Wednesday 31st December
Nothing happening today so not an early start but no doubt there will be “fun-n-games” tonight with the “party animals”, this bunch of South Africans aboard.
The usual routine, a breakfast and with the best will in the world we “still” ate too much, this breakfast lingered on well into the morning before we all headed back to our cabins.
The one thing that happened in the early hours was crossing the Zimbabwean border. The train manager had to get 62-passports stamped before we could leave and once complete we crossed the Limpopo river and he then had to get all 62-stamped again to re-enter South Africa, quite a laborious undertaking. Once complete we could collect our passports. Nothing else happened except we passed some stunning scenery as we headed through the mountains.
One thing we were amazed at in the three countries we’ve visited is their dedication to protecting their wild life and especially the rhino. All the parks have rangers and all the rangers have instructions to shoot dead any poachers they find!!!
Lunch time came around again, and again we all congregated in the dining cars for another 4-course meal, again with 4-different wines to complement the food and again after saying we would skip lunch, ate the lot!!!
This afternoon was siesta time again, being New Year’s Eve there was no doubt about it, the observation car was going to be the centre of attention.
After a couple of hours sleep we dressed for dinner and headed to the observation car for the usual pre-dinner drink and the party had already started!! It wasn’t too long before the dinner gong went and we headed back to the dining cars. By now the small group of South Africans we became part of had expanded into a rather large jolly group, with a Norwegian couple, several Russians and a Zimbabwean, a chap called Garry who was very knowledgeable about Rugby, so we got along just fine. The dinner was very nice, the company as great and the train manager gave a short , but funny speech about tomorrow’s departure process.
After dinner we all headed back to the rear of the train where there were trays of cocktails laid out and several of the girls from the restaurant and cabin attendants all helped behind the bar. The music was playing and everybody, including the train staff let their hair down. By now the train had stopped so partying was a little easier, no rocking about as the train rode over very uneven and inconsistent rail gauges. Midnight soon came around and everybody wished everybody “happy new year”, and carried on!!!! Around about 0100hrs people started to head to there cabins which left about 8-of us, 7-south Africans and myself but I could see the way things were going so headed off around 0130hrs as I had a couple of calls to make.
A very good, and certainly a different new year’s party, a memory to cherish and the bonus is we made new friends.