Original subtitles

Escape with us on a luxury train journey

across the southern part of Africa.

Rolling through Namibia, and on into South Africa itself,

we'll be travelling on a wonderful vintage train

where we'll dine like kings for ten glorious days and nights.

It is the most luxurious train journey ever.

Along the way, we'll spend time with the people who live and work

along this incredible line.

We'll go hunting with both man...

..and beast.

They never learned how to be a wild cheetah from their mother.

We'll drink brandy distilled in the desert...

And what you're left over with is just the heart of the brandy.

..and taste the best wines Africa has to offer,

as we travel under the star-rich skies.

We'll visit what was once the biggest diamond mine in the world...

With pick and shovel only they dug by hand up until 240 metres.

..then travel to the capital of South Africa,

Pretoria.

This is no ordinary railway journey,

this is one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world.

We begin our epic journey across southern Africa

in one of the world's most remote cities, Walvis Bay.

To the west are great lagoons, afire with flamingos,

and beyond them, the South Atlantic Ocean.

To the east is the great Namib desert

that gives this country its name,

Namibia.

And its into the Namib will soon be heading.

But despite our remoteness,

our train is nothing less than a palace on wheels.

Owned and operated by Rovos Rail,

some of these carriages were built in the 1920s and offer those lucky

enough to get a ticket a level of comfort

almost unrivalled anywhere in the world.

In the two dining cars,

Jan-Louw is cooling the wine for the guests' first lunch.

We normally put it out half an hour on ice just to get it nice and cold,

the correct temperature. Serving temperature.

A few carriages up in the royal suite, with its en-suite bathroom,

Zama is making the last of the beds.

This room is finished now and the guests are coming back.

I need to go to do the next room.

With the final passengers on board,

booked for what will be an unforgettable ten day journey,

the signal drops at 11am precisely

and our locomotive takes up the strain.

HORN BLOWS

Recently imported from Brazil, this GE C23 EMP diesel electric loco

clocks in at a massive 94.5 tonnes.

Powering this monster is a 12 cylinder GE diesel engine,

which turns a dynamo supplying electricity

to its six traction motors.

Our driver today is Ben.

Now, this is the speedometer.

You can see it's marked up to 125km per hour,

but we are just limited after 60km per hour

because of our sections.

60km, or just 37mph, may seem a little slow,

but with the luxury this train offers and the great vistas

we'll be travelling through,

who would want to go any faster?

This is a truly epic journey that will take us over 1,500 miles

from the coast of Namibia, east past the Erongo Mountains,

home of the San people,

to Otjiwarongo, where we'll spend time

with one of nature's ultimate hunters,

the cheetah.

From there, we'll retrace our route before swinging southeast

at Kranzberg Junction, heading to Windhoek

and on across the South African border

to the oasis town of Upington,

where we'll drink local brandy as the sun sets.

Rolling across the great Kalahari Desert,

we'll arrive in Kimberley,

where diamonds determined the fate of southern Africa.

Finally, our train will roll into Pretoria.

Travelling along a line that was first laid down over 100 years ago,

we track the Atlantic Ocean north

before turning inland across the desert.

At 55 million years old,

the Namib desert gets its name from the Nama language,

meaning an area where there is nothing.

But as we head east, leaving the great dunes behind,

the land becomes more fertile, both above and below ground.

And it's what was below ground that we have to thank

for the existence of the line.

Copper.

Nicholas is the train's onboard historian.

Well, the fact is that this railway that was travelling along was built

by the Otavi mining company specifically to transport the copper

from Tsumeb to the coast.

So actually, in every way, this railway

that we're travelling along was a copper mining railway.

Millions of tonnes of copper once flowed down this line,

creating one of the key industries for what would become

modern day Namibia.

But as we roll on past the Erongo Mountains,

it's as if we are travelling back to the dawn of mankind.

This is the ancient hunting ground of the San people.

Despite living close to the railway and the modern world it brings,

many Sans still choose to live as their ancestors did

thousands of years ago.

Two of their members, Dux and Lallae,

have agreed to take us hunting using poisoned arrows.

TRANSLATION:

Dux has been to school and speaks English,

but prefers the way of life of his people, hunting in the bush,

just as his ancestors have for thousands of years.

