Wake at 0100hrs roasting hot and stuffy. Switch AC on to cool things down.
Wake at 0500hrs freezing cold. Switch AC off and pull up a blanket to warm up.
Fond farewells to everyone as they disperse back to reality. Say goodbye to the Crazy Dutch Girls. Full of English reserve am asked if I’ll do it the Dutch way. I’m a bit naive. Have to ask what the Dutch way is. Three times apparently. Twice.
Check out a couple of cabins on the train for the next trip. Am having to downgrade on account of availability when booking. Don’t do downgrades. Only upgrades. Not used to this.
There are two cabins that have larger ensuites than others in the same class so take my pick.
Shall be staying in Victoria Falls for the next four days waiting for the next Shongololo Express tour to start – the Southern Cross trip. Travelling through Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa to terminate at Pretoria. Four days to kill in Victoria Falls. One word. Relaxing.
Couldn’t find a hotel with 4 consecutive nights availability so have 2 nights in one hotel in the centre of town and 2 nights at a lodge 3 klicks from town. Variety is the spice of life.
Lunch on the terrace watching the smoke that thunders in the distance. Looks like the bush is on fire. A security guard patrols the lawn firing stones with his catapult at any baboons that are in the vicinity. This doesn’t stop one baboon actually jumping onto the table of a Japanese tourist and helping himself to bread whilst at the same time scaring the life out of the Japanese man who had been looking the other way when baboon landed. Must’ve jumped about 2ft in the air with surprise. It’s one of those moments you often see on hidden camera shows.
Stretch legs about town. Accosted by lads trying to sell one trillion notes – for a dollar. The former Zimbabwean currency now worthless and the US Dollar is the adopted currency. The local electrician has obviously been busy forming a spur off the street lighting main. Dodgy electrics.
Supermarket well stocked and quite upmarket. Large green bars of soap for sale. Not exactly Imperial Leather.
The first batch of blog updates start trickling through. Some people have actually been missing their daily notifications. Takes an inordinate amount of time to upload photos as the internet keeps dropping.
