Travel Stories

South Africa to Kenya by Train and Boat
by Matz Lonnedal Risberg

INTRODUCTION
For as long as I can remember, I've always dreamt of making six Transcontinental journeys, and when I write journeys I do not mean jumping from one spot to another by aeroplane - I mean travelling. The first one was to go by the TransSiberian Railway to Vladivostok and from there to Japan. The second one was to take a steamer to North America and go by the "Canadian" from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The third one was to go to Beijing, through Mongolia one way and Manchuria the other. The fourth one was to go all the way through Africa down to Cape Town, including riding the famous "Blue Train". The fifth one was to go to Alaska and the sixth one was to go to Singapore overland.
Like Cecil Rhodes I had the dream of going by rail, or at least overland, from Cairo to the Cape. That has never been possible in my lifetime; border crossings between African countries has always been tricky, with several ones closed at any time and there has never been public transport across the Sudanese/Ugandan border. The Sudanese Civil War makes it less advisable to travel through the country. But with the help of freight ships, my fourth dream journey became my sixth and last to fulfil (counting my South America trip in 1999 as a substitute for an Alaska journey). As in 2001 I went by a freighter from Lisbon to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, by train around in South Africa, to Maputo and all the way from Cape Town to Dar-es-Salaam and the Victoria Lake, by boat to Zanzibar and Mombasa, by train again to Nairobi and then by freighter from Mombasa to Fos-sur-Mer in France.
Just like when going to South America in 1999 the ships agent, Kapitän Peter Zylmann, nearly ruined my journey, as he booked me on a ship leaving Lisbon 18th April and scheduled to arrive Cape Town approximately at 3rd or 4th May, and not telling me until very late, although I one year in advance had told him I absolutely had to be in Cape Town not later than 5th May. Luckily enough the passenger (owner's) cabin on the ship ahead was free and I could board the m.v. "Grey Fox" in Lisbon 4th April. The ship I originally was booked on, the "Amber Lagoon", was late and did not arrive to Cape Town before I left by "The Blue Train" 7th May!!

THE BEGINNING
My train trip from Oslo to Lisbon was my first journey ever from the Scandinavian peninsular to the Continent of Europe without using a ferry on any part. Ten years earlier I could have travelled by train from Oslo to Lisbon only changing trains in Copenhagen and Paris. But that journey would have lasted four nights and three days. Now I had to change at seven stations; Hallsberg, Mjölby, Malmö, Copenhagen, Cologne, Paris and Irun, but was able to make the trip in 52 hours.
The journey on "Grey Fox" was the most enjoyable freight ship journey I have made so far; the cabin being the biggest and nicest I've ever met on a ship and the Polish captain and crew extremely nice and friendly. On board we celebrated Polish Easter, which is nearly as special as Scandinavian Yule. The weather on the Canary Islands, which we passed between, was surprisingly bad in April.

FIRST STEP ONTO THE SHORES OF AFRICA

The ship called into Walvis Bay in Namibia, where I went off and strolled around and wouldn't have needed the visa I had got in advance. Wednesday 18th April the ship got an order to call into Port Elizabeth after Cape Town, to take some empty containers to Richardsbay. I thought it could be fun to have rounded the Cape of Good Hope and asked if I could prolong my journey. The immigration authorities in South Africa didn't mind that, however stamped my entrance in Cape Town and regarded the Cape Town - Port Elizabeth journey as a domestic one, and the ships company macs let me continue without extra costs.
However we arrived in Cape Town Thursday 19th and I went off with my main luggage and stayed one night at Breakwater Lodge, where I also kept my main luggage during my two weeks round trip in South Africa. I had a lovely Friday visiting Table Mountain - which was impossible to do when I came back to Cape Town two weeks later. Friday night I went to town together with some of the crew members, and Saturday we left Cape Town for Port Elizabeth, docking Sunday evening. Next day I took the train to Johannesburg, the commuter train to Pretoria, where I found a lovely hotel, in which I pre-booked a room for my visit two weeks later and then went by the night train to Komatipoort.

