Boyzz on Rovos Rail from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Lobito in Angola

We landed at Dar es Salaam, and made our way to the Kilimanjaro Hotel in order to check in for Rovos Rail. Bit of a problem as by now the madre was in a wheelchair. She had wandered off by herself just before we left the Kigali hotel, and pulled a tendon in her ankle. She should know better than wander off by herself, specially in Africa. The lions might have got her

Anyway next morning Mr Vos himself was there to check us in. He insisted in having his photo taken with us


Result of wandering off by herself in Kigali. Bad Girl.	Straight to bed in Kilimanjaro Hotel	Nice Club room in the hotel, with club lounge ..	..and private outside club area with cocktail and tapas hours

We supervise the swim. You cannot be too sure what she will do	We renew our acquaintance with Mr Vos	Mr Vos briefs us on the journey across Africa in front of us.	We take it all in

We thought he might not let us on the train	Guess who was last onto the train	Lawrence, the train manager, welcomes all aboard	Mr Vos thoughtfully supplied plenty of snacks

We stopped at somewhere called Makambako. Middle of ..	..nowhere/ It was full of old bicycle repair shops	..and ladies selling vegetables	.So we just paused to have a photo shot and got back on the train

Another stop at Chisimba Falls. Lots of water, and it looked a	bit dangerous. Hope they they keep hold of us	If she can get here, then so can we.	Back in the dining car, a bit of serious eating

We were whisked by a chartered private plane from Ndola to..	..South Luangwa National Park, and to Chinzombo Lodge..	..with a brief stop at the airport to try out the toys	We have never ridden on a zebra before

The lodge was our sort of place. As much as you can drink and eat	The old fellow looks knackered	We got stuck into substantial meals here	Our open "tent" looked out to the river and hippos

The lady of the tent has a bath	..and the lap of luxury with our own private pool.	Here we are on lifeguard duty	We give GoGo the Lodge manager some advice on running the place. She was very grateful

This is our safari wagon	Here we pause for sundowners overlooking the river	And this is our driver Philip	Before you knew it we were back to the airport and then back to the train

While in South Laungwa National Park we saw lots of frightening animals but we were very brave and did not hide. But we did need a stiff drink or two when we got back to camp


Lions are rough looking critters ..	..and this fellow was tucking into a whole Gnu	Mummy lion was waiting her turn to take lunch	There they are sleeping in the sunshine

Look like big pussy cats really		And this leopard was cuddly just like our friend Leo ..	.. we tracked it for over 10 minutes and it came very close to us

Lots of Hippos to see.	Lumbering big animals that can move very quickly and kill more people in Africa than		And crocs there too. Don't think we will swim today

Heffalumps everywhere , so there were lots of photo opportunities		You have to be quite brave when a heffalump is this close

Other wild animals we saw were hyenas	monkeys	wart hogs	and wild dogs

The giraffes were bigger than we were	..and have a sort of hang dog expression		and we tracked the lions from their footprints in the sand

From the South Luangwa Part it was on into the Congo, or the DRC as it is universally known. Here were were entering real explorer country. Sensible people do not travel through the DRC. It is rough, it is lawless, and the rail tracks are not maintained. By the time we left the DRC we were a day an a half behind schedule


Once we entered the DRC, we crouched low in our bed and saw	..poor Lawrence negotiating with the DRC officials at Lubumbashi	. The officials were from central casting for African border police	And a government minister came and went

A craft market that looked as if had seen better days ..	And we never did work out who this chap actually was	We were cheered up by this little train on a roundabout	And the madre put on a little $2000 number from Brown Thomas

The rail track was not maintained, and ballast had been removed	..to try to get leeched copper from the soil. Net result was very ..	..dickey track and very slow speed (15 km/hr) to avoid derail.	We did wonder how the train found the track sometimes.

We had dinner one night at this strange, almost abandoned hotel.	We were here to see the source of the River Congo, but it was dark.	Next day on the train through DRC	..with afternoon tea to divert us

And we could go to the Observation Car and wave at the crowds	Then at night we polished off a couple of Margaritas...		..and had dinner with Tim Butcher, a journalist and author

Eventually we escaped the DRC and arrived at Angola	Here we were protected by the Police and the ..	..Secret Police, who took our photos	And we had an armed police truck follow us everywhere

And along the track there were armed police and army	She was back in the wheelchair. We saw more tanks	Had dinner with Nicholas, the on-board historian	The secret police caught up with us

We had a rest under Mr Neto's statue	I don't think she had noticed that the police are into her	Lot os abandoned tanks lying around	And here we visited an abandoned railway workshop

Railway engines from the past gathering dust	And the odd policeman present , complete with Uzi submachine gun	A last dinner on the train	Lawrence and Mart look happy to see the back of us

The final morning and the train runs down past baobab trees..	..and scenic river valleys, to the Atlantic.	The police make sure that we get to Lobito safely	We get to the Terminus at Lobito

..but had to avoid the "departure" line as we were not sure of arrangements for us	But after a few hours wait in the hotel lobby ..	..It was on to Luanda by wheelchair and local airline	And after a night at Luanda on to Lisbon and Valencia via TAP, and a few Pasteis de Nata