus for almost a full day I arrived in Livingstone, Zambia. The town is only a few kilometers from the falls and there are plenty of hotels, hostels and travelers around. I found a decent place to stay at and the next day it was time to head to the falls on the Zambian side (they are located between Zambia and Zimbabwe, exactly at the border).

I went to the falls with a free shuttle bus departing from the hostel I stayed at, very convenient! It dropped us of a the entrance of the falls and after purchasing a ticket (30 USD), I started to follow the signs towards the falls. After a maybe 5 minutes walk you could start to hear the sound of them and it wasn't until then I understood how truly impressive they are! I spent several hours just walking around on the paths of the park and enjoyed the view of the nature.

I had heard that you see the falls from a closer angel, as well more of them from the Zimbabwe side. So a few days after, I decided to head to that side. The border crossing was easy, walk across the bridge and then a border control. What I really found spectacular was the reflection of the rainbow around the waterfalls. Never seen a double rainbow before!

It was easy to find budget accommodation on both sides (used TripAdvisor) and there were a lot of tourists around. I didn't to any bungy jumping or other adventurous activities but there were plenty of options for the brave ones.

Be careful of bringing food into the park, the baboons like to snatch!

Horse riding in Zimbabwe

Something I like to do when traveling is horseback riding since I quite miss horses (I used to have a horse when growing up). So when there is a chance to ride, I usually say yes (as long as the horses are fine of course), so that's what I did.

The stable was located at the closest town to the falls in Zimbabwe, also called Victoria Falls. It was owned by a lady with a lot of experiences of horseback safaris. After putting on a helmet and changing to natural colors in order to not scare the wild animals, it was time to say hello to my horse of the tour. He was a sweet 150 cm tall white horse who might have been an Arabian crossbreed.

Riding in silence between baobab trees, and suddenly being only 15 meters from buffalos was quite an experience! Yes, I was quite nervous being so close to them! Luckily they didn't seem to care much about horses and people on their back.

Day safari to Botswana

When being in Zimbabwe, I decided to sign up for a one day safari trip to Botswana (cost appr. 120 USD and they also offer the Botswana tour from Zambia), since it is the country that has the most wild elephants in the world. I been to a few safaris in Tanzania, but I most say that so far this one-day safari has been the most spectacular!

The safari started with a boat safari in which we could see a bunch of elephants swim and hang around with their babies. I had no clue that elephants were so good at swimming! We also saw crocodiles and a number of beautiful birds. After the river cruise we had lunch in a nearby hotel and then we headed out on a game ride with a 4-wheel car. We were lucky to spot a lion and her cubs!

Heading to Namibia

Heading to Namibia from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe with bus was very easy with the South African bus company InterCape. It was possible to buy the ticket in advance and the website clearly indicated the place and time of the departure.

After 24 hours on the bus (bring toilet paper for the stops) and a nice conversation with two female passengers from Zimbabwe, we entered Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Coming from Tanzania that is facing big challenges with the infrastructure, I was surprised to see the large and well-maintained roads. I later (by visiting a few museums in Windhoek), came to realize how little knowledge I had about the country and its history. I had no clue that the country wasn't independent until the 1990s from South Africa and had faced both apartheid and colonial genocide. It is nowadays one the countries, which has one of the largest inequality gaps. It became very visible since you sometimes had large villas on one side of the road and townships on the other.

The red dunes

After one night at a hostel in Windhoek, I headed out on a 3 day tour to the red dunes of Sossusvlei. I had booked this tour in advance and I was happy for that since the tour operators were quite busy. Many tourists in the country rent camping jeeps and drive themselves; I would have loved that in case I would have been traveling with somebody.

The tour included a diverse group of people, everything from a super fit Japanese couple in their 70s to a few people younger than myself. We were staying in tents inside one of the camps of the Sossusvlei area and were driving to different dunes from there. I'm thinking about how to best describe the magnificence of Namibia's nature and the red dunes, but I'm out of words. I let the pictures speak instead.

Remember to bring a hat and good sunglasses!

Final stop: Swakopmund and the Atlantic Coast

More photos from this journey can be found on my Instagram account (saved stories).

In order to reach my final destination, the Atlantic Coast, I headed to the coastal city of Swakopmund. The hostel I stayed at offered mini-bus transport and it was easy to book. Swakopmund was a calm and quite tourist friendly town, so there were plenty of activities that you could do, from cord-biking to driving in the dunes.

I celebrated reaching my destination with joining another horseback riding safari, this time in the desert. I can really recommend the stable of Okakambe. The horses were well-treated and I got a lovely and very kind horse to ride in the desert. He was calm but still loved to canter! Another highlight of my trip for sure!

I'm feeling very grateful for this journey; a bit of an adventure, incredible nature and moments of strong human connection!