The train trip with the TAZARA train from Dar es Salaam to Zambia ends in the provincial city of (New) Kapiri-Mposhi. This is where copper plating is loaded from trucks onto trains, to transport them from the Zambian Copperbelt towards the port. We too used the city as a transit point and interchange station – however, most people travel with the bus southward towards Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, while we moved deeper into the Copperbelt region in the North.
On the platform, goods from China were being stacked for transport onward to Zambia. In the other direction, balls of textiles, huge piles of egg cartons, as well as live baby chicks in cardboard boxes were waiting for transport to Tanzania or at to least neighboring train stations.