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The plan was spur-of-the-moment and simple: fly from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (Vic Falls), followed by a bus to Johannesburg (Jo-burg). Having lived in Cape Town for 4 months at that point, my friends and I were used to travel around South Africa and had were ready for another adventure. So, we embarked on the journey with a cab ride to the airport at 3 a.m., slept at our gate, and hopped on the plane. Arriving in Vic Falls was something else, with a tiny airport in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by wilderness with the knowledge that lions and elephants lurked beyond. We were thrilled and surprised at the remoteness. We arrived at Shoestrings Backpackers, a chilled hostel with a Great Dane guard dog. The hostel bar acted as the local watering-hole for white water rafting guides and other adventure guides, giving it a 'high-stoke' feel. At night, chatting with the people there, the Great Dane started barking, a sign that elephants were passing in the streets. It felt like a dream being in a bar with the knowledge that you were surrounded by a herd of elephants, but couldn't actually see them. The next day two days were filled with the incredible tourist endeavors of the area. First, we dedicated an afternoon to Vic Falls. At its highest flow of the year (mid-November), the whole canyon was filled with mist. The bottom of the canyon was barely visible at the farthest points from the falls. We got back to the hostel drenched, first by the falls and then by very brief, torrential rains. That evening, we did a Zambezi river boat cruise into the sunset, seeing hippos, crocodiles, lions, elephants, and lots of gin. Back at the hostel, the party continued, with everyone dancing late into the night, exchanging stories of adventures of the day. Our second day, although it already felt like we'd been there ages, was consumed by a safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana. The first half of the tour was hot and dry, and from a pontoon boat, enabling close views of hippos, water buffalo, massive elephant herds, and tons of different bird species. The guides were unbelievably knowledgeable, explaining that female hippos live in their own water/mud hole with their young for the first few months to protect them from aggressive males. In the afternoon, the second half of the safari continued, this time in the pouring rain and in a safari car. We were lucky, though, and saw irritated lions waiting for the rain to pass. That evening with our new hostel friends, we chilled and danced and shared stories again. The morning of the last day, we ventured into town and finally sorted how we would make it to Jo-burg. The travel assistant at the train station got us tickets for a train to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The journey would take 15 hours for roughly 300 km through the bush. We headed back to the hostel, packed, hung out for a while, and said our goodbyes until the train left. On the train, we had a room with 4 beds that folded down from the walls to ourselves, where we hunkered down for the night. We played cards, laughing for about 8 hours, getting beer from the food cart and mangos at stops from locals via our window until we ran out of random US dollars we had from back home. It turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. We arrived in Bulawayo in the morning and had 9 hours to wander around. We grabbed some food and checked out the town, being some of the only tourists there. That evening, we hopped on a 10 hour bus ride to Jo-burg. We slept like rocks the whole way there after the last 3 days of adventure and fun. It took 4 days, 1 flight, 1 train, and 1 bus, 30 hours in total, to reach Jo-burg the long way, but it was a wild, fun, thrilling, worthwhile adventure, that's for sure.