Making Tracks from Jo-Burg to Cape Town

After being in Cape Town for a little over a week, I am finally getting adjusted to my new "home" and what it is like living abroad half way across the world. I have begun to realize that it is certainly not easy to pack up all of one's things and start fresh in a new, foreign city without a familiar face or travel buddy for comfort, but I have enjoyed the experience so far and look forward to each morning and what adventures I may embark upon. And it definitely helps being in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and meeting some extremely interesting and gracious people.

I arrived in Cape Town last Friday evening after a much better than anticipated ride aboard the Premier Clase train from Johannesburg. I am not sure why I held low expectations of the train even as it promised to be a trip of luxury, but these feelings of doubt were quickly washed away upon boarding and touring my new mobile living arrangement. I reserved a single cabin and albeit the room did not offer much in the space department, it was very nice and resembled a four star hotel room. Just smaller. A lot smaller. But I would take small and clean over spacious and Days Inn dirty and day of the week. After my traditional new hotel room routine of jumping on the bed (not recommended seeing as the bed was more of a couch and I hit my head on the ceiling and fell on my bum in one motion) I made my way to the lounge and dining cars for complimentary champagne and snacks. I immediately posted up at the full service bar for my first glass of bubbly and introduced myself to other passengers while others slowly trickled on board and into their respective cabins. I quickly discovered that easily over half of the passengers were 55 or older, including a large contingent of elderly Japanese men and women, each possessing a camera larger than my head (which is saying something). But instead of cursing my luck for being stuck on a train full of blue hairs, I grabbed complimentary glass of champagne number two and made my way to the dining car for cake and a medley of beef jerky and assorted nuts. While devouring the carrot cake and complimentary glass of champagne number three, the train whistle blared overhead and screeching brakes slowly released us from the tracks. Our trip to Cape Town was underway.

After complimentary glass of champagne number four and a few questioning looks from the wait staff, I struck up a conversation with an American couple that turned out to be from Washington state. It was very comforting talking to Americans for the first time since arriving in South Africa even if their lives in La Connor were as foreign to me as break dancing is to Stephen Hawking. I soon made my way back to the bar for complimentary glass of champagne number five (please no judging, even though I was riding on luxury the trip was still going to take over 24 hours) and sat in one of the lounge's booths to take in the scenery as we made our way out of Johannesburg.

I spent the rest of the marathon train ride chatting it up with the other passengers, reading some South African literature I picked up in Johannesburg and gazing out at the various landscapes we passed along the way. Most people were extremely friendly and more than willing to talk and inquire about what a big, thirsty American passenger was doing all by himself on the way to Cape Town. All the groups on board made me think how much fun a trip like this would be with a couple of friends or family, especially with the five course meals we were treated to through out the ride and the ridiculously cheap bar ($1 beers, $7 bottles of wine) open from tip off to the final whistle. The highlights of the meals were always the desserts which I generally wouldn't say considering I'm not a sweet guy. Maybe the wine always hit me at the end of the meal and food started tasting better, but I thoroughly enjoyed the traditional South African pudding (which was more like a soft, moist cake like brownie swimming in warm vanilla custard) and the decadent tiramasu topped with a fresh fruit medley.

The route from Johannesburg to Cape Town is fairly straight forward, taking us through the Great Karoo Desert for a majority of the trip before going under and passing through the mountain ranges just east of the Cape. The Great Karoo did not provide the best visual entertainment of the trip considering it is a massive, desert like landscape with shrubs and small trees dotting the terrain, but I did appreciate the majesty of its size and scope. After a semi-restless night of sleeping due to a screeching brakes and a brief but violent thunderstorm, we broke into the mountain ranges around a beautiful burnt orange sunrise accompanied by a full service English breakfast. Definitely a much more aesthetically pleasing portion of the trip and my first introduction to the country's vineyards, something I plan on taking full advantage soon enough.

Around twenty five hours after leaving Johannesburg, Table Mountain emerged on the horizon. All the months of planning, researching and exchanging emails had finally reached fruition and I had arrived in Cape Town, my new home for the next few months or possible year. Disembarking was surprisingly void of any confusion and I was soon waiting on the curb for Sly from the Volunteer Adventure Corp to pick me and take me away to start my new life on the Southern tip of Africa.