Train journey aboard the Shosholoza Meyl

One thing dad and I like to do in every country we visit is ride the trains. It's fascinating seeing the inability of people in India to form a straight line in front of the doors (pushing is a totally acceptable tactic to ensure a position on the next car), or feel the smoothness of the bullet train in China as it glides through the cities. Trains are a great way to get around like a local, and, especially during long rides, see large parts of the country away from the touristy sites.

We had to get from Johannesburg to Cape Town and although there are many, many very reasonably priced flights between those two cities we opted to take the train. Specifically the Shosholoza Meyl Premiere Class train. Marketed as a tourist train and as a reasonably priced, luxury alternative to the cattle cars that are the airplanes that make up the Jo'burg to Cape Town flights. The train would be classified as a long ride, about 30 hours. Departing in the early afternoon and arriving in Cape Town early enough to pick up our rental car. 

We arrived early enough at the train station to find our compartment assignment which is posted prior to departure on the platform. We realized that we hadn't been sleeping well and memorizing the car AND berth number was beyond our mental capacity. We decided to take a picture of the piece of paper with the assigned reservation. It was then we realized we REALLY needed to get a good nights sleep.

We had our own compartment with two bunk beds which was nice and private. Very affordable food was available in the dining car (with limited choice...I'd recommend bringing some of your own snacks as eating either curry or chicken thighs for every meal was a bit repetitive).

A picture down the corridor of a train car. Rivetting.  This will increase the hit count of this blog. 

Our train compartment had windows! So much the better to see endless miles of boring scrubland!

No really, trains are fun. Better than being jammed in a flying metal tube with 400 strangers.

The many dilapidated train stations that we stopped at hint of the past beauty of South African train travel

That's uhhh... our train. And Michelle in front of our train. This blog will get better I promise! There's shark diving coming up!! Exciting!!

Nearer Cape Town the scenery markedly improved. Hundreds of wineries dotted the landscape.

The landscape was...nice. Just nice. especially the first 2/3rds of the trip where is was mostly barren land as far as the eye could see. The last few hours of the trip, as we neared CT and entered an area called The Little Karoo, we did see some pretty magnificent mountains and greener vegetation. And vineyards. Miles and miles of vineyards. 

Arriving in CT we were very happy to start our next adventure. For the first few days we would be staying with a woman we met on Couchsurfing. She met us at the train station and gave us a quick tour of the city, driving up Signal Hill to see the area lit up at night. During this short glimpse of the city I was already getting an electric feeling that this town was special. I was excited to explore it over the next few days.