Closely following.

And when you can see the animal, then we have to see also the wind.

Which side is the wind?

And if the animal is not able to run,

then we can come a little, a little more close,

then this way we can shoot.

The arrows rarely kill outright,

the poison taking time to work.

And when you shoot, and that's the right part where you shoot,

it can die immediately.

But when you shoot any part, then it can run.

Then the next day, when you come, you will come with the family,

when you come it is still alive, then it can run,

then you can run after the animal.

Then you can use the spears to kill the animal.

UNTRANSLATED

Although the bush looks empty to our eyes,

they soon spot a pair of waterbuck,

betrayed by their ears.

Now, an age-old ritual between man and beast plays out.

This time, Dux's arrow falls short

and the waterbuck disappear into the bush.

Back on board, as the sun sets,

the clock rolls forward several thousand years

and we are about to experience the opulence of the 1920s,

courtesy of our train's Michelin grade chef, Aubrey.

He may seem busy at work,

but as far as he's concerned,

he's one of the guests.

It's like a working holiday because every time

wherever you travel through Africa by the coastline or inland,

you'll see the mountain ranges and oceans

and like, for example, a beautiful sunset coming up, like, tonight.

Keen to reflect the land through which we are travelling,

Aubrey has chosen a local delicacy for tonight's astonishing menu.

It's a favourite of Nicholas, our onboard historian.

Tonight we've got ostrich on the menu.

The ostrich is a dry country bird,

so it is a native of Namibia,

and it has the benefit of being cholesterol-free.

It is considered a very healthy meat.

And so we believe in the virtues of eating ostrich.

and which is why it is served usually medium to rare.

As the chefs work on preparing dozens of dishes,

our guests sip the best wines South Africa has to offer.

Above, the stars appear in the sky and our train heads on

to Otjiwarongo, where it will pull up at the end

of what has been a truly wonderful day.

So far, our journey on this incredible luxury train has taken us

from the flamingo-filled lagoons of Walvis Bay,

one of the most remote cities in the world,

across the ancient Namib desert and into the Erongo mountains.

Here, we hunted with the San as the sun dropped low in the sky.

Back on board, we feasted on ostrich fillets

as the stars arched overhead.

Sometime in the night, we pulled up into the small town of Otjiwarongo,

where after disembarking, we are going to spend the day

with another of Africa's great hunters...

..the legendary cheetah.

The coming of the railways massively increased the human population

in this area, and what was once the cheetah's land

has become the territory of farmers.

Men like Armas Shanka, who tends a flock of over 180 goats,

which he loves almost like a family.

TRANSLATION:

Unfortunately, cheetahs love goats almost as much as Armas.

As a result, farmers often kill them on sight.

One person trying to save the cheetah is Becky Johnston

of the Cheetah Conservation Fund,

stepmom Terosa and 28 other orphaned cheetahs.

So, these six females here are permanent residents here at CCF.

So they came to us under the age of six months old.

They never learned how to be a wild cheetah from their mother.

She would be teaching them the correct animals to be hunting.

She would be teaching them correct stalking behaviour.

She'd be teaching them even things like how to properly suffocate

and how to eat your prey.

And as humans, we make terrible teachers of all of these skills

that they need to know.

It's only something that a mother cheetah can teach.

Being unable to fend for herself in the wild,

Rosa and her friends will have to spend their lives

in massive enclosures.

But Becky makes sure they still have to work for their supper,

by doing exactly what cheetahs do best,

running.

With the railway and other forms of transport

bringing ever more people to the area,

the fund is keen to find a way of stopping the conflict

between the farmers and these great cats.

THEY CRY

It's okay. It's okay.

And the key to that is man's oldest friend,

the dog,

or the Anatolian sheepdog, to be precise,

who make the perfect guard dogs for flocks like Armas'.

The good thing about these dogs is they don't need much training.

The main thing they need to do is bond with the herd.

Pup, pup, pup, pup, puppies.

Come, come, come, come.

Come on, guys. Good puppies.

Yeah. Good puppies.

Good puppies.

