A Rail Trip through Africa – a Journey Back in Time

Many anthropologists believe that the earliest traces of humans, in this case “Lucy” the hominin bones discovered dating back 3 million years, started in Africa.

While Janet and my trip to Africa in 2012 didn’t quite take us that far back, we did get to experience travel from a historic perspective by taking much of it by train.

We journeyed on “Rovos Rail” which I must admit, compared to historic rail travel, is considered a pretty luxurious way to travel by train.

Rovos Rail runs its train-hotel railway through South Africa and other southern African countries. The trains have several restaurant and lounge cars as well as private sleeping compartments. Our cabin had a private bathroom and sleeping compartment. It was nothing like the image you might have of people trying to sleep upright in seats as the train rumbled along.

This really added to the magic of this trip for us. Exploring a country so far from home was so out of the norm for us, and to then actually do it on a train made it all the more memorable. It truly was like stepping back in time.

Here’s an image of the train provided to Wikipedia by Rovos Rail.

Here’s an image of one of the cabins. While a little narrower than a hotel room, it’s still pretty luxurious.

By David Brossard, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30009073

Here are some of the historic marking plates on the train.

Janet and I really enjoyed truly great meals in the restaurant cars.

By David Brossard, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30010221

Compared to how safety conscious and therefore closed in a North America train is, Rovos really gives you a better feel for the whole train experience. You actually open windows to let fresh air in, and here Janet is standing on the rear “observation” car which has an open section without windows with benches so you were basically sitting outside as the train rolled along.