In my previous post, I mentioned meeting a British ex-pat who had notified me that the train to Mbeya had been cancelled. She had been living in Cyprus for the last 30 years, but had decided to start traveling the world after she turned sixty-five.

Rosemary has an intrepid spirit, who immediately accepts anyone into her circle. She was the one who had gathered the motley UN-like crew at the train station while we tried to figure out the status of the train that day (cancelled) as well as when we could expect to be refunded our money (as of 2:00 pm, I gave up and left the station – I don’t know how long the rest of the group waited).

Rosemary was a grizzled adventurer with curly grey hair, well-worn hiking boots and a well-stained ensemble of khaki shorts and a pink short sleeve shirt.

As we waited for our refund, she found herself in a bit of a quandary. Since the train had been cancelled, she could take a bus to Mbeya with an overnight stop in Iringa.

But she also had another plan that she had done some work on before deciding to take the train. A couple of days previously, she had gone down to the docks of Dar Es Salaam and had found a Captain Mugumbo, who was in charge of a freighter that was going to Madagascar. She really wanted to go to Madagascar and had talked Captain Mugumbo into taking her on his freighter.

Unfortunately, she called the Captain to confirm passage and found out be was in hospital. She called him in his hospital room, and he was not sure how long he would be laid up. Thus the freighter’s departure was rather murky.

It was at this point, she decided to take the train south into Tanzania instead. However, with the train now cancelled, she dusted off the freighter plan and called Captain Mugumbo again. This time, he sounded really in bad shape, again with no clear departure time for the freighter.

When I left Rosemary, she was trying to figure out her next steps since her two primary plans had been scuttled. I hope she found a path she enjoyed.