Original subtitles

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) exotic vistas.

There's thousands of flamingoes up there.

(Teddy) wild animals.

Look at that

This is a life highlight.

(Teddy) star service.

We like to call ourselves

The most luxurious train in the world.

This is incredible!

(Teddy) and sheer determination.

We're travelling through south africa,

Aboard rovos rail!

(Teddy) this family operated train

Confronts everything from extreme weather.

Look at that lightening!

To stolen power lines.

That's a tremendous problem for us.

(Teddy) with utmost poise.

We never dress this well to receive a locomotive.

It's an epic coast to coast adventure!

Durban, on the shores of the indian ocean,

It's the busiest port city in all of south africa.

(Teddy) a melting pot of indian

Influence and zulu tradition, famous for its tropical beaches.

It's also where my journey begins,

Just down the road at durban station.

This is where south africa's first rail line

Officially opened back in 1860.

(Teddy) this is the first locomotive

That ever operated here in the country,

Over a hundred and fifty year ago,

That's the engine that started it all.

(Teddy) pulling into the underground

Platform is rovos rail's 'the pride of africa'.

A luxury train made up of vintage coaches that

Transport passengers back in time.

From durban, on the first leg of our trip, we'll be

Travelling almost 800 kilometers north to pretoria.

From there we'll set off on the second leg,

Sixteen hundred kilometers south through the legendary

Karoo desert to the oldest city in south africa, cape town.

(Teddy) passengers who've just

Disembarked gave their journey rave reviews.

Just to quickly run through the comment sheets.

"the food was excellent."

"and the service standard always perfect".

(applause)

Hard work.

(Teddy) but the staff's under extra pressure

Because they arrived late.

Is it good?

(Teddy) now train manager eric

And his team have to work harder and faster to prep the train for our departure.

And this is where the big work has to start,

Where all the rooms have to be redone for our passengers.

(Teddy) the five star kitchen needs replenishing.

We still have to do the shopping.

(Teddy) maintenance inspector ronnie

Has been working on trains for over two decades.

It's his job to make sure nothing's acting up

Before another long, hot journey.

We always check the springs to see if there's no cracks

(Teddy) nobody's going anywhere

Until ronnie's signs off.

Fingers crossed we leave on time.

This is the shock absorber.

It's little bit oily.

(Teddy) the crew's feeling the heat

But they can't cut corners.

It needs to be replaced.

(Teddy) by the time we board a few hours from now,

Everything's gotta be one hundred percent.

Perfect.

Thank you, mr. Vos, bye.

(Teddy) for eric, perfection is par for the course.

His boss back at the rovos yard in pretoria expects it!

Alright see you chaps later.

(Teddy) rohan vos is the owner of rovos rail.

With 180 carriages it's the world's largest

Collection of privately owned trains.

It's like a big toy train set you know.

(Teddy) after making his fortune

In auto parts in the 80's, rohan decided to take his wife

And four kids on an extraordinary family adventure.

Built a four carriage caravan for the family

And we were just going to go on jaunts around the country

During school holidays and so on.

(Teddy) that meant having to pay

The government to use its' tracks.

And then I complained to the railways about the tariff

They were going to charge me which is per kilometer, per carriage.

(Teddy) to recoup his costs,

Rohan started selling tickets to the public.

He turned his little hobby into big business.

It's not the little family business it once was with

One little train doing one little overnight trip.

(Teddy) it's a big operation

Do you need help?

(Teddy) today, rovos employs

450 full time staff.

All of rohan's children help run the business.

That includes brenda, who doesn't get any reprieve

From her father's exacting standards.

Okay, I'll have a look.

You have to give it 50 mill from the bottom.

Very fastidious when it comes to things looking

A certain way and service being a certain way

And the experience he wants to deliver to his guests.

Thank you have a good one.

(Teddy) back at durban station

Guests are now checking in and eager to board for our trip to pretoria.

We'll see you in a little bit.

Thank you so much.

Thank you

It's all go today.

We're busy, busy, busy here.

On the the pride of africa, the crew's dedication

Makes all the difference.

Well, we help each other as a family.

That's very important to us.

We like to keep the family close.

So we help each other where we can.

(Teddy) chef aubrey has just put in

An urgent call for help.

Ronnie's on his way.

