7 DAY CAPE TOWN TO DURBAN

DAY 1: MATJIESFONTEIN

11:00: Depart from Cape Town Station. Guests may freshen up in their suites before joining fellow travelers in the lounge car and observation car.

13:00: Lunch is served in the dining cars. The train reaches Worcester in the Hex River Valley before climbing ±750m up the face of the escarpment. The train arrives at the first of four tunnels on the pass. The last tunnel is 13.5km long so guests are to be careful when walking through the train and may wish to turn on necessary lights.

16:30: Tea is served in the lounge and observation cars. Disembark at Matjiesfontein for an opportunity to stroll through the historic village. Of special interest are the museum on the platform and a collection of historic cars and railway carriages to the right of the Lord Milner Hotel.

19:30: Dinner is served in the dining cars. Overnight on board. Dress: Formal

DAY 2: KIMBERLEY

07:00: Breakfast is served in the dining cars until 10:00. Travel through the Karoo, a vast semi-desert region that was once an enormous inland sea. Over millions of years, the volcanic matter was ground down and deposited as silt upon the seabed to form what geologists call the Karoo system.

12:30: Lunch is served in the dining cars. Enjoy a tour of Kimberley’s Diamond Mine Museum and the Big Hole. Capital of the Northern Cape, Kimberley is well known for the discovery of diamonds that led to its establishment in 1871.

16:30: Tea is served in the lounge and observation cars.

19:30: Dinner is served in the dining cars en route to Klerksdorp. Overnight on board. Dress: Formal

DAY 3: PRETORIA

07:00: Breakfast is served in the dining cars until 10:00. Travel northeast through the goldfields of the Witwatersrand.

13:00: Lunch is served in the dining cars.

17:00: The train arrives at the journey’s end at Rovos Rail Station, Pretoria

DAY 4: PRETORIA

Relax at your Hotel or explore (costs not included) Pretoria at your leisure. 

DAY 5: PRETORIA

After a leisurely breakfast at your Hotel, take the transfer to Rovos Rail Station.

10:00: Depart Rovos Rail Station, Pretoria. Travel southeast across the Highveld and the goldfields of the Witwatersrand towards Heidelberg, site of the first Rand gold strike, and Balfour, a small mining town in Mpumalanga. Guests may freshen up in their suites before joining fellow travelers in the lounge car and observation car.

13:00: Lunch is served in the dining cars. The Drakensberg Mountains were first named by the Voortrekkers who thought the unbroken chain of heavily weathered peaks reminded them of the spines on a dragon’s back, hence the name ‘Dragon Mountain’ or Drakensberg in Afrikaans.

16:30: Tea is served in the lounge and observation cars. The train climbs to Majuba Hill – site of the decisive battle that ended the First Anglo Boer War – then passes Newcastle, which has what is reputed to be the largest cella-dome Hindu temple in the southern hemisphere.

19:30: Dinner is served in the dining cars en route to Elandslaagte. Dress: Formal Pass Glencoe, site of the first battle of the Anglo Boer War and now the center of the province’s coalfields.

DAY 6: NAMBITI & SPIONKOP

05:45: Breakfast is served in the dining cars until departure. Enjoy a game drive in the Nambiti Reserve, a private Big Five bush retreat set on 20 000 acres of malaria-free bushveld with incredible biodiversity including savannah, grasslands, thornveld, and tall acacia trees.

11:00: Brunch is served in the dining cars. Transfer (±30 min) to Spionkop Lodge for the afternoon. A choice of two excursions is available: 1. Hear the historic tale of the Battle of Spionkop OR 2. Enjoy a game drive in the 11 000-acre reserves.

19:30: Dinner is served in the dining cars en route to Estcourt. Dress: Formal. Shortly after Chieveley, on the right of the track, stands a memorial to Winston Churchill who was captured here in November 1899 while trying to free an armored train trapped by a Boer ambush.

DAY 7: ARDMORE CERAMICS

07:00: Breakfast is served in the dining cars until 10:00. The train descends the escarpment to the Lions River. Visit the famous Ardmore Ceramics Gallery. Here, artists are encouraged to express their imagination based on nature and Zulu folklore and tradition.

13:00: Lunch is served in the dining cars. The train traverses the spectacular Valley of a Thousand Hills.

16:00: Arrive at the journey’s end at Durban Station. A number of museums and cultural sights, the beautiful botanical gardens, and the superb shark-protected beaches are but a few of the city’s many charms.