smoke that thunders. In fact it's so close you can hear its roar and see the 'smoke' above the buildings. We splashed out and took quick helicopter ride (most tourist helicopter rides are generally quick) over the Falls which was amazing. We then entered the Falls national park for some views on foot. There was so much water coming over the Falls at this time of year that only a couple of the views points actually allowed us a view. The heavy spray rendered the other vantage points view-less, but we still tried to sneak a peek getting absolutely drenched in the process. So that's why the touts around the entrance were selling plastic ponchos in the blazing heat.Apart from the many street touts trying to sell the old million, billion and trillion dollar notes, the other minor nuisance in town were the ugly hoards of baboons swaggering around the place, like bored teenagers on the lookout for mischievous opportunities. We saw a troop of these scary primates board an arriving train just like pirates trying to take another ship. They were running and jumping across the carriage roofs like in the old movies and then swinging down into the carriages through the open doors and windows with the timing and precision of the SAS. You could see them eating the foods scraps they were so keen to get to while they gazed out of the train windows, looking like little old men enjoying their journey. Nasty creatures, baboons that is, not little old men.
It was one of these overnight trains that we took south to Bulawayo. The
train left at 8pm, so we found our carriage in the dark. We asked the conductor how to turn on the lights in our compartment, "Ah, it is not possible, there is no eleck-tricity." "But the lights will come on when the train starts moving?" we asked. "No" was the answer. It was pitch black in our cosy little 2 berth coupe (as they called them), but once we got our torches out it was obvious that this train would have been very fancy about 50 years ago. Some wonderful cabinets, an old,but sadly neglected metal sink, decorative light switches and fittings (obviously obsolete these days) and some cool old mirrors still embossed with the regal looking initials RR (Rhodesian Railways). So we settled in to the grandeur of yesteryear in our run down, past it's prime moving hotel room for the evening. We thought ourselves quite clever having bought a large pizza and a bottle of wine for a romantic torch lit dinner. The coupe even had a wonderful looking fold out table that we hadn't noticed straight away. So, we were all set until disaster struck, the fold out table defolded itself relegating our dinner to the abyss of the cold,dark, probably not that clean coupe floor. Oh, and we thought we were being so smart, but obviously not as smart as the baboons who had obviously been tampering with the table's locking mechanism guaranteeing a generous breakfast for their cousins in Bulawayo. So, wishfully hoping the 5 second rule was also applicable to aging Rhodesian train floors, we scooped up the salvageable slices in the dark applying the adage of "What you can't see can't hurt you." The more suspect pieces i.e. cheese side down, were placed in a separate bag labelled "Emergency Breakfast" along with 4 Immodium tablets. Thankfully we required neither.
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