The fridge is warm inside.

It's not cold enough.

A broken fridge in searing african weather

Is a recipe for disaster.

Guests on this train expect 5 star dining, not spoiled food.

We still have to do lunch now

So we only have that limited of time.

I'm going to check how much gas that has here ya

There's a leak somewhere of gas

You're mr?

Wilson.

Wilson.

From canada?

That's right.

Sparkling wine and orange juice and apple for you.

I'll do a sparkling wine.

Okay, enjoy yourself.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There you go so everybody has arrived wonderful.

(Teddy) everything's cool in the kitchen too.

Ronnie has patched the leaky hose and filled up the gas.

It's going down a little bit.

Everything is ready to go.

(Teddy) powering our journey, a pair of 18e electric locomotives.

They each measure 14.6 meters long, 3.9 meters high

And 2.8 meters wide.

They're supplied by transnet who own and operate

South africa's national rail network.

Transnet's locos are fully inspected at their depot.

Then they send the locos out to companies like rovos,

Who have to use them when travelling on transnet owned tracks.

They're checking if the weight,

The going down and going up of the pantograph is okay.

Portia, who's worked at transnet for 6 years,

Makes sure the pantograph alone goes through a 5 point inspection.

It's important because the pantograph is the one

That collects the electricity from the overhead to the locomotive.

No locomotive gets out of here

Without this checklist being completed.

(Teddy) behind the wheel are transnet drivers.

Train manager, what you say,

What you say, everything fine on your side?

(eric) everything perfect.

Thank you.

Your full names and surnames will be at the door.

(Teddy) it's finally time for passengers to

Step aboard the pride of africa

There'll be 37 of us altogether.

Come with me please.

(Teddy) 16 staff are on board to ensure we travel

In the lap of luxury south african style.

(horn sounds)

Every detail on these carriages has been

Custom made to transport us back to the glory days of rail travel.

Today our train is made up of a generator car,

A staff carriage, then a kitchen car

Right next to the dining car.

After that, 8 guest carriages with 24 suites and two lounges.

One, with an open air observation deck.

We're just pulling out of durban,

Our trip's started.

I'm so excited to be on this train.

I've wanted to ride it my whole life.

I've never been to south africa and it's going

To be an amazing way to see the country.

Good day so far?

Good day yes, awesome.

(Teddy) the price tag for passengers runs from

Two thousand to four thousand canadian dollars

Depending on the suite.

They all come with a dedicated host like tshepo.

And welcome to your royal suite, sir.

The royal suite.

This is incredible.

I've never seen a suite this big this on a train.

Is this the biggest one on board?

This is the biggest one that we have on board, sir.

I do not deserve it, thank you very much.

So we've got this living room area,

There's a whole living room.

This is the lounge area, you have a living room area.

Straight through this door is your king sized bed.

A king size bed that it's own room,

That's a first for me.

And then the bathroom does it have it's own bathroom?

Yes it does sir.

Want me to show you through?

Yes please.

Thank you

Whoa! This is

This is not like a normal bathroom on a train.

Even in a private suite.

There's a claw foot tub.

Wow, thank you very much.

On this 3 day trip, I'm heading north from durban

Into the stunning valley of a thousand hills

Then it's onto ladysmith, before crossing into

The majestic drakensberg mountain range.

We'll make our way through the farmland of

The highveld plains before arriving at

The rovos rail yard in pretoria.

(Teddy) every leg will have its challenges.

Good thing our driver gary had 40 years experience under his belt.

There are lots of things that we have to watch out

Faulty signals stealing the overhead cables

We have no overhead power.

Right.

You know he train never runs on time,

This is africa.

Looks like we're in for a wild ride.

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

I'm on a once in a lifetime journey

Through south africa on rovos rail's

The pride of africa.

Do you like it?

Stirred?

Or do you want it shaken?

I'm going to go shaken.

Shaken.

Bartender eddie, from soweto,

Is known for making a mean martini.

And with style

Yes sir, just like that.

Alright.

I'll put olives over there.

Thank you.

Less than an hour out of durban we're heading into the kingdom of zulu,

Surrounded by incredible scenery.

This is the valley of a thousand hills.

It tracks the umgeni river and of course it's named

For the countless hills and mountains all around here.

