Dete
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Dete,
Zimbabwe
Sunday, January 1, 2006
If you went to the NRZ(National Railway of Zimbabwe) building in Bulawyo you could buy a pass for about $20 which would allow you acces to travel in the locomotive of any freight train in the country. We took a freight train from Bulawayo to Dete on the edge of Hwange national park. An unforgetable experience. The engineer, breakman and my family were the only ones on the train. I'll never forget the engineer's expressions. He liked to use the word "plenty". When asked if they ever see wildlife from the train? he responded, "Oh, yes. We see plenty of wildlife". When asked about elephants, again he responded, "Oh, yes. We see plenty of elephants". He also added the amplifying remark, "we(the trains) hit plenty of elephants". He was less impressed with the new deisel locomotives which were donated by the US government, because they bent too easily when running into elephants that the old cast iron steam locomotives. True to his word, though we did see 'plenty' of elephants and he even stopped the train so we could get out and walk around to get a better view. Awesome adventure.
