Train to Dar Day 2

My people in my cabin are not the quietist. They have no concern for intrusive noise or disrupting others or frankly any sort of respect. I'm woken at 430am with the usual cacophony of noise, one of my cabin mates is shouting "Paul, Paul are you awake?" "Humph" "Good Morning!"

I spend the next couple of hours slowly waking up and take up station watching the world go by at a train door. We stop pretty regularly and hoards of people just appear out of nowhere, literally nowhere, no houses around with just a few little dirt tracks going from nowhere to nowhere. The time comes to take a wild dump, well it's wild enough in this shaking thing with just a hole in the floor to aim for.

When the time becomes more sociable I meet Will and head to their cabin to set up camp for a while. At the next stop we grab some fruit for breakfast from the sellers at the station. We get a whole bowl (read washing up bowl) worth of mango's for 500ksh (about 6p). It's enough to feed the whole carriage and I suggest selling it on making a profit.

The train breakfast is a bit rubbish and the day drags a bit to start. It's pretty crowded with people in the aisles and rammed around the lounge and bar area. A lot of people here are just getting drunk and being noisy. Should reach the border soon.

We reach the border at about midday, about time too. Parts of Zambia are nice but I've had my fill and ready to move on. As if confirming this, a drunk local starts to try to pickpocket me. I'm sure it works on a lot of unsuspecting tourists but I'm not taking any crap. He keeps giving it a go, trying to put his hand into my shorts pocket to get my wallet whilst I grab his arm and give a few stern words. I don't keep much money in that wallet at all but it's the principle that annoys me so I head to my friends cabin and sit in there. He along with most of the train depart at the border and we're left in peace. I suspect it'll fill up again as we get into Tanzania. The border formalities are pretty easy esp since I had my visa but turns out you can get them on the train too.

Mid afternoon we stop in Mbeya and are stationary for some time, apparently it's a routine inspection of the brakes and adding a second engine for the mountainous bit coming up. Setting off just after 6pm, the sun is dropping on the second day of our train ride, sure hope tonight is quieter and cooler than the last, really wouldn't mind a decent amount of sleep.