It's one of the key features on this part of the trip.

The terrain here is punishing.

To scale the mountains, our train travels

Higher and higher through 4 tunnels and sharp curves.

And it's always quite interesting

Oh, a little bumpy ride.

That'll happen.

It will definitely.

(Teddy) climbing 700 meters in just

70 kilometers, puts severe wear and tear on the wheels.

And that's just the start...

How does the natural landscapes and the elements here kinda

Challenge the train and challenge the tracks?

With extreme temperatures and rain

You'll see that the train obviously gets stopped.

So the train's slowing down,

We're stopping.

What's going on right now?

It could be um, us waiting for a signal authority.

Can we run it on number two line?

(Teddy) south africa boasts

The 11th largest rail network in the world.

Transnet manages all 32 thousand kilometers of

Track out of its' national command center in johannesburg.

But I'll but, I'll phone the technician

To come and fix that for us.

(Teddy) every day, operators like elden matala

Do their best to keep fifteen hundred trains

From 14 different train companies,

Moving and on time.

Everything is shown here on the schedule.

(Teddy) elden is monitoring

A maintenance crew on the line ahead of us.

Okay, okay.

(Teddy) transnet technicians are

Adjusting the tension on the overhead wires.

Go ahead.

(Teddy) this has shut down

One of the tracks, creating a bottleneck.

In order for the contact wire to stay at the same height,

I have to square all these droppers.

(Teddy) keeping the overhead cable at

A precise, consistent height is critical, ensuring a steady

Flow of power to the locomotive's pantograph.

But once you've done a section it should last for approximately

Four to five years.

(Teddy) lucky for us this stoppage

Is just for routine maintenance.

Quite often this crew has to tackle a more serious crisis.

Criminals, who steal the cables.

That's a tremendous problem for us.

(Teddy) a problem that every year

Costs south africa five billion rand or just over

Four hundred and fifty million canadian dollars.

Brazen thieves steal cable from the country's power

System for the valuable copper inside.

They're off to the scrap metal dealer

And they'll get quite a lot of money for it.

(Teddy) whenever thieves strike

On a rail line, trains are forced to a standstill

Until crews can replace the stolen cable.

That causes massive delays.

Which happened to us about a month ago

Just south of johannesburg and that held us up for 25 hours.

We couldn't move.

We couldn't move.

And everyone was stuck and so that's a real problem in south africa.

And you brief people in advance that you're rarely on time, right?

Yes.

Folks know that they can expect it.

It's trying to just manage passengers' expectations.

Right.

I mean for the passengers, a slight delay means

More time on this train.

Absolutely.

Which is pretty good.

Absolutely.

An extra glass of sparkling wine.

(Teddy chuckling)

(Teddy) the line ahead is cleared

And we're on our way.

But the rovos crew will have to figure out how to make up time.

I think you've seen the real south africa

When you travel by this train.

It's so perfect.

(Teddy) high praise considering

All the lavish carriages started out as junk.

To build and maintain his fleet.

So that will be your mirror.

(Teddy) rohan vos and his team, scour the globe for cast offs

From other rail lines.

Well we don't buy new stuff because it's very expensive

And at the same time, you'd have to

Wait for somebody to build it.

(Teddy) at the rovos yard there are always 6 or 7

Carriages waiting to be finished inside and out.

Coach fitter, ace, puts his heart and soul into

Replicating victorian and edwardian coaches.

This is one of my babies.

My latest acquisition right now.

And now it looks like wreck but in two, three weeks

Time, it's going to be brand new and refurbished.

Over here you can see we have stripped all the coach

So that we can put new panels for the windows and the window rails.

And then as we go in this room, this is a deluxe coach.

This one is the bedroom for two people sharing.

This one we're going to make a dining so that they

Can have time to read their books and then in

Here we're going to have a shower for bathroom so

They can enjoy themselves.

The love I have for this job is the second

Love of my life, after my wife.

(Teddy) the passion and care that is put into the finished coaches

Is all a part of the magic of riding rovos rail.

We're coming up lions river.

It'll be the first stop on our journey.

We were actually supposed to stop a little while back

At a place called pietermaritzburg

But because we were running behind schedule we went

Right through it in order to make up time.

