In July of this year, my younger son phoned (collect, of course) to ask if I’d like to go on an African safari with him. I initially said No, since he was finishing a contract in England and had been living with three South African girls while there, and they’d invited him to see some of the “dark continent” with them - so I’d thus be an “extra” on a “too dangerous” (say many) trip. He convinced me otherwise, so I joined Air Canada’s overnighter to London, complete with sleeping pills, which didn’t work.
Bleary-eyed, I gave myself to London Transport for the tube and bus ride to the “flat”. The delights offered by London’s transit system include high prices, filth (no garbage cans due to worry about bombs) and passengers who respond by throwing everything everywhere, a system in much need of repair, many reminders to “Mind the gap!” because the platforms are sometimes well clear of the trains, few windows un-vandalized, lots of delays, no air-conditioning, a system which shuts down too early at night, and the usual chaos because it’s all being privatized! Nevertheless, it muddles along most of the time, and saved me many $ over the alternatives.
Britrail (mildy dirty, but I’ve always found the railways there pretty good) took us that evening to Heathrow for the South African Airways 11 hour overnighter to Jo’burg, developing nations, and the third world, The pills worked.
The Blue Train used to run Jo’burg to Pretoria for $15, but doesn’t anymore, and we had been told by locals and the guide books to be extremely careful on Shosholoza Meyl (South African Railways services - www.spoornet.co.za). Third class is for those looking for serious
trouble, 2nd is very risky, and 1st is dicey. Buses are barely OK, cabs are not recommended, and the van taxis are thought to be motorized forms of suicide. That doesn’t leave much, so we hired a private service for some drives. Other warnings included: don’t go out at night, always watch your back, drive with windows and doors locked, always leave enough space at intersections between you and the next car so you have a way out, and run red lights if driving at night. We thought the warnings were excessive - we were wrong.
Off we went on a safari near Kruger National Park - an incredibly wonderful experience! To get there, you can go by train, which time constraints prevented, so we had to charter a plane, but most things there are so inexpensive by our standards that it wasn’t too costly. We would have had to fly the last leg into our Game Reserve anyway. From there, we flew on Dash 8s (the Canadian-built ones with wings) to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls. Again, it’s possible to get there by train, but the recent derailments and crime on board mean nobody will agree to book you on it. Alternatively, the Blue Train and/or Rovos Rail (steam hauled heritage equipment, equivalent luxury to the Blue Train) will take you there ($1500 one way per person), but we were there during the winter slow season, so there were no departures that worked for us. Vic Falls is astounding, although going to Zimbabwe and Zambia is somewhat disturbing, both being beautiful but very third world. Zimbabwe, besides apparently destroying their farming economy by taking over the white-owned farms, has 2 exchange rates, one for stupid tourists (hamburger $20) and one for everyone else (same burger , same restaurant $1). It’s easy to get around it though.
Fancy steam train across the Zambesi bridge to a railway museum in Zambia $75 - same trip by another train $1. Standing on the platform was interesting, as there were at least 1,000 of us waiting for the diesel-hauled rusting coaches to back in, and only 2 of us were white, which wasn’t a threatening experience, but we were certainly of interest! I sure wished we’d had Beyer-Garrets (4-8-2-2-8-4) in operation here, they were impressive there even sitting dead! We also walked across the bridge for great views of the falls, but the constant beggars can become too much, until one hopeful tried his Canadian knowledge on us - “Jean Chretien, Canada Dry, John A MacDonald”!
Unfortunately, our return to Jo’burg was to be by 737, and airlines prohibit video cameras on those, so I packed it and checked it through - only to receive my suitcase later minus everything of value, including, of course, the videos! The South African police were very sympathetic, while cradling machine guns.
My adage is to not let anything spoil a trip, so we “allowed” ourselves to be taken to the Blue Train Lounge, from where we boarded the Premier Class train the next morning in Pretoria, bound for Cape Town. What a wonderful experience! The flight to the Cape is $197, the Blue Train and Rovos Rail both wanted $1000, and this was $198 - tough choice! I’d booked it through the internet and Shosholoza Meyl’s manager of special trains. We and 16 others (capacity is only 20 in 4 cars) immersed ourselves in luxury for 26 hours through wonderful
scenery, enjoyed unbelievable meals (I’ve never had a six-course breakfast before) and service, and slept very well as we rolled through the desert that night.
The Blue Train and Rovos Rail have refurbished-more-recently sleeping cars, gold-tinted windows which, like ours, have to be shut while in or near stations, 72 - 76 passengers, tvs which show the view forward, and higher prices, but free drinks. We had the same scenery, similar food and service, a souvenir dressing gown, and dramatically lower prices. Our compartment had 2 chairs, a table, and 2 lower beds. The pampered group that we were got along famously, since all 18 of us spent much of our time together in the lounge or diner rather than in our compartments. For the first and probably last time, I treated everyone on board to a drink, which cost me $18, and since they all responded in kind, the trip featured much drinking and laughing. We made new friends among the international group on board, and had a wonderful time, partially because every few minutes, someone would announce a particularly good view out the windows, and then would declare “That would look great on video!” Then, amidst the sympathetic laughter, they’d buy me a drink to help drown my sorrows!
Off to the Garden Route we went in a rental car next, seeing the Union Limited yards and coach stock (running restored steam services) near our B & B, then stopping in George, where line-ups of steam engines, at least 50, greet the eye. Everything is 3’6” gauge, so buying one, shipping it home, and converting it to 4’8.5” might be prohibitively expensive. Nice museum there though, and the “Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe” runs from there, a steam-hauled tourist train on a lovely bit of line alongside the Indian Ocean to Knysna. Unfortunately, we had to go through the wine districts to get there, so the country now has less wine to sell abroad!
Great country, interesting trains, incredible animals, birds, and flowers!!!