Callum is in charge of the Conservation Fund's

Livestock Guard Dog Program,

which breeds the dogs to protect the flocks

from predators like the cheetah.

And all it takes is one dog, like this one, Corvette.

Come.

I know there's a lot of people that especially maybe

they're actually scared of dogs, especially big dogs like this.

And the predators seem to be the same.

Once they see one of these dogs with the herd, they see the size,

they hear the bark,

and they see that these guys aren't messing around,

they all make sure that they keep away from that herd and they will go

for something a little bit easier, like the steenbok or duiker.

Despite some pretty sharp teeth,

Corvette's main anti-predator weapon is at the other end.

See, she's marking a territory.

She smelt something over there that she felt was the threat,

so maybe there was a jackal there last night.

She's marked her territory over the scent to the jackal

to let the jackal know that she is here.

Just by announcing their presence in an area,

guard dogs like Corvette have had an incredible success

in reducing predation, not just by cheetahs,

but by a host of other predators, too.

Good boy.

Who's a good boy?

These dogs just work incredibly.

On the farms that they go out to,

they get 80 to 100% reduction in livestock losses.

As more of these incredible dogs are introduced to herds,

the hope is that farmers will no longer feel the need

to kill one of Africa's greatest hunters.

Returning to the station at Otjiwarongo,

we reboard to begin our epic journey on through the legendary

Kalahari Desert.

Initially, we will retrace our route back along the old copper line

to the junction at Kranzberg,

from where we'll branch east across the desert

towards our next stop, Windhoek,

the capital of Namibia.

Covering much of Namibia, Botswana

and the western part of South Africa,

the Kalahari Desert extends some 350,000 square miles.

In the local Tswana language, Kalahari means "a waterless place".

And there is perhaps no better place to view it from

than where Doug is viewing it,

from one of our train's own watering holes.

I may have been generous with the water.

Nice relaxing before dinner.

We've caught planes, we've been on cruises...

..and this is still the best.

On the train, you see things that you don't see at home

or that you don't even plan to see.

It's wonderful.

You get on the train, you meet strange people,

when you get off you've got friends.

It's a wonderful place to meet people and see the country.

Once a German colony, the European population of southwest Africa

had only reached around 14,000 people

when it was taken over by the British after the First World War.

Much of that population was centred around Windhoek,

to which we are heading, and that, as our historian Nicholas explains,

was for one very good reason.

It has got a lot of natural springs.

It's at an altitude of 1,642 metres.

So it is actually quite high.

And the presence of these springs meant that you always had water.

Now, the history of Namibia is undoubtedly the search for water,

because at every step of the way, there was a shortage of water

and sometimes a paralysing shortage of water.

Pulling into Windhoek station, built in the early 1900s,

we can see strong echoes of Namibia's German past.

It is amazing to me how much the Germans put in

in the short period of 1884 to 1918,

which was the end of the First World War, when they lost their colonies.

Whilst the station is a product of Namibia's German days,

our next port of call, the Namibian Craft Centre,

reminds us that this country had many cultures,

long before the coming of the Europeans.

Run by Shareen,

the centre allows craftspeople from all over Namibia

to sell their art, including the San,

who make these incredible beads.

They've taken the traditional art craft, San craft in jewellery,

and they've done product development and they've modernised it.

And it really creates an income

which they otherwise would not have had.

But if you look also at the textiles,

the artwork there is from the San people.

So that is then printed, laid out, graphic design and printed

on fabric, and that is produced in South Africa.

But for every metre of fabric that is produced

is a royalty that goes back to the San people.

With our bags full of the best crafts Namibia has to offer,

we reboard our train once more and set off across the Kalahari.

This time, we're in the company of two women who have made

Rovos Rail their second home,

Diana Buchanan and her sister, Valda Brown.

My husband and I travelled 40 times together, up and down

between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

And then when he died I carried on travelling and now I'm up to 64.

Her sister, Valda, a veteran of 12 trips,

is convinced this train does wonders for Diana.

I looked at her last night

and I thought she actually comes alive on the train.

Having booked with Rovos Rail so many times,

Diana really can call this compartment a second home.

This compartment has been named after my husband, Buck Buchanan.