Here passengers head off for a bit of sightseeing

While I visit the nelson mandela memorial.

He was captured here on the 5th of August 1962,

(Teddy) meanwhile staff utilize every minute of the stop to

Refresh cabins, prepare dinner and run maintenance checks.

I'm testing the wheels, if it's hot like this one,

It's hot, what I'm going to do, I'm gonna pull the string.

When I pull the string I'm dropping the piston there.

(Teddy) releasing the piston will reduce

The friction placed on the wheels when we're rolling again.

That, in turn will lower the amount of heat generated.

Everything okay now.

(Teddy) near the front of the train

Is a one of a kind laundry room.

Christina turns out a steady supply of fresh linens and bedding.

She also takes care of the passengers' laundry!

The guests go out and come back.

They come back with their clothes dirty.

They must bring us, and then we wash it and iron it.

(Teddy) christina's worked on rovos trains for 21 years

6 in the kitchen before moving over to laundry.

I like this job.

I don't want to go anywhere.

(Teddy) passengers enjoy

Cocktail hour outside.

This is a beautiful area.

But overhead storm clouds are moving in.

You're just beating the weather,

Absolutely.

It's starting to rain.

We're very, very lucky.

Everyone made it back just on time to make it back.

(Teddy) our new driver nicky,

Comes on board for this section of the trip.

Off we go.

(Teddy) darkness falls soon after lion's river.

I head to the observation deck to watch the storm moving in.

We're getting some weather right now.

Look at that lightning.

It's absolutely incredible.

We're near ladysmith, toward the end of day one

And we've got rain and more lightning than

I've ever seen in my life.

(Teddy) for passengers,

The storm is a stunning spectacle.

Look at that!

(Teddy) for drivers, it's nerve-wracking.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) it's the first night of my

Train trek through south africa.

Pretoria is still 400 kilometers away.

The weather is really volatile

A massive storm is crippling the line.

What is the cause of the signals out?

Signals from the weather, the signals are out.

(Teddy) our driver nicky halts the train

And calls into transnet's command center.

638 a danger, I'm ready for authority.

6 signals ahead are down.

So it will take for couple of days to fix,

To solve the problems out.

(Teddy) for now, each train has to wait

For permission to proceed one at a time.

And depart here thank you very much.

(Teddy) after every stand-still nicky

Pushes the speed to the max of sixty kilometers an hour,

Trying to make up time.

Come again?

(Teddy) finally, we reach

Ladysmith station where we'll stop for the night.

As turn down service starts

Nicky secures the loco.

So I safeguard my locomotive, so the train doesn't move.

I'm going now, knock off and take a nice rest

And stay with my family until tomorrow morning,

Four o'clock and then on duty again.

(Teddy) after an overnight sleep stop at ladysmith station,

We wake up to clear south african skies.

Ah, good morning ladies and gentlemen.

We all ready to go?

If you can please follow me.

(Teddy) this morning, a sobering

Excursion to site of south africa's most brutal and bloody war.

It was a war that was glanced over.

It was not britain's proudest moment.

(Teddy) the boer war raged from 1899 to 1902

Pitting the british empire against two afrikaner or boer republics.

The railway was a major player in conflict,

Moving 27 thousand troops to the area and all the arms.

Cannons and whatever you needed, your big guns

All had to come up on the train.

I don't think they would have been able to manage it without the train.

(Teddy) as we ponder the past

A transnet crew is trying to keep us moving forward.

They're racing to repair a fibre optic cable vital to

The signals on the line ahead of us.

We had a big problem last night with the storms in the area.

One of the big trees next to the route fell over

The fibre optic route.

So we haven't got any train control.

(Teddy) during this work stoppage

Or 'occupation' all freight and passenger trains are

Being halted in their tracks.

So there is a lot of train delays.

(Teddy) if they can't get the cable fixed before

Our train starts up again,

We'll be added to the back log.

One down, 35 fibers to go.

(Teddy) simon has to expose,

Clean, cut and fuse every fibre back together.

Good thing he's one of the most skillful fibreoptic

Splicers in all of south africa!

Time is of the essence because we have to restore

The service back to normal.

(Teddy) as each fiber is re-connected,

A different part of transnet's communication system fires up.

As soon as the fibre gets spliced,

The train will run again.

