2023-07-17 13:50:31
On the 163-kilometer route, the train climbs 1,200 meters, travels through 48 tunnels and crosses 61 bridges. That would be calculable, but the stopping times at the 17 stations in the middle of the rainforest are not. The jungle express is never on time. Image: Jutta Lemcke
The jungle express comes to the rainforest of Madagascar three times a week. Then there’s a party on the tracks. The train brings food, medicine and sometimes tourists who like to play football.
The train arrives in Manakara at midnight. A few exhausted passengers stumble out of first class onto the muddy pavement. Far more people from the 2nd grade are pushing outside, banana trees on their heads, sleeping babies on their backs and baskets full of cassava, rice or cabbage in their hands. Why so late? The cop in his crumpled camouflage uniform shrugs his shoulders. This train through the jungles of Madagascar has never been on time. Departing from Fianarantsoa in the highlands three times a week at 7am, the journey to the sea terminus is eight to twelve hours. It’s usually 15 hours, sometimes more.
On the 163-kilometre route, you have to climb 1,200 meters in altitude, drive through 48 tunnels and cross 61 bridges. That would be calculable, but the stopping times at the 17 stations in the middle of the rainforest are not. The train is the lifeline for the Tanala, as this Malagasy ethnic group is called there in the jungle. It rains year-round here, and the thatched huts of the Tanala somewhere in the dripping rain forest have no access to a road. So they make a pilgrimage to the train station as soon as the Jungle Express is announced. When the aged diesel locomotive slowly pushes itself out of the dense greenery and rolls into the station, there is a folk festival atmosphere in the village.
#train #Madagascar