And because he and I travelled so regularly on this train,

as I say, when he died, he'd done 40 journeys.

So that was reason enough to name a compartment after him.

Whenever the name Buchanan turns up on the guest list,

deputy manager Khangwelo makes sure coach number 3453 is coupled up.

Yes. The thing is,

whenever she books a journey, we always try to put

this coach on the train just for her.

Like right now, I can tell you the number one reason this coach

is on the train is just for her to have a room.

So we always try to give her her best experience ever.

And her best experience ever is to be travelling

in her husband's memory.

And what wonderful memories this train creates.

We've now travelled almost 1,000 miles through Namibia,

and we're about to cross the border into South Africa,

where suddenly the desert will bloom

and we'll find ourselves in one of the great wine growing areas

of the country.

People don't always realise this,

but vineyards originated in the desert.

Leaving Windhoek,

our train travels on through the great dry ocean

that is the Kalahari Desert.

And at this time of the evening, you can stand at the back

there with your arms out and pretend to be Kate Winslet.

And call it the reverse Winslet.

After almost 600 miles, we cross the border into South Africa

and are suddenly confronted by a green line in the bush.

This is the Orange River, an unexpected oasis

where some of South Africa's best grapes are grown.

And right on the line is the Bezalel Estate,

home of Marthinus, whose family have been here for five generations.

People don't always realise this, but vineyards originated

in the desert. It was the Persians and the Greeks

and the Romans who took it from what is today called Iran

and started spreading it all over the world.

And wherever they took it, it's adapted

to the new growing conditions.

Key to any good wine is the mineral-rich soil

the vine grows in and the amount of sunlight it gets,

both of which exist in abundance along the banks of the river.

I mean, looking at the soil,

it looks so rocky and it doesn't look ideal for growing things in.

I mean, just thinking of a desert, the climate is very harsh,

but at the end of the day,

this is what makes it such a good area to make wine in.

So, for us, being able to grow in such unique soil

and in such unique conditions is not really a challenge.

It's more a privilege.

The third ingredient is the water of the Orange River itself.

It really is the Orange River that is the lifeline

of this area, bringing the much needed water we need

to actually grow these grapes in a desert-like environment.

Many of the grapes grown along the river go to make wine,

but the Bezalel Estate is best known

for one of the grape's other gifts...

..brandy.

My father really started in terms of the wine, but he always

had the idea in the back of his head

that the ultimate goal would be turning that wine

into brandy, rather than just making wine for wine's sake.

Unlike a whisky, where the flavour of the drink flows from the tannins

in the barrel, in brandy, the barrel plays a more neutral role.

Whisky, for instance, during the ageing process,

is where you're going to be adding most of your flavour.

You use second-hand barrels to add flavour to your whisky,

for instance, because all of the flavour you taste

in the whisky comes from the secondary processes.

Whereas with a brandy,

what we're trying to do is not add any new flavour,

we're trying to develop the flavour that's already

inside the spirit itself.

As the brandy matures over years,

Marthinus tests for taste regularly.

Brandy has now been in the barrel ageing for about four years,

and you can notice it starting to change colour,

slowly but surely.

And it is this colour change that is the only indication,

initially, that this process is actually happening.

And depending on how they are changing,

will determine should this one stay in this barrel for another five

or another ten years, or should we bottle it

in another two years or so?

Many brandies stay in the barrel for more than ten years.

Brandy will take me just as long as it would take you

to put your kids through school.

It's the same time and level of commitment.

And just as your kids, you're not even sure exactly how it's going

to turn out because there are so many influences

out of your control.

But if it does turn out OK, the taste is sublime.

Now, the specific bottle we're tasting right now

spent about nine and a half years inside a barrel.

And even though we could have left it for another two years

to say it's 12 years old,

it really was already where we wanted it to be.

If you look at the top notes of this brandy,

it really is a lot more earthy all of a sudden.

And also, the key difference here is, of course,

the fact that it is so much smoother.

The longer it lies in the barrel, the more you're evaporating

the volatile components of the brandy itself,

and what you left over with is just the heart of the brandy,

minus that harshness of the raw spirit.

With the warm glow of brandy in our chests,

we are back on board our train once more,

heading into yet another African night.

