52 hours of slow travelling on the Blue train from Pretoria to Cape Town...

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Sometime, it's not the destination that count, but just the journey. Here we are for one of those journey and potentially one of the most luxurious long-haul train in the South Hemisphere.



Thanks to the Covid, the Blue train is offering a super discount to people living in South Africa. Put it simply, it was a too good deal not to live this experience once! The train normally leave Pretoria at 2pm and you arrive two days later at 12pm in Cape Town. Well, thanks to some thieves, they stole cables next to Worcester and we ended arriving only at 4pm in Cape Town.



We arrived at Pretoria train station just after 12pm. You are welcomed in a special lounge. First things first, a little rapid covid test to make sure everybody is clean and ready for the trip. Next, few snacks and the bubbles. Just before 2pm, the train enter the station...we board, and on the way you go. This trip was full. 52 people on it. 10 Americans, and everybody else was living in South Africa.



Each carriage has 4 cabins. 3 of them have twin beds with a shower. The fourth, like ours has a double bed and a bath in your little bathroom. That's the way to go! Yes, there is something magic of taking a bath in a moving train...and I don't even speak of the experience of a double bed!



Here, the slowest the train goes, the more time you have to enjoy the slow lifestyle! The first day, it starts with tea time...aperitif, and than a four course dinner before some cigar in the cigar lounge. Next morning, we wake up early to a nice breakfast in the restaurant. By 9am we are in Kimberley. Fun to think that we drove and slept in Kimberley in March this year. By 12, we are back on the train...lunch time, little nap, and a second evening of glamour for us!



On the last day, you cross the vineyards in the morning. Well, with the delay in the hills, we not only had a nice breakfast, but a last lunch before reaching Cape Town for more adventures! Oh, if you speak French, we should be on the 8pm main news of France 2 in the coming days. Sadly the journalists were not very good at asking factual questions...so you will not ear me replying to questions that are simply not formulated properly. And sad to see too that French journalists cannot even blend on a train. Same shirts and jeans for 3 days...seriously!



Well, we had a lot of fun. That was something special. Not sure we'll do it again...as at full price, it's clearly not a bargain. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Next blog, we are in and around Cape Town...shopping time...wine time, food time! Everything we love! I'm just as usual running very late on sorting pictures and everything else!



Hope you stay safe and for most of you...are lucky enough to be back on the road!

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