Railways

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An event from our trip is related on the page Travel episodes – Chile 2011: The white forest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of the 1800s, a narrow-gauge railway track was constructed, heading out from the small town of Mettupalayam in the state of Tamil Nadu, leading up through the Nilgiri Mountains, via Coonoor, terminating at the hill station Ootacamund (Ooty). This steep railway is operated by a small blue steam train, the Nilgiri Mountain Express.

Over a distance of 46 km, the terrain rises from c. 300 to c. 2,200 m altitude, the tracks passing through 16 tunnels, and across 31 larger and c. 200 smaller bridges. The lower mountain slopes are covered in tropical monsoon forest, and this area is full of waterfalls. Above c. 1,400 m, the forest gives way to plantations of tea, pines, and eucalyptus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The name jiancing means ‘seeing the sun’, possibly given due to the fact that this area is often enveloped in fog, and finally seeing the sun breaking through the fog might be relieving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Long Bien Bridge was constructed by the French in 1899-1902, using more than 3,000 Vietnamese workers. At that time, with a length of 2.4 km, it was one of the longest bridges in Asia. Cars are not allowed on this bridge, which is reserved for trains, scooters, and motorcycles.

Before the independence of North Vietnam in 1954, this bridge was called the Paul Doumer Bridge, named for Paul Doumer (1857-1932), the Governor-General of French Indochina 1897-1902, and later French president 1931-1932.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While waiting for our visas for Zaire in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, we made friends with five Germans, a married couple, Franz and Gizela, and their friend Albert, who drove in a small car, quite similar to our VW van, and Jürgen and Wolfgang, who were the proud owners of a huge, powerful Deutz truck.

Together we travelled through Zaire, and when we had become utterly fed-up with the miserable roads, we decided to load the cars onto a train, travelling from Bumba to Isiro. As it turned out, this was a very relaxing trip, lasting four days. Most of the time, the train was moving at a snail’s pace, and from the top of the truck we could enjoy the landscape, alternating between forests, rivers, farmland, and villages.

I prefer the name Zaire instead of the official name of the country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo – a somewhat laborious name, I must say. And you can hardly place the term ‘democratic’ on a country that, for decades, has been pervaded by a chaos of violence.

Part of the journey, between Morocco and eastern Zaire, is related on the page Travel episodes – Africa 1980-1981: An arduous journey across Africa.