-I don`t know about one morning in Africa when I have woken up without being happy, said the famous writer Ernest Hemingway once. He visited Africa twice and got to love both the continent and the people.

I think we can imagine what he meant. In a way we felt the same this morning when we woke up on Victoria Falls Hotel and realised this was the morning that we should start our Rovos Rail trip from Victoria Falls here in Zimbabwe to Pretoria in South-Africa.

Victoria Falls. This small town situated on the south border of the Zambezi River has the same name as the famous falls. We find Livingstone on the other border. Not our friend the missionary this time, but the city who got its name from the famous explorer.

You can pass between the two cities by crossing the bridge over the more than 100 meter deep gorge, and if you do so you also must cross the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We didn`t do that, but we were close to the bridge when we visited the falls yesterday, and we enjoyed the beautiful view over the bridge from the garden at our hotel this morning.

Rovos Rail, Zimbabwe

1600 km on rails. And not on an ordinary train! Rovos Rail was started in 1989 by Rohan Vos, and the name is made from his initials, RO-VOS.

In 1985 he went to an auction to by an old couch or two which he could restore. His aim was to get hold of four couches he could restore and connect to a South-African train as a kind of a caravan for his family. This showed up to be a bit difficult in the long run, so he bought an old locomotive from 1938, restored it and rebuilt it and in 1986 he got the license to conduct his own train. Now the idea was born, why shouldn`t he build his own veteran train and perhaps make it a living? The idea was a reality, and in April 1989 his first train left the station with tourists, friends, and the press on board. But it is not a secret that it has been a lot of work and a lot of economic challenges before his company got where it is today.

Sleepless night

After an almost sleepless night because of frogs and other unknown animals making a terrible noise in the hotel garden, we found the breakfast area where we had our breakfast accompanied with small, baboons stealing sugar and juice and whatever they could get hold of.  

The train was to leave at six pm, and we would try to make a good photo shoot nearby the train station. We were surrounded by curious baboons and one of them was about to steal our camera as we tried to let the camera take a photo of both of us.

Luckily, he didn’t succeed. There was also a couple of wild boars coming, so we collected our things and left the place as soon as possible.

Time to board the train

We had got a glass of sparkling vine and some information and now we were about to step into an unknown world of luxury. A smiling lady showed us our room and gave us some more information before she left so that we could unpack and make ourselves comfortable.

The bar-and-tea saloon is at the back of the train, and soon we were standing in the open-air area with a glass of vine watching the sun go down and admiring the beautiful smooth evening light.

When evening came, we dressed in our most beautiful ionna dresses, entered the dining car in company with the other elegant dressed women and men and enjoyed our dinner which was served on fine porcelain.

In an atmosphere which reminded us of the thirties, we nipped to good South-African vines from crystal glasses while we got new friends from all over the world.

We are excited about this journey, but a little bit “shocked” that we are not allow to use internett or digital devices onboard.

How should we manage three days without connection to the world?