Malawi is a hard country to get around by train as CEAR only use one set of stock at any one time, which results in the set doing a circuit rather than out and backs in a day meaning you only have one chance per week to do the train. The circuit runs as follows (as at September 2012):
Wednesday – Train 201 0700 Limbe – Balaka via Bilila
Thursday – Train 304 0600 Balaka – Nayuchi & Train 305 1245 Nayuchi – Balaka
Friday – Train 200 0600 Balaka – Limbe via Bilila
Saturday – Train 100 0900 Limbe – Makhanga
Sunday – Train 101 0700 Makhanga – Limbe
It is the same engine that works the whole circuit generally, certainly Wednesday to Friday as there’s no other place to swap it other than Limbe. CEAR’s Timetable is posted on their website in PDF format but just in case scanned copies are below as at September 2012:
Having arrived almost directly from the USA, via a day in London, I met up with two travelling companions at the Kabula Lodge in Blantyre, a place I’d stayed on my previous trip to Malawi. Airport pick-up was arranged through the hotel and they actually sent one of the taxi drivers they use to collect Read the Rest…