The journey north from Beitbridge towards Bulawayo passes through more baobab country before starting to transform into denser thickets of the acacia, extremely spiney. There continue to be the occasional small agricultural or grazing operations alongside the railway. Also, an occasional settlement. We finally reach the town of Mpopoma to the south of Bulawayo sometime late in the night (or early morning) and we go off onto a siding to see out the night. The train set off at sun up with a lot of shunting and backtracking in order to change lines for the journey beyond Bulawayo. Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after Harare (the capital) and is the industrial centre of the country. Those who have read Wilbur Smith’s African novels might remember Bulawayo as an oft mentioned locale. We seem to bypass the city and travel past on its outskirts.
Further north, there is at 114km one of the world’s longest stretches of straight railway line. The longest is 478km across Australia’s Nullarbor.

This section of the track passes by the eastern edge of Hwange NP, the largest in Zimbabwe. It is estimated to be home to in excess of 40,000 elephants and to protect the other members of the Big 5, although Rhino numbers are small and infrequently seen. I have heard someone say that the rhinos have been moved out in order to protect them from poachers.

At 3pm we stop on the edge of Hwange and go off onto a siding near the town of Dete. Everyone alights the train and form groups to board game drive cars, converted Toyota Landcruisers. Our guide’s name was Divine, and he was! Great driver along the bumpy/sandy tracks and he knew his animals. We saw three of the Big Five (lion, elephant and water buffalo) and numerous others: giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, mongoose, impala and few other antelope species. Some birds as well for good measure.
Here are a few of the creatures of the plains….

We were back on board at around 8pm and set off for Victoria Falls which we would reach early morning and then disembark at 10am.