Once again, I am posting about a trip that occurred in