Dan Will Travel
I'm Dan and I WILL Travel
The Blue train is a famous 27 hour excursion linking Pretoria with Cape Town, a distance of about 1,000 miles. This was to have been a key part of my original trip as planned with my brother and sister. The train highlight was to be the evening dinner, men in coat and tie, ladies in fine evening wear. I even had to purchase the coat and tie as I no longer had either! We departed 20 minutes early on Monday morning, headed for a tourist excursion stop in Kimberly to see the famous huge mining hole in the ground. We arrived an hour late, but so what, it is a train. They are always late. Off we went to see the hole. When we got back, it was evening and it seemed a bit weird that the train was dark. Oh well, they must be doing something. It was about 7:30 and dinner was to be at 8:00. The train remained hot and dark. Many of us gathered in the sweltering bar car and the poor staff served us in the dark, using flashlights to find and prepare the drinks. Finally we were informed that the electrical system had totally died. They were working on it, but who knows how long? Around 10:00 PM, myself and my newly found friends decided to dress up anyway. We had drinks delivered to the cooler train platform and we all hung out there in fine evening wear. No dinner, but I think most of my crowd was Ok with that. the staff served left over sandwiches from high tea and the drinks kept flowing. At 1:30 AM we were fixed and on our way. Only to stop after15 minutes for a brake system repair. 45 minutes later, we started out again. And so it went. We even stopped for nearly 2 hours near Cape Town due to excessive winds. My British friends were not surprised as I guess British trains are impacted by autumn leaves on the tracks, so maybe too much wind does affect trains?
So, the scheduled noon arrival into Cape Town became 9:30 PM. I was to go to the airport, pick up a rental car and drive one hour to a remote winery/B&B with a 15 step set of written directions to guide me. (With clear warnings to NOT use your navigation as it will not work for them.) I told the train staff no way could I do that at night, and they did get me a driver to go there and bring me back to the airport the following morning. I got to this place somehow Ok at midnight.
So, not quite what was expected, but in a way, maybe more fun. I met great people and saw a super staff work so hard to try to deal with all of us. And, without prompting, got a 25% refund on the trip costs from the train so it really was handled well.
My cabin/stateroom for the journey.
Yes, that is a full sized bath tub.
A nice feature for a guy who only watches the map on planes. A front view camera. Can’t tell you how exciting it was to watch the train sit time and time again. Gayle had a great phrase that works here. “Like watching paint dry.” When bored, I could switch to the GPS view which also would mostly show that we were stopped.
We did slow down to see a lake with many thousands of pink flamingos in it. Pretty cool.
Alighting from the train at Kimberly for our 1 hour excursion. Little did I know at that time how familiar this platform would become over the next 5 hours.
The big hole. Mining stopped here in 1914, but the amazing/sad part is that it was totally dug by hand! And you know it was not Europeans doing the digging…… Kimberly is still the headquarters of DeBeers.
All dressed up and nowhere to go! This shows a few of the staff, a female couple from Amsterdam, a Japanese couple on their 20th wedding anniversary, and a couple from Kent, UK. The guy in the front is actually the driver of the train.
I love the Karoo of South Africa. Classic view. Very much like Eastern Oregon.
Now we are sitting about 2 hours out of Cape Town due to wind or something. We are all still smiling, but it has been a long trip. Eventually we pulled/limped into Cape Town 9 hours late. I did learn how to paly a card game which I have since forgotten. Oh well. Everyone was quite fun to be around.
And it was really special! Marvin somehow spotted a kill in a tree as we were driving along. How he saw it, I will never know. A very fresh Impala kill. So fresh that the leopard was laying near by huffing and puffing mightily. They knew she had a cub somewhere in the area, and sure enough, she started walking off from the kill safely nestled up the tree. Going to get the cub to come back here for dinner.
What follows below is the tracking of her and her cub to and from the kill.
First sighting, she was really huffing and puffing so we think it had just happened.
The long walk back to where she left her cub. I think in total it was over 2 miles that she walked each way.
Yes, she did get close to us. That bar is the structure of the Land Rover seating. She is 3′ away at the most. Glad she was not so hungry now.
After a long walk, she stops at this watering hole. The cub is near as she is calling it. Not a meow but a guttural sound. Eerie, and very noticeable. Sher did not start it until she got here so we know the cub is close by.
A close up of her drinking. Just like Sugar Ray at home.
Sure enough, the little cub came bounding out of the bush about 500′ away and ran directly to mom. This was really exciting to watch! The greeting is so affectionate.
I wondered if she would lead it to drink before they took off, and sure enough, she did. Only she knew how long the walk was going to be.
Now they are ready to start the long walk back to dinner in that far away tree.
And, 30 minutes later when we all got back to the tree, (mom, cub, and us) there is this wild dog waiting. This is a lone dog, collared and from far away that somehow was in this area. We think she sensed that it was alone, and thus not a huge threat so she kept walking to the tree and they both climbed it pretty much right in front of the dog.
Not a great shot by any means, but you can see both mom and cub are in the tree with dinner waiting.
A very special last shot from Londolozi. The full moon rising above the African savannah.
Nice variety again.
We started the day with these ostrich’s. They may not fly, technically, but running over 40 mph is pretty impressive. Look at the size of those legs.
First the vultures were circling overhead, so we knew something was up. As we approached the area of interest, there were two trees full of them. Waiting. Melvin and Marvin took off in the brush to try to find the kill, leaving us helpless in the Land Rover (not really, but it was a bit unnerving) They did find where it had occurred, but the hyenas had dragged it away, so nothing for the vultures this time.
But, Melvin was not going to come back to us empty handed, so he brought this buffalo skull for us. One of many starved by the ongoing drought conditions.
Amazing, we found the pack of wild dogs again! This guy has a bone he is still trying to get something from.
Young ones playing.
This was cute to watch. He has full control over a clump of water grass. Guarding it carefully. They are totally meat eaters, so I think he is just practicing the moves he needs to make when he grows up and has a real kill.
Could not resist another shot before we took off.
A nyala at a watering hole with rhino and child.
I loved the reflection of mom and child in the pool.
What can I say? The morning tree shot.