On The Right Track
Kevin pilley gives up Wi-fi and telly, dines daily in a dinner jacket and tie, and gives in to the romance of rail travel on board the luxurious Pride of Africa by Rovos Rail
my wife’s eyes shone. And it wasn’t all the sparkling wine. Her earlobes reddened, and her neck flushed. She was suffering a diamond rush.
Kimberley, in northwest South Africa, is one of the most popular stops on the world’s most luxurious train journey. But not for husbands or partners.
In its diamond mine museum, my wife started shaking as she looked at all the carats. She has a serious carat problem. An acute gem disorder.
She quirked her mouth in a way to suggest she wished she had not met me but instead married the shepherd or drunken cook who discovered one of the world’s largest diamonds, and pioneered the great South African diamond rush.
When we married, I couldn’t afford a Cullinan or a Koh-i-noor. And I’m not Richard Burton and she’s not Elizabeth Taylor. My budget stretched to a slim band of 0.3-ct Afghan morganite mounted with a miniscule Brazilian topaz. I couldn’t compete with the Big Hole. It’s beyond my credit card limit.
Diamonds were first found in Kimberley in 1871. De Beers was founded in 1888. The mine closed in 1914, having given up 13.6 million cts (272kg) of 53 million-year-old multifaceted precious gems.
De Beers founder, Cecil Rhodes, dreamt of a train line that connected South Africa to Dar es Salaam and into Cairo, mainly to carry his copper ore. It was Rohan Vos, owner of one of the world’s largest private collections of railway rolling stock, who achieved that dream. He sold a vintage car he had rebuilt, started an auto parts business, and then, as a hobby, bought antique British engines and abandoned train carriages from scrapyards and restored them to their bygone. It began as a moving caravan and private train for his family, but turned into a business that revived the romance of rail travel.
Rovos Rail was founded in 1989. He named his early steam engines after family members. Running out of names, he named one Zog — after his pet Dalmatian.
The steam engines still make cameo appearances at the company’s Capital Park yards in Pretoria but it’s now diesel locomotives that pull the nearly 100-year-old carriages on the flagship Us$20,000-per-person 15-day, 3,568-mile “Civilization To Wildlife” route. On board the jungle green-and-ivory Pride of Africa, you journey through the continent’s spine from Cape Town, past Botswana (395 miles), Zimbabwe (354 miles), Zambia (956 miles) and Tanzania (607 miles), to arrive at Tazara station in Dar es Salaam.
You can also start in Dar es Salaam and question the “civilisation to wilderness” theory. When Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Olympic relay torch began its journey in Tazara in Tanzania. Pride of Africa, on the contrary, starts and
finishes over the historic and very socialist manganese steel single tracks of the Uhuru (Swahili for “freedom”) Trailway.
In many ways, the best is And last.
Nicholas “Count” Schofield, Rovos Rail’s resident historian for 25 years, believes Uhuru is the most scenic stretch. He is called the Count because he counts guests out and counts them in from escorted tours of Jacaranda City (Pretoria) and other excursions. He gives daily lectures where “The Big Six” — yawning Swedes, sleeping Austrians, dozing French couples, napping Germans, catnapping Americans and hungover Brits — are common sightings.”
“My favourite leg is between Makambako (Place of Bulls) and Mimba (Place of Elephants). The train drops over 1,000m through matted jungle. You see first. the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. The train brushes the side of the forest and you feel you can stretch out and touch the mountain. A rival to the Hex River mountains outside Cape Town,” he shares.
The 1,860-km line was created by the governments of Tanzania, Zambia and China to end Zambia’s economic dependence on Rhodesia and South Africa. The train line provided the only route for trade from landlocked Zambia’s Copper Belt to the sea without entering the much-hated, white-ruled territories.
The first passenger train arrived in Dar es Salaam in 1975. The first Rovos Rail train arrived in 1993 — completely empty. But it has now become a leading luxury travel name in the Southern Hemisphere.
There were 46 of us representing 16 nationalities on board the 31-carriage train that stretches half a mile long. After a redcarpet reception, canapes and chamber music, owner Vos waved off us from Cape Town’s platform 23. We chugged through the grape lands and The Land of Thirst, also known as
the Great Karoo desert.
