More Adventures in Africa: Our trip to southern Africa-Segment I-Zimbabwe

We bought round trip tickets to Jo'Burg, spent one night in a hostel near the airport and hopped on a bus the next day for Buyawayo, Zimbabwe. We had scheduled an overnight Couchsurfing with a local couple but the bus ended up taking 16 hours instead of the scheduled 12. Our hosts told us they would leave the gate and door to our cottage open so we could get in. They had a lovely piece of property with a main houses, some beautifully furnished cottages with en suite bathrooms and kitchens. The grounds were lovely as well. We unfortunately never met our hosts as they were asleep when we got there and we were asleep when they left for work the next day and our train to Vic Falls left before they arrived home. We had beautiful accommodations but we wished we had been able to interact with our hosts as that is the fun and interesting part of Couchsurfing.
We did tour the art museum and train museum in Buyawayo before our train departed the next evening. We both love overnight trains so we had a great time getting to Victoria Falls.
We checked into a small cabin at a rest camp in Vic Falls and relaxed by the pool that afternoon. In the evening, we took an amazing sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. I loved the elephants especially!
The next day, we got up before dawn to get into the Victoria Falls Park before the sun rose. We were so happy that we did as we were the only ones there for the first few hours and the colors were beautiful. Even though it is now the dry season, the amount of water going over the cliffs was phenomenal! We even saw a rainbow at the base of one of the falls. Vic Falls is much higher than either Niagara Falls or Iguacu Falls but not as wide as either.
That afternoon we had high tea at the very elegant Victoria Falls Hotel.

We loved this old sign at the train museum.

This was the china used by the royal Brits in 1947.

Cecil Rhodes' very nice wood paneled train car

As Mel said, it must be nice to have a railway and country named after you.

The inside of Rhodes' train car.

Our very beautiful traditional cottage where we Couchsurfed.

The gardens belonging to our hosts.

A traditional tree house

The sun setting during our train ride

Our very basic cabin with bunk beds and a sink

The sunrise the next morning on the train.

The train went right through a national park but we didn't see any animals/

The train stopped frequently. it was definitely a train for locals rather than tourists. A sleeping cabin cost the equivalent of $15 US.. This guy almost missed the train!

These dancers greeted us when we arrived for our sunset cruise-very touristy but fun.

Views from the boat

This huge bull elephant was standing right on the bank of the river when our boat went by. A female elephant came to join him.

A lot of hippos swam by the boat.

A friendly guide on the boat.

These elephants were intent on crossing the river and paid no attention to the numerous boats.

The next day we went to see the Falls. The translation is the "Smoke that Roars" and it really does look like smoke and it really does roar even in the dry season.