MILESTONES & MEMORIES

’85 Rohan Vos joins a train trip to the Magaliesberg — and an obsession is born. In September he buys several coaches, meaning to restore and then hitch them to a South African Railways train for family holidays, but the associated red-tape soon persuades him of the importance of self-sufficiency. So he buys a locomotive from a scrap-metal company and restores it. ’86 Vos gets permission to run his train on the national rail network. The high costs involved scupper the “family caravan” idea and he plans instead to run it as a vintage-train business. He scours the country buying carriages and locomotives to restore. ’89 Consisting of two locomotives and seven carriages, the first train sets off for the Eastern Transvaal on April 29 with four paying passengers. ’91 Rovos launches the PretoriaCape Town run. To this day, it remains its most popular trip. ’93 The bank puts pressure on Vos to repay his debts, just as the company is about to break even. Vos goes to a travel fair in London and hatches a plan with a tour operator to run the train from Cape Town to Victoria Falls. Sales go extremely well and “bankruptcy is avoided by a nose”. ’93 The first Rovos train arrives in Dar es Salaam – the trip has taken place every year since. ’98 Rovos starts a seven-day, 3,400km journey from Pretoria to Swakopmund, Namibia. ’20 12 coaches derail in Bulawayo due to severe flooding so the Victoria Falls route is switched to Polokwane with an onward flight to the falls. A new safari is introduced between Pretoria and Durban. ’06 A direct journey between Pretoria and Vic Falls is reintroduced, via Botswana. ’08 The inaugural four Cape-to-Cairo itineraries are successfully completed. ’17 The train travels through Beitbridge again on the Victoria Falls journey. ’19 Rovos celebrates its 30th year on April 29. On July 16, it will make history by launching a coast-to-coast train across Africa, from Dar es Salaam to Lobito in Angola.