TO MOZAMBIQUE AND AROUND IN SOUTH AFRICA

South African trains are not very comfortable but have mostly excellent dining cars. My train to Komatipoort was six hours late, which enabled me to see and photograph the spectacular mountainous landscape that the train normally passes through in the middle of the night. According to the Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable there was supposed to be 1st and 2nd class air-conditioned coaches to the Mozambique capital Maputo. There were only 3rd class cars. I was definitely the only non-local passenger on that train. As the train from Johannesburg was six hours late nobody really knew when the Maputo train was supposed to depart. Suddenly the Mozambique engine driver blew the horn and went off. Passengers outside the train yelled and tried to run after and on the train but he just accelerated and they never got on.
Maputo railway station
At the Mozambique border the immigration officer demanded ZAR 12 (around US$ 1.60) from everybody to stamp their passports (I had already paid US$ 65 for my Mozambique visa in Lisbon). This was enough for some passengers not to have the fare (also ZAR 12) for the train journey to Maputo. It was a fascinating journey through remote villages on an extremely bad railway track, where 40 km/h felt dangerously fast. Maputo has the most beautiful railway station in Africa, but the railyard reminded me of Sarajevo's half a year earlier. Both railyards were filled with damaged rail coaches out of use. In Maputo I stayed at the Hotel Avenida, which charged US$ 120 for a single room. You get a better room for ZAR 300 (US$ 40) in South Africa.
Next day I went back the same way and by the night train from Komatipoort to Johannesburg, from where I went to East London. The drunken Boer (Afrikaner) that was in my compartment had a gun inside his trousers' waist, luckily enough he left the train the same evening.
Just as Chile and Argentina in 1999 had surprised me by being much more European and much less North American than I had expected, South Africa disappointed me by being the opposite. It is nearly impossible to be a pedestrian in the country, and a lot of towns are as ugly as American towns. East London is one of them. However standard is extremely high and prices very low on lodging, food and drinks in South Africa. After having spent the weekend in East London I went to Johannesburg again - spent the day at the Johannesburg railway station, as the city is regarded one of the most dangerous in Africa and has little to offer the tourist - and then caught the night train to Durban. Durban is a fascinating city, a melting pot of different cultures, and the only South African city I really liked, besides Cape Town.
From Durban I took the 36 hours through train to Cape Town. Again a drunken Boer in my compartment made the first night unpleasant, so I changed compartment the next morning. The two drunken Boers I met on South African trains were the only persons on my entire African journey that were unpleasant.
Back in Cape Town Friday 4th May it rained cats and dogs. Saturday I took a tour of the city on my own and Sunday I participated on a tour to the Cape of Good Hope, also watching wild penguins, ostriches and baboons. I really liked Cape Town and had some marvellous food there, as elsewhere in South Africa, like venison, ostrich, crocodile, calamari and lobster.
LUXURY ON THE BLUE TRAIN Monday 7th May I boarded "The Blue Train"; the world's most comfortable train, running after schedule. It lived up to it's reputation - Excellent service, comfortable sleeping compartments with bath tubs, comfortable lounge cars, excellent dining car and everything included. "Even the cigars?", I asked. "Yes." "Do you have Havana cigars?" "We have nothing less, Sir." But it is amazing how the South African railways have managed to make this train into the worldwide known and popular train it is, as it runs from Cape town to Pretoria, which is not a very exciting city although being the country's capital and through a landscape that is not nearly as spectacular as neither the North American, the Norwegian nor the West Chinese.
I arrived Pretoria 26 hours later where I stayed at the wonderful Victoria Hotel, a very cozy and fine, old hotel opposite to the railway station, where you however should not walk outside after dark (which applies to most African towns and cities). In Pretoria I took out the money for my onward journey, so from there I carried US$ 6 600 in cash on my body, as I had got the information that cards were more or less impossible to use in Zambia or Tanzania. As it is so totally unwise to run around with that amount of money in cash on yourself nobody expects you to do it, and I didn't loose a cent of it, having hidden it in three different bags under my clothes and in my wrist belt. Next day I went to Pilasenberg National Park, where I saw lions, giraffes, elephants, buffaloes, baboons and zebras.
Thursday I went on "The Blue Train" again, this time taking a two day journey to Victoria Falls. In Bulawayo we went on an excursion and picnic. When we returned we were given the news that "The Blue Train" had derailed, trying to turn at the railyard. For a short while it looked like they would substitute the rail trip for a bus journey already that night and I panicked. But we were put at the Holiday Inn Hotel, hoping that "The Blue Train" could continue the next morning. It couldn't, and the rest of the passengers were taken by bus to Victoria Falls in the morning. I spent the entire day on "The Blue Train" at Bulawayo station, being served an excellent lunch, drinks and Havana cigars when I was not photographing the "NRZ Garrat" engine, that was shifting on the railyard, until the ordinary train from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls left that evening. Boarding that train I was followed by four of "The Blue Train" staff carrying my luggage and bringing a plate with cheese and fruit, a bottle of white wine, a bottle of sect and two Havana cigars. At Bulawayo station I was asked by a local for South African newspapers; press freedom was not highly valued in Zimbabwe at the time. In the papers on the train we could read that the Western embassies had decided not to evacuate their citizens yet! At the petrol stations long queues could be seen.

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