(Teddy) that's good news for us.

Because 25 kilometers down the line, it's the

Excursion we've all been waiting for!

Alright this is going to be cool.

Bye.

Enjoy!

Thank you!

Are you guys excited?

Very much so.

Yes.

We're on route to the nambiti game reserve.

It's huge.

Nine and half thousand hectares and its home to

Dozens of species of exotic animals including

The big five.

Lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and rhinoceros.

Hopefully we see them, right?

Ya.

Fingers crossed.

Nambiti is a privately owned reserve made up of

What used to be six different cattle farms.

If you could remain seated at all times

And then also, please don't jump off the vehicle when I stop.

No selfies with buffalo or anything like that.

That has happened. (laughs)

Look at that wildebeast over there, wow!

(Teddy) the reserve is teeming with over 40 different

Animal species protected from poachers.

Look right here we've gotten right up

Close to the buffalo with the big horns.

It's awesome!

So it rained last night which is nice because it means

The tracks are fairly fresh.

And if we have a look here there's a lion track over here.

There's another one over there.

(Teddy) the king of the jungle makes an appearance.

Look at this right here.

We have a young male and female lion.

They're right beside our vehicle.

Look at that.

They're so close.

The male actually looked directly over at us

For a good ten seconds.

It was amazing but actually a bit

Disconcerting when he was staring at us like that.

This is incredible.

I gotta get a photo.

Wow!

So just off there in the distance there is

A number of giraffes, my friend here spotted them.

Good eye, good eye!

What are you most excited to see?

What type of animal?

Elephant.

Yeah?

We have missed them so far so we hope so.

(Teddy) 90 percent of african elephants

Have been killed in the past century.

Seeing one up close is truly spectacular.

It is just incredible seeing this animal in the wild, wow!

And now he's taking a drink in that pond.

You can actually hear him pulling the grass out of the ground.

And I've got to say, out of all the animals that

We had the possibility of seeing today, I was most

Excited about hopefully seeing an elephant.

So this is incredible, this is a life highlight.

(Teddy) the animals here are protected

But the ones outside the reserve are a real challenge for rovos rail.

We have a huge problem in african countries where there's

No fencing on the lines and all the animals,

Even big elephants and stuff is walking on the tracks.

(Teddy) depending on speed and load, trains can take up to

One and a half kilometers to come to a full stop.

Luckily most of the drivers, they know the tracks and the way,

But if you round a corner and an elephant is there,

What can you do?

(Teddy) on one occasion,

The journey turned into a nightmare.

We hit an elephant,

Which was really just one of the worst days here.

The driver pulled the horn for a full kilometer and it

Just didn't move and we hit it and it was

Just very sad for everyone.

(Teddy) rovos is doing its part to prevent more tragedies

By retrofitting its own small fleet of locomotives.

When they bought this loco, the small windows

Meant drivers had a limited view.

So they cut off the top of nose that housed the braking system.

Moved it to the back.

And added windows that span the front of the train.

This new and improved point of view helps drivers

Spot elephants sooner, giving them more time to stop the train

And that's awesome at the end of the day you say look what we've done.

(Teddy) but today, there's a more

Immediate problem to solve.

And I just got word that we have four burst water tanks.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) it's been two days since we left durban

On our south african adventure, and we're coming into germiston station.

From here, rovos has permission from transnet

To use its' own locomos and drivers

To get to their private rail yard.

That's sixty kilometers away in pretoria.

We're just changing locomotives now.

(Teddy) the transnet locomotive

Decouples from the pride of africa

While guests enjoy lunch in the dining car.

The rovos loco is attached.

(over radio) ronnie, come in ronnie.

(Teddy) then eric gets word this last stretch might get tricky.

They've switched off the overhead power to work on

The railway line but hopefully by the time we arrive there

The occupation will be cleared.

(Teddy) the pride of africa leaves germiston not knowing

When or even if we'll reach pretoria.

I have some passengers actually flying out this evening so we

Actually really need to get into that station as soon as possible.

(Teddy) down the line,

A transnet tamping crew is racing against time

And the scorching summer sun.

They're adjusting the tracks and the gravel ballast beneath.

We have a target of six thousand-six hundred

Sleepers that we have to do in a day.

(Teddy) uneven tracks can cause

Costly and even fatal derailments.

