So this chapter is about our trip with the german ship Liemba. In the picture you can see the old ship and an excited happy German, the typical tourist you can find on this ship.
So after some cool heavy fun cycling marathon we help Joseph, the streetkid and then we book ourselfs on a ship to Zambia. Well on the ship we decide we will both stay in Tanzania, getting of on the second last station. Christian who is now going on his own, takes of to Dar-Es-Salam, the capital and then further to Zansibar. And my own plan is to make my way to the warm heart of Africa, Malawi.
So the ship we go with is a bit famous, especially for the germans, who ones built it after building the railroad in 1913. In the harbour of Kigoma you can still see many left over pieces from the German railroad used as fences , some have inscriptions like Dresden, or something, 1913.
The ship was actually built in Germany but desembled and brought over land to Lake Tanganika just before the World war I. It was suppose to serve as a cargo ship making the collonisation easier but when war broke out it was armed with cannons and used in battles towards the brittish and Belgians. So when the Belgians were winning, the germans fled Kigoma harbor, but they prepared the ship well in grease and laid it on the bottom of the lake. The Belgians found it and brought it to the harbour where it sank again. Soon the british conquered Kigoma and they too the ship up and it was used from the twenties and for a long time until it was in a poor condition in the 60s. Then some people renovated it ones more in the 70s and it has been in use since then. In Germany there is some kind of foundation who will restore the ship to its formal glory starting this year.
The ship goes now 16 stations in the southern part of the lake, on the west coast. The trip takes three nights to Zambia. It is beautiful but not supercool. The first class is nice cabins with twin bunk beds. It is a bit warm and noisy especially when the fisherman comes docing and enter the ship to sell there cargo,
this happends about five times around 24 h and goes on for an hour or two. It is a bit fun to watch.
It is a lot of shouting and exitement as the small boats doc the ship. The businessmen on the ship check for good pinaple or fish to buy.
It is pretty nice to get to know some german tourists or African-german immigrants and its a relaxing way to travel for a bit.
Just enoying that internet is hard to find. You can also swim when the ship stops. The trip one way costs between 75-105 USD depending on comfort. The local price for third class is about 20 USD according to the captain.
You can also take a swim whenever the ship stops and then the locals also go in, showing off in jumping competitions.
The restaurant waiter is a story for of himself. Christian has a hard time ordering beans from him. He tells you they are out of beans and he is serving it a bit later to someone else. Or he sais beans is just for breakfast. But if you order from someoneelse you can get it. So after a couple of days my friend gets his beans like the others on the ship.
