Day 51 Nairobi to Cape Town
Food Lovers Market BILTONG
Bulawayo and transit via train to Victoria Falls Al's cook group was up early preparing breakfast for the group that were heading out on their Rhino Safari and after a quick clean down waited for Gareth to return with our train tickets which he had managed to upgrade. We launched into preparing food for the train trip which included dinner, breakfast & lunch for the following day. The train was due to leave Bulawayo at 19h30 and get in to Victoria Falls around 08h00, we would find out later that the times were subject to interpretation and used more as a loose guideline. We caught a lift into town with Patrick before he headed off on his 600km drive to Victoria Falls and stocked up on snacks ie: 1kg of Droerwors, 1kg Biltong for the train ride later in the day.
We hung around Burkes until just after 18h00 waiting for the Safari group to return and when they did at 18h30 it was a mad rush to the train station and a run down the platform and into our berths with minutes to spare for the 19h30 departure which we were all somewhat surprised at was on time.
We pulled away from Bulawayo and settled in to our not what we are used to 1st class sleeper berths with Paul & Celeste as our roomies. The train was an old Rhodesian train carriage which we guessed had not been cleaned or maintained since that era and we could only laugh at the condition of it (all part of the "experience"). The temperatures on our trip had been rising gradually over the last couple of weeks and in the evening temperatures were still in the high 20's which we managed to tone down with several beers .....thankfully!!
We dozed off around 23h00 to the loud noises of the wheels clacking over the uneven tracks and the jarring of the carriage as the old suspension groaned under the unrelenting punishment.