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| SOUTH AFRICA: AFRICAN SAFARI BY RAIL by Robert Tilley   A discreet knock at the maple-paneled door and in comes our butler. Butler? Gedi gives a slight bow, smiles sweetly and introduces herself. There's a touch of unreality about this scene. The room is moving slightly, for a start. Outside the large panorama window, the great bulk of South Africa's most famous landmark, Table Mountain, is sliding by. Snaking ahead of us on a bend in the track is a line of brilliant blue rail carriages nearly 400 meters long.This is the Blue Train, voted the world's most luxurious train by the international travel trade and now forging an extended route 3,200 kilometers from Cape Town on South Africa's southern tip to the spectacular Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, known to the local people as Mosi-oa-Tunya – The Smoke that Thunders. The line was originally laid by rugged 19th-century British imperial pioneers in their bid to link Cape Town and Cairo. They got as far as the Zambezi River. Today's three-day luxury journey, which those pioneers could never have imagined possible, is cosseted by an air-cushioned bogie suspension. Gedi, a pretty young Tswana woman in a chic blue uniform, is one of a team of male and female butlers who pamper travelers aboard the Blue Train for three days and nights of sybaritic pleasure in motion. As the train picks up speed outside Cape Town, she conducts a tour of the suite: buttons to regulate the temperature, to operate the window blinds and to select a variety of channels on the TV set; a bathroom bigger than those found in many city apartments, with a shower-cabin, Italian marble floors and gold-plated taps. The wardrobe has a matching set of kimonos and slippers, with the compliments of the railway company. Tucked away in a corner is a safe for personal valuables. Gedi takes away our soiled clothes for washing and pressing and tells us to call her on the cellular phone if we need anything. There's another knock at the door. It's the restaurant manager. "First or second sitting for lunch, sir?" We elect the later session, giving us time for an appetizer at the bar, another stylish creation of beautifully crafted birch and maple. Barman Piet recommends a South African sherry, which is the equal of anything from Spain's Jerez area. The best South African wines are served at lunch in the London Savoy-style restaurant car - and while eating we can gaze at the rich vineyards from which they come. The vineyards stretch like a deep green carpet across a wide valley floor and creep up the lower slopes of the brooding, distant mountains. Here and there the green is broken by the gleaming white facades of old Dutch colonial-style farmsteads. Our table companion, a South African businessman, tells us that in late autumn the vines turn crimson in a spectacle of nature that draws photographers from all over the world. South African avocado comes with fresh Cape prawns. The tender lamb chops are from the Karoo, the vast prairie-like high plateau that lies ahead of us on the journey. The South African cheeses can stand comparison with anything from Europe, and the accompanying port is also South African. The train noses into the Hex River tunnel near Worcester, blotting out the beautiful mountain views for more than 16 kilometers. The light at the end of this tunnel is harsh, falling knifelike on the entirely different landscape that now unfolds - the vast scrubland of the Karoo. As the sun finally begins to drop through the huge African sky beyond the picture window, it's time to gather for afternoon tea in the plush lounge car lined with books. Some travelers opt for card games. The evening begins in grand hotel style with a pre-dinner drink in the bar. The train fare includes meals and all drinks. Dinner is an amplification of lunch, four courses of exquisitely prepared dishes again using predominantly South African produce: ostrich soup, Cape seafood, impala and other game. The wine list doubles as a guide to South Africa's leading vineyards and vintages. While passengers relax over after-dinner cognacs, the butlers are busy preparing the suites for the night. Beds are made, kimonos laid out on fine cotton sheets and duvets and "good night" chocolates placed on the pillows. The air-cushioned bogies produce a cradle-like sensation of being lulled into sleep. Next day, the sun rises on the gold fields of Gauteng, slanting off mountainous dumps of slag which are being reworked with new technology able to recover previously unprofitable traces of precious metals. The number of rail tracks along the Blue Train's route multiplies as Johannesburg approaches and early commuter trains bustle by as we guiltily eat a leisurely breakfast - the kind of "English breakfast" which most British hotels have long since forgotten how to serve: crispy bacon, eggs in every variety, South African farm-sausage and mushrooms. Later, the riotous purple blossoms of Pretoria's jacaranda trees announce the end of this stretch of the Blue Train's journey north. Some passengers say goodbye to their luxury hotel on wheels here, but others stay aboard for the two-day ride to Victoria Falls. When Terence, our new butler, calls by to induct us into the button-pushing conveniences of our suite, we can smile smugly and tell him not to bother: "We know all that." The passing landscape is new – the sparse cattle-rearing plains of Botswana, the eastern fringes of the Kalahari desert, and the game-rich bush and woodland of Zimbabwe, via Bulawayo. But the inside of the Blue Train is by now reassuringly familiar. "A real home from home," says my wife. And coming from someone with a mistrust for hotel rooms, that's probably one of the best compliments the Blue Train could ever receive. SCRIBBLES ETCETERAS Blue Train Reservations A deluxe suite for two costs from US$1,050 (low season 1 May - 31 August) to US$1,510 for the rest of the year, for the Cape Town to Pretoria journey. For the Pretoria to Victoria Falls journey, the low season rate for a two person suite is US$1,260 going to US$1,800 for the rest of the year. A luxury suite is slightly larger than deluxe and features a VCR + CD Player as well as being 3 feet longer. Both Luxury & Deluxe suites have private bathrooms. The Luxury Suites feature full baths, while the deluxe offers showers. Off-train excursions are undertaken on the Cape Town, Garden Route and Victoria Falls routes. The Mantis Collection of luxury hotels in Southern Africa include several at destination train stops: Stanley & Livingstone at Victoria Falls, on a 6,000-acre private estate just 10 minutes from the Victoria Falls, offers 10 exquisitely furnished suites. Steenberg Country Hotel, situated on the Cape's oldest wine farm, is a 20- minute drive from the heart of Cape Town. The hotel buildings, dating back to 1682, have been painstakingly restored. Lake Pleasant Hotel in the Knysna district on the famed Garden Route, on the edge of one of the few natural freshwater lakes in the southern hemisphere, maintains the charm of the original 1840 Manor House. South African Airways With the alliance partnerships it has forged, SAA has increased frequencies to key destinations in South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. With the regional airline SA Express Airways and the feeder network SAAirlink, SAA reaches every part of southern Africa including the Victoria Falls. Photo: Sunset at the Le Meridien Fisherman’s Cove Hotel, overlooking Beau Vallon Bay. Courtesy © Le Méridien Seychelles |
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