Our flight back to the United States was out of Johannesburg. We had several options to get to Joburg. The bus: 18 hours of sitting and very little sleep, flying: expensive and we had too much luggage, renting a car: too expensive, or the train: 26 hours with little beds. So we took the train.
There are three options of taking the train. The uber luxurious Blue Train or Rovos Rail, the Premier Classe train that is luxurious but not uber luxurious, or the Shosholoza meyl. The standard train. We took the standard train. In this train there are compartments for either 4 people, or 2 people which they call a coupe. I looked up what coupe meant, and it means something like half. Which is what these tiny boxes are. They would be quite spacious if on had no luggage. But considering Jared and I had so much luggage we couldn't carry it all ourselves, it was a bit cramped.
It was somewhat dramatic getting all situated on the train. Our last morning in CT before the train at 12:30 we had two clients come over, one who wanted to have coffee with us, and another for a last crash session before we left the country. Fortunately we had all our stuff packed, which was the result of days, and I mean days, of sorting, mailing stuff to the states and weighing our bags (the airlines are VERY strict about the weight of luggage).
The taxi was 30 minutes late, the driver wouldn't help us load the luggage into the taxi, when we got to the station, we couldn't find a cart to put our luggage on to take to the train...after waiting and panicking we finally got one. We got to the train, found our coupe, and it was all wet inside! Cape Town's weather was giving us a rainy farewell which dripped and seeped into the coupe. So we got another one.
We were so relieved when everything was put away and the train was leaving CT, that we celebrated by drinking cider.
Come night time, an attendant came with bedding and asked which end I wanted my head at. He recommended towards the middle of the train, because of the train tipped to the other side I'd fall on my head. If the train tipped to the other side, he said the passageway on the other side of the coupe would help my head from being crushed. The bedding was a nice mix of blankets, pillows and sheets. I slept well though Jared was cold.
It was a pleasant ride, we slept, read, and ate. It was so nice to be able to walk around the train and stretch my legs which I couldn't have done on the bus.
The second day I was wondering how long I could enjoy the ride before I started feeling cramped. Soon after that I started feeling cramped. I think the tower of luggage in front of me had something to do with that.
We got to Jozi only 40 minutes late which apparently is a record as we heard the train is often hours late. Humm... sounds like Amtrak on the states.
I would definitely take the train again, and do so with less luggage. Maybe next time we'll have enough money for some luxury.
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