After last night’s planning and booking for our overland trip through Botswana, we went to booking the rest of the journey in order to have us in Victoria Falls by the 11th of July. This meant booking a bus from Johannesburg to Bulawayo where we will then catch a train that runs from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls. Luckily Elna’s odd internet allowed us to load Computicket.com and we purchased our bus tickets of R280 on an overnight bus departing 1400 on the 7th of July, which will have us into Bulawayo at just past 0500 the next day. From there, we will catch the train that departs Bulawayo every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday to Victoria Falls. Many travel sites have talked about doing this, but it wasn’t until we stumbled across seat61 that I felt much comfortable about going this route. Tickets for the train can only be purchased day of, and the website makes it seem like this train is never full, so bookings are not difficult. Thus upon arrival (which will surely be much past the 0500 that is advertised), we shall head to the station and book a ticket for the train that departs each night just before 2100 and completes the 480 km trek north to the Falls. This also means we can save two nights of accommodation by taking the two overnight trips, however, our last overnight trip to Maputo wasn’t very restful and it wiped me out the next day (though the after effects of my food poisoning probably didn’t help). Thus we are looking for someplace in Bulawayo that we can perhaps drop our stuff off, and maybe catch a nap. Lonely Planet doesn’t have many backpackers listed, and neither does SafariNow.com. We shall do more research on possible accommodation as we get closer to departure in the case we do need to sleep the day away someplace.
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