But they'll have to shut down this critical work

The second the temperature hits 40 degrees celsius.

So if it is hot then the rail it becomes soft.

Breaking the rail and breaking the sleepers

(Teddy) f.P. Keeps a close eye on the thermometer,

Safety his number one priority.

If anything goes wrong, I'm the one that's

Going to be held accountable.

So I have to make sure that the safety

Measurement are taken into consideration.

(Teddy) for now the temperature is

Hovering in the high 30's so the crew keeps working.

Meanwhile, the pride of africa patiently works its way

Through the slow down.

So fingers crossed the train arrives into our private station on time.

(Teddy) we arrive at rovos headquarters

Just 30 minutes late.

In south africa, that's a success.

Thanks very much.

Thanks for traveling.

Here we are.

My trip from durban to pretoria is complete.

The rovos team has a massive undertaking

Ahead before our second leg, from pretoria to cape town.

It's a much bigger trip which means adding another six coaches.

So we just started to re-prep this train as

We have new passengers on it.

A few more extra cars.

That's where all the magic starts all over again.

Cleaning, maintenance.

As you see the guys are checking the trains.

(Teddy) guest preferences.

Their request is jameson in the suite

And soda water.

(Teddy) and stocking a three day supply

Of fresh ingredients including 87 dozen eggs, a hundred

And fifty loaves of bread and 44 bottles of whiskey.

No detail is overlooked.

Might end up having to take the carriage back to the paint shop

So how many bags have you packed for cape town today?

Ahh, it's twenty-one cars.

(Teddy) everything is running

Like clockwork, that is until...

I just got word that we have four burst water tanks.

(Teddy) the pressure was set at 4 bars

Instead of two, rupturing the tanks.

Without water bartenders can't serve drinks,

Cooks can't prep meals, and passengers can't

Use their bathrooms.

Our welder just told me it's going to take about

3 hours to repair.

(Teddy) I'll spend my stop over at

Transnet's school of rail in nearby johannesburg.

12 thousand students attend their campuses each year.

As you can see the signal has turned to the red.

(Teddy) today I'll get to experience first hand,

Part of the intensive training drivers have to go through.

Hi there how are you?

Is an instructor at the school

And a certified driver herself.

This are your automatic brakes, you start with a minimum up to full brake.

(Teddy) she's been training drivers for 4 years.

So I'm in good hands on this simulator, the only

One of its kind in all of africa.

Where do I see what my maximum speed it and what I should not exceed.

As a driver you know because you've got

Knowledge for this line.

But I don't know.

(chuckling)

You must know, you're supposed to know.

This road the maximum speed must not exceed 60.

60, okay.

Okay driver Teddy.

What?

(Teddy) my progress is being monitored

By an examiner in the next room.

I need a mark of 80 percent or better to pass.

When you are ready you can depart.

Okay, we're moving.

I make my way on an exact simulation of the line

We took from durban to pretoria.

Okay we're in business.

Driver increase your speed.

We're accelerating at a good clip.

I feel like I'm doing pretty well so far.

As long as visibility holds up.

Doing well.

(Teddy) but a sudden patch of fog

Throws me off my game.

Ahhh! There's a cow.

There's a cow!

What the?

Driver Teddy what has just happened?

There was a cow and I didn't stop the train in time.

(Teddy) my mistake has been noted...

I can go again?

Yes.

I gotta watch my speed.

Okay, brake is disengaged.

We're on the right track.

There's a lot of different things to look at.

Including lights and signals that alert drivers to switch tracks.

Headlights are on.

Okay I see the light at the end of the tunnel

There's a lot to think about.

Go towards the light.

We're out of the tunnel and there's another train.

Decelerate, decelerate, decelerate.

Put on brakes.

Put on brakes!

There's a train on the tracks.

Stop! Stop!

Oohhhhh ho.

Driver Teddy, what just happened?

You just had a head on head collision with another train.

I came out of the tunnel and there was a

Freight train on our same tracks that obviously shouldn't be there.

Were the signals correct for you?

Ah, I forgot to look at the signal.

It might be a red signal.

Ahhhh, I missed the red signal, yes.

For that reason you are found not yet competent.

I should not be driving a train.