After a day in Jacaranda City (Pretoria), and getting Ig-worthy shots under the huge Nelson Mandela statue in front of the government buildings, we checked in for two days and four memorable game safaris at the Tau (Place of the Lion) Game Lodge.
The Madikwe Game Reserve on the Botswana border is one of South Africa’s prime safari destinations. Stretching 75,000 hectares, it is the country’s fourth largest game reserve. You are bound to see a journey of giraffes, a crash of rhinos and a dazzle of zebras.
There is a spa where you sort out your jolting jeep- and train-related neck spasms with an African head massage and have your buttocks revitalised and other pressure points soothed. Hair caught in the thornveld will be restored, while dead skin cells around the elbows will be sloughed away with the lodge’s African Princess, Nomadic Pride or Soul of Africa spa packages.
Next stop is the Victoria Falls Hotel, built in 1904 and features the world’s longest and highest curtain of water and a Zambezi river cruise. The Japanese newlyweds on board bungee jumped off the bridge. Others did the 12-minute helicopter ride or had tea at Stanley’s Terrace. The meal in the Livingston Room was considered a low point for many. Not that it had any chance to begin with: The best food is on board.
Book a table in the Pride of Africa’s exclusive cherry-andteakwood panelled, gleaming stinkwood Belle Epoque Victorian restaurant with its cut crystal wine glasses, starched linen napery, silver cutlery and tassel-tied curtains. With the Edwardian dinner gong retired, guests are summoned by a mini xylophone.
It is a dressy affair. Jacket and ties are a bare minimum. Tiaras and national costume are optional. The blushing Japanese bride arrived in a kimono to a standing ovation.
Capetonian Otto Hank is one of Rovos Rail’s 10 chefs. “We have to serve on a fairly straight piece of track! The drivers are used to transporting freight and have to be reminded we are serving chocolate fondant,” he says.
Five-star fixed menus include traditional South African bobotie (spiced beef mince oven-baked with a layer of savoury egg custard served with peppadew, kiwi fruit and banana chutney), drunken pecorino (ewe’s milk cheese soaked in a wine musk), melktert (a sweet pastry crust with a dusting of cinnamon served with fruit coulis) and a small syrup-coated South African doughnut known as a koeksister. Also served are ostrich, springbok, lobster tails and crocodile tails. The dishes are accompanied by the best South African wines.
There is no Wi-fi, TV or radio on board and “enlightened conversation” is encouraged in the open-balcony observation deck with wingback chairs, smoking room and two lounges.
All rooms (deluxe is best for two) come with a maid, 24/7 laundry, en suite shower with optional clawfoot Victorian bathtub in the Royal suites, and a minibar with “survival drinks” like MCC (short for Methode Cap Classique) champagne.
Moist towelettes greet you at every off-train excursion as do equally complimentary insect repellent prior to disembarkation. Plastic goggles are also provided — so you can stick your head out of the train, tunnels and sickle bushes permitting.
There is no gym although the train doctor has an exercise bike. The train also has a resident hair stylist. Though, be warned, says Craig Geater, “I wouldn’t make an appointment in Zambia as it’s rather shaky. Nor would I wear white and drink Pinotage.”
Security is discreet and effective. There has been only one derailment ever. And our train pulled into Tazara, Dar es Salaam, bang on the dot at 10am.
At the end of this extraordinary once-ina-lifetime trip (which many repeat) through Africa’s history and old Bechuanaland, over rivers, past inselbergs (rocky outcrops), anthills, zebrawood thickets, baobab forests, Lusaka, hundreds of waving and smiling children, as well as a wealth of memories, guests are presented with a diploma signed by Vos.
It declares: “Be it known that the prerogative to ride on board the Greatest Train On Earth has been exercised. By this action, persistent thirst has been slaked on the rail-bound watering holes and that culinary delights have been savoured and that you have been lulled to sleep in the easy confines of a luxurious suite.”
It’s platinum, high-carat service all the way. Flawless!
“The train brushes the side of the forest and you feel you can stretch out and touch the mountain”