PLAYS MELODY

With no tannoy on board, Loren alerts the guests

with the sound of a glockenspiel.

I'm announcing that it's almost dinner time.

In the kitchen, the chefs are once again preparing a feast.

Our fellow guests are dressed to the nines,

the wine is flowing and things are getting quite jolly.

Even our onboard historian Nicholas has got his favourite dickie out.

My zebra bowtie is a product of a visit to a remarkable

little hole in the wall shop in Dar es Salaam many, many years ago,

which only sells zebra skin products.

Everything, sandals, belts, handbags, you name it.

And I found this this bowtie and, well, I had two choices,

I could buy it as the bowtie, or I could buy it also

with a little motor that goes "brrr-rrr-rrr" round and round.

But I decided to just stick with the bowtie.

As the party rolls on, we'll travel from Upington to Kimberley,

stopping at the greatest diamond mine in the world.

From there, our train will go on to Pretoria,

where we'll pay homage to Nelson Mandela,

the man who helped found the Rainbow Nation

South Africa is hoping to become.

In the morning, we are rolling through an area

that was once a border country

between the British Cape Colony and the Orange Free State,

an independent state created by the Boers, the descendants

of mainly Dutch people who arrived in the 17th century.

And it was here, for good or ill,

that the history of much of southern Africa was forged

by precious stones, and the will of one man.

The stones were diamonds, and the man was Cecil Rhodes.

Diamonds were found a short distance away from Kimberley

along the river banks in the 1870s... Rather, the late 1860s.

And then in 1871, someone found them on a little hill.

And from that little hill, it's been excavated out

to form the Big Hole.

The Big Hole, as it was called,

was once one of the largest diamond mines in the world,

controlled by Cecil Rhodes and his company, De Beers Mining.

Now a museum, David is a guide.

Now, in the beginning, this whole place was a farm called Vooruitzigt.

The farm was owned by two brothers, Diederik and Johannes De Beers.

They bought the farm in the year 1860 from the government at the time

for only £50.

At that time, the land around here was of little value

and Kimberley was part of the Orange Free State.

But then diamonds were discovered

and the British moved in.

Now, on the 16th of July, 1871,

over 40,000 miners came here.

With pick and shovel only, they dug by hand up until 240 metres.

Arguably the biggest hand-dug hole in the world,

the mine started out as small claims of about 30 square feet,

each dug by one or two miners.

The upper level was called yellow grounds, didn't have much diamonds.

So later on in the year 1892, they introduced the headgear.

OK, it's the solo construction with the wheel on top.

The headgear dug deeper, 1,097 metres.

Out of the Big Hole,

they took about 14.5 million carats of diamonds.

That's a lot.

Conditions in the early days were tough.

Can you see that small shack down there?

All right. Looks like a dog kennel.

OK. All over here were small shakes and tents belonging

to the miners, their accommodation.

Now, you can imagine in the winter, the heat, heavy rain,

how it was in a small shack.

Now, the machine there next to it,

that is the diamond sorting machine.

What happened, there in the middle, there's a surf.

They would take a bucket full of sand

then they will pour it, the sand will fall through,

but then will get caught on the surf.

The mine was so productive that it flooded the market,

causing the price to drop

and bankrupting many of the smaller miners.

Eventually, the entire operation was under the control

of a small clique of extremely rich men,

who gathered in this building,

the Kimberley Club.

There were more millionaires per square foot anywhere else

in the world under the roof of Kimberley Club.

All the diamond magnates.

Diamonds were a very quick way of making money in those days.

You dug up your diamonds. You could sell it immediately.

Perhaps the most influential of the diamond magnates

was Cecil Rhodes, who at the age of 35,

controlled almost the entire diamond market.

But that was only the beginning of his ambitions.

This veranda at Kimberley Club is very historic.

A lot of influential people met here and had discussions

that essentially led to the carving up of Africa.

Cecil John Rhodes himself wanted to colonise everything up

as he went north.

That he wanted to take over Africa,

owning as much of its mineral wealth as he could,

is perhaps shocking enough,

but what is worse was his contention that the white race was superior

and through that was justified in stripping the indigenous

population of their lands and their rights.

