Day 52 Nairobi to Cape Town, Train Transit to Victoria Falls.
Train Transit to Victoria FallsWe were up early and treated to a beautiful sunrise over the rolling hillside while passing small villages and occasionally stopping to pick up passengers along the way. As the train was hauling goods as well as passengers we ended up stopping at "Thompson's Junction"where coal and other goods were offloaded which took an hour to sort out and our arrival time at Victoria Falls came and went.
We finally set off again and after a few more stops along the way pulled into Victoria Falls at 11h00. We quickly headed to Victoria Falls Rest Camp where we would be based for the next 4 days before walking a few minutes up to Shoestring Backpackers (a cheap backpacking hostel) where we were introduced to Joy and her team from Backpackers Bazaar who would be arranging all activities for us while in Vic Falls. We then headed back to Rest Camp where we upgraded to a double room lodge sharing with Paul and Celeste. Due to the 40 degree plus heat we had a quick power nap before getting ready for our group dinner at "The Bomas Restaurant".We arrived at "Bomas" just before 19h00 which is part of the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge complex.
A "Bomas" is a traditional livestock enclosure and as we walked in we were wowed by the smells and sights of all the game being cooked right in front of us. There was Warthog steaks, Sirloin, Lamb on he spit, Eland meatballs, Boerwors, Guinea Fowl, Kudu Stew and even Mopani Worms along with Salads & various desserts all of which tasted amazing. Al ended up trying a cinnamon cocktail called "Happy Juice" which was prepared by an old man that seemed to know what he was doing, sadly the drink was anything but happy and Al forced it back as not to offend the old man.
We joined in with the local entertainers teaching us how to play local drums and some of their dance moves. It was a great way to say goodbye to Patrick as he had to return to Harare and a great way to welcome Walter (our new driver) for the remainder of our trip. We ended up back at Rest Camp and had another hot evening fighting off mosquitoes that seemed to be immune to insect repellent and bug spray so we resorted to death by hand. We fell asleep to the thundering sound of the Falls and the ceiling fan in the distance.