Ever since I’ve touched down in Cape Town I’ve been longing to get an understanding for what it is like to live as a local and through my 38 hour ordeal traveling by train from Cape Town to Johannesburg I think I can safely say that I now have that understanding!

I rocked up at Cape Town station 40 minutes early lugging my backpack which was almost the same size as me looking like the weight of the backpack was going to overwhelm me and make me fall on my back at any given moment!

I was very apprehensive as I entered the train station after a 30 minute uber ride to the station where my driver repeatedly informed me I was insane traveling by train alone and I couldn’t leave my bags for a moment without them getting stolen! However he hadn’t been on the train to Jo’berg himself and one thing I have learned about South Africa that whilst the threat of crime is real it is nothing compared to the fear of crime people have and I feel no less safe in South Africa than I did in London or Glasgow so on I went!

The train station did not have my train up on the big screens so I asked the woman at the ticket office if the train was running on time – her belly laugh in response was the first time I realised that this wasn’t like taking a train back home and this wouldn’t be the last reality check I got on the trip!

After boarding the train I was in a small compartment with 2 sofa’s. I must confess I took tourist class (still a bargain at £35) as the thought of going 24 hours in a seat without being able to lie down was too much so I’m not being quite as authentic as I’m trying to make out and any comment I make about the journey has to be placed into context when you bear in mind how much worse it was for those traveling 3rd class.

My compartment was next to the room where the train technicians were in a deep discussion and shortly after departing Cape Town station I heard one shout to the other ‘Alex use the power booster. It’s fine one will do.’ Not words that fill you with optimism for the journey ahead!

Despite this I managed to doze off for a while only to be woken up at the next stop by Christie who was to be my travel companion for the remainder of the trip.

Numerous delays meant Christie and I spent 38 hours in each other’s company and I learned so much about his remarkable life. He has seen so much change in South Africa in his 72 years and it was fascinating to learn his insights on life through his diverse career as a train driver, stonemason, gardener and farmer.

His anger at what he believed to be the corruption of every president since Mandela was something I’ve encountered numerous times in the last month and his thunderous fury at all the delays due to people stealing signal cables was something to behold!

He insisted on calling me ‘meneer’ which means sir in Afrikaans despite his seniority and insistedI share all his crisps and bananas, just another example of the generosity I keep encountering in South Africa.

He told me how he had learnt Xhosa as a way to communicate with the train crews as whilst the drivers were almost always white in his days the crew all spoke Xhosa and although most spoke English the sight of a white man attempting to speak their language built a bond with the crew that was inimitable.

Christie had driven this route as a driver many times so was the perfect tour guide as we travelled. In many ways the train journey was a perfect microcosm of South Africa as you see the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife yet also see the squatter camps, terrible quality housing and disused mines with all the wasted barren land in between.

As the train continued to have issues from other trains breaking down to signal failures and brake issues I realised there was no point in asking when we would be arriving as ‘around 2 hours’ is very much just a figure of speech on this train!

Whilst having lunch I attempted some of my extremely limited Afrikaans on the waitress which soon had the entire carriage in hysterics! This ended up being one of the most enjoyable parts of my trip as I spent 3 hours chatting with the crew about their lives and their stories from the 10 years they have spent on this train and which nationalities they found the most friendly – I think they were just being polite when they all claimed to like Scots the most!

This picture is Anthony who assures me that the reason the train was delayed so much more in the second half of the trip was that the train drivers change and Cape Town drivers have a much more liberal interpretation of speed limits when there is time to make up than their Johannesburg counterparts!

Then finally, 8 hours late and 36 hours after departing we arrived in Johannesburg.

The train journey felt like being in a sauna with no working air con and few windows that worked and was the longest journey I have ever been on and yet for the experience and the people I met I really wouldn’t have had it any other way.

It’s easy to compare it to the trains service in the UK but I am traveling in Africa for a reason and all you can do is learn to have patience, embrace the adventure and relish the incredible people you need.

Onwards to the next adventure!