(Teddy) back in pretoria,

An hour before departure, my fellow passengers

63 in total, have arrived.

But water tanks are still a problem.

We fixed three but we've got one to go.

We're down to the wire.

What I've done as a contingency plan

Is I've spoke to my father and I've told him just to

Add another 15 minutes onto the tour just to

Give us a little bit more time.

(Teddy) the stall tactics work out great for passengers.

We get to see a 1948 steam loco that rovos restored.

There's nothing like a steam locomotive.

Awesome!

Okay, here's the cable.

This is for the horn.

Pull the horn, ya?

Pull it nice and hard.

More power.

Harder?

Harder.

Oh hooo!

All aboard.

Brenda finally gets the news she's been waiting for.

The water tanks are fixed.

Guests are about to board so we just made it.

Have a good time.

Thank you.

It's a packed train.

Exactly.

It's going to be fun.

It'll be a good one.

Well thanks a lot.

Okay.

Ah, laki come in, laki we're movin'

Let's jump back on please.

Are we moving?

We're moving.

Perfect, thank you.

(Teddy) the pride of africa

Departs on time.

(Teddy) this three day leg of

My journey is over sixteen hundred kilometers.

We'll stop at a historic diamond mine in kimberley,

Before heading into the forbidding great karoo desert.

Then it's onto breathtaking cape town,

Otherwise known as the mother city.

As we pull into our first stop at germiston station,

All is not well.

This is where we're need to switch to a transnet locomotive.

But that loco is nowhere in sight.

On board, everyone's focused on the five-star dinner.

Here we go ma'am.

(Teddy) eric's had to abandon his guests.

We never dress this well to receive a locomotive.

(Teddy) he's doing his best to track it down

But until then...

This has really caused a big delay for us this evening.

(Teddy) eric's all dressed up

With nowhere to go.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) we're stopped just outside pretoria

On my luxury train trek across south africa.

We're running three hours behind schedule.

There's no locomotive to power

And pull our train.

Ah, is the rovos rail on the platform?

(Teddy) transnet's command center

Has tracked it down.

No, it's fine.

So there was a freight train stuck in

Front of our locomotive.

They're just busy clearing it now, so our locomotive

Will approach shortly.

(Teddy) the loco finally appears.

Yaaaaaaaaay!

(Teddy) but it still needs to be coupled to the carriages.

It's just causing major delays.

But the guests are all still very happy.

Cheers, cheers.

Hey guys, as soon as you are ready,

We are ready for departure.

Thank you.

(Teddy) four hours behind schedule,

Eric has to improvise.

So the train is rolling again and we were supposed to be

Stopping soon for the night but because of the four hour

Delay we had I've been told that we're going to keep rolling

Potentially all through the night so it's quite

A change of plans but it's in order to get us back on schedule.

(Teddy) eric's decision to keep going has paid off.

We're managed to make up all the time

And we're only four minutes behind schedule now which is great.

(Teddy) and so is the scenery

As we travel over the incredible 14 streams bridge that crosses the vaal river.

South africa has spectacle after breathtaking spectacle

And there's still more to come.

Look at that.

There's thousands of flamingos up there

That is really cool.

(Teddy) from lush river landscapes,

We're nearing the karoo and more than 400 thousand square kilometers of desert.

Extreme desert heat can cause real problems for train travel.

Rails are made from steel.

They can get up to 20° degrees hotter than

The air around them.

In punishing temperatures, tracks start to expand.

Add in pressure from the wheels and the weight

Of the entire train bearing down and there's a chance

The tracks will buckle.

To lower that risk, trains slow down to

Reduce stress placed on and absorbed into the tracks.

It's just one more challenge rovos rail faces in this region.

We've arrived at kimberly station and we'll

Be heading to see the kimberley diamond mine

Also known as the big hole.

It's the largest man-made excavation in the world.

The first diamond was discovered here in 1866.

It weighed 21 point 5 carats.

Thousands of prospectors rushed to the area.

For over a hundred years it was the biggest diamond

Mining operation in all of south africa.

This is sort of the birthplace of

South africa's economy if you like.

(Teddy) to get miners in and diamonds out as quickly as possible,

Construction started in 1872 on a railway that would

Connect cape town to kimberly.

And eventually kimberley became the nucleus of the southern african railway system.

