After three nights in a world of luxury, where we could get almost everything we wanted, we now must take care of ourselves. We leave the train at Capital Park in Pretoria, in Rovos Rail`s own railway station where most of their tours start or end

Out from the shadows comes an elderly tall, and handsome man. It is the boss himself Rohan Voss coming to great all the passengers. It is a real special atmosphere on this place. In a beautiful small pool orange carp fish are swimming around under the broad leaves of pink and yellow water lilies, and the station building behind is an old stately house with furniture from earlier days.

We take a walk along the platform where we fine low red brick stone buildings containing laundry, kitchen, and stores. There is a lot of work going on her to empty the train and prepare for the next trip, and we meet many of the people who served us on the train. Now we are in a totally different setting, and it is nice to meet them again.

Pretoria is the administrative capital in South Africa. It has about 1 million

residents, if we don’t include the surrounding areas, and it is one of the leading university cities in this country. From the station we take an Uber to our hotel, which is Sheraton Hotel, and is placed opposite the park where we find the impressing building and park. Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament, is the legislative capital; Pretoria, as the seat of the president and cabinet, is the administrative capital; and Bloemfontein is the seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal, is the judicial capital; while the Constitutional Court of South Africa sits in Johannesburg. In the afternoone we visit Nelson Mandela, or his enormous statue.

The jacaranda trees line the road, and now they are in full bloom. An amazing sight.

In the hotel we meet the popular singer Papa Penny and we exchange thought about the future of South Africa with him as we know he also is a chief in his village and is very much involved with politics.
– We’ll met again, se sas before he is off tho his concert in the capital.

Refilwe from the Norwegian Peoples Aid is already waiting for us outside the hotel. She will be our host for the next days in Pretoria and in Cape Town.

Next Stop: Cape town.