The history is very painful,

but it's a history that needs to be told.

Yes, Mr Rhodes,

from his side, he was an imperialist.

What he found here, in Africa,

he said it belonged to his people.

So from our side, in Africa, we suffered.

All right, so from our side, his history is a bit better for us.

Returning to our train, we leave Kimberley on railway tracks

that exist because of Rhodes' dream.

This is a section of his Cape to Cairo fantasy,

a railway line he'd hoped would run the entire length of the continent

from Cape Town north to Cairo,

on territory that he hoped would belong to the British Empire.

A bittersweet reminder of the follies of empire

and the suffering it ultimately brought to the peoples

of southern Africa.

But as our train rolls on, we are heading to Pretoria,

where we will visit the statue of a man who hoped to heal that pain.

To me, being part of a project like this opened up a new way

of thinking because it opened up the history of South Africa.

It showed me a part of the history that I did not know about.

The sun is now setting on this incredible journey

across southern Africa.

The wine still flows

and the kitchens are preparing yet another feast

as we head into our last African night.

In the morning, now pulled by two Class 18E electric locomotives,

our train is rolling through greener lands.

This section of the line runs almost 1,000 miles

from Cape Town up to Pretoria,

our final stop.

Between the wars, it was the route of the luxury Union Express train,

an era our carriages were part of.

And as we arrive at Rovos Rail's own platforms

in the Pretoria suburb of Capital Park,

it's as if that era lives on,

as it's here that engineers like Joe

bring the wonderful carriages we've travelled in back to life.

This is a 1924 dining car originally,

and it was a 44 seater dining car.

We converted it into an observation car.

We took that wall,

we put it in so that it can have an open air balcony.

Whilst Rovos Rail celebrates all that is good about the past,

South Africa has changed beyond recognition.

A change personified by the giant statue of Nelson Mandela,

or Madiba, as he is often called, in front of the Union Buildings

just a few miles away.

Right from the start, its sculptors, Andre and Ruhan,

wanted to replace division with inclusion.

So, we were thinking if you repeat the form of the building

with the arms, it creates a repetition

and repetition creates rhythm, and it makes the whole feeling,

if you look at it, it creates a calmness.

Commissioned as Mandela's health declined,

the team had to work against the clock.

They told us we had six months, less than six months

in which to do this.

Now, normally we would do a statue like this in 18 months to 2 years,

but we had six months in which to do this.

The key to the statue's power radiates in those features

the team really focused on.

The smiling face. I mean, he had, you know...

His whole demeanour had to be one that was friendly.

Unselfishness.

And you can't... There's no anger, no hate.

Yeah, that's amazing.

He was a true, you know... He was really a person

that really practised what he preached.

And that was the acceptance of all.

All human life was equal to him.

Sadly, Mandela died before the statue was finished,

but the pair had an idea that would help people with their grief -

a way that people could communicate with Mandela,

even though the man himself had passed.

I remember with the installation,

we asked the foundry to grind the tiny slit in his left leg.

And you were able to send all post letters to him on that day.

The idea was that mourners could find a way of saying goodbye

in a personal and deeply private way.

The idea that we wanted to say, if you've never met Madiba,

or if you wanted to say something special to him, you write a letter

and you put it in his statue, in his sculpture.

And in that way, this is his, you know... It's not for us.

It's not for this life.

It's for the afterlife that these letters are intended,

and for the idea of what Madiba stood for.

Standing beneath the statue, Andre is reminded of how it helped him

to understand Mandela and South Africa,

which had a profound effect upon him.

For me, being part of a project like this opened up a new way

of thinking because it opened up the history of South Africa.

It showed me a part of the history that I did not know,

that was hidden from us for such a long time.

For me, it makes me understand where I come from.

And with that thought, it's time to look back

on where we have come from.

An incredible 1,500 mile journey from the wilds of the Namib desert,

where we spent time with the people who have made it their home

for millennia, and with animals, for even longer.

And on through the lush oasis of the Orange River

to the diamond fields of Kimberly

that did so much to create South Africa

during the days of Empire.

And finally, we have arrived in Pretoria,

where the sun has to set on this most scenic of railway journeys.