(Teddy) back at the station, rovos mechanics

Sindiso and steve are checking how the train is

Handling the ride through the scorching desert.

(Teddy) damaged wheels could derail the train.

This crew makes sure that won't happen.

Every wheel is okay.

No damaged wheel. No damaged block.

(Teddy) transnet conducts more detailed

Inspections at its massive koedoespoort site.

This 94 hectare workshop is the biggest railway

Facility on the continent.

When the wheel comes we put it in the acid,

We wash it we take it to spraying it we spray it,

After spraying it, we bring it over here

Into this booth, where we're going to do the magnetic particle inspection.

(Teddy) magnetic particle tests reveal

Potentially fatal imperfections undetected by the naked eye.

The uv light shows that "hey, there's a flaw there."

Where the flaw is, is where your cracks are

Going to happen and you can have a derailment.

(Teddy) the rigorous inspections and repair

Work keeps trains and passengers safe.

And that makes simon happy.

This is me, my life,

I love this job, yeah.

Hello, how are you?

(Teddy) we've left kimberley station

And are ready to enjoy our final evening before reaching cape town.

Thank you.

So everybody has just been seated for our last dinner on the train.

It's my last night on board and there's a bit of

A celebratory vibe in the air.

A lot of the guests have gotten to know each other

Well over the last few days so it kind of feels festive.

Cheers everybody.

Cheers!

(Teddy) manning the pass and making sure

Presentation's perfect is our train manager.

Last night you were out on

The platforms dealing with locomotives and tonight

You're overseeing the plates.

You really do it all right?

We always try and multitask.

We all work every single position so it doesn't

Really matter what position you are or what

Position you've been placed in.

To wipe a plate is just as easy as making sure

There's a locomotive.

And it's got your eye on it, right?

Ya, absolutely.

Guys, you having a fun night?

A springbok.

What? This is for me?

This is for you.

Cheers to no more delays.

(Teddy chuckling)

(glasses clinking)

Good night.

♪ ♪ ♪

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

This is a disembarkation announcement.

(Teddy) it's the last day of my south african adventure.

We would ask you please to make your way

Through to the center lounge car for disembarkation.

Good morning.

How are you?

Good.

It's early morning and we're getting this awesome

Opportunity to do an hour walk through the desert,

Through the karoo.

Thank you.

Temperatures in the summer can soar over

40 degrees celsius here, so we're heading out in

Early morning to beat the heat.

(Teddy) our train will meet us 5 kilometers down the line.

It travels ahead without any problem.

But behind us, cable thieves have been busy.

So this was reported early this morning on the group that there

Is cable theft between pretoria station, our station, and they

Might only clear it at 8 o'clock this evening.

Good luck to that train manager, we missed it.

(chuckling)

(Teddy) walking through the desert it's

Not hard to imagine the desolation felt by the trekboers

Who first travelled through this area in the mid 17 hundreds.

Luckily for us, we're only out in

The heat and isolation for a short time.

At the victorian village of majiesfontein,

We get rolling again.

We're in the middle of an impressive tunnel system

That takes us out of the karoo and into the beautiful western cape.

The hex river mountain range is the second

Highest in the western cape.

Instead of traveling the 2 thousand meters it would

Take to climb up the mountains, the railway was built to

Run right through them.

There are four tunnels in total.

The longest measures a whopping 13 and a half kilometers.

How do you feel when this train pulls into

The station in cape town?

Well it's always in the back of your mind

If all of your passengers has actually enjoyed the journey with you.

And if we might see them again one day.

Because repeat business is very important.

(Teddy) from our start in durban on the east coast

All the way through pretoria to the cape

Riding this train has been an incredible experience.

Well we're pulling into cape town and this is

The end of my south africa adventure.

You know I'd always wanted to visit this country

And I've been blown away by its epic natural beauty.

And taking it all in from this phenomenal train

Has been the trip of a lifetime.

And you're a great leader.

It was great to watch you work too man.

Thank you.

You're a busy guy.

(Teddy) and to think this luxury

Experience all began with a father wanting to do something

Special for a family trip.

So you know it's got quite big now and it's the best thing I ever did.

That's it, thank you.

Thanks guys, woo! It was really great.

Thanks a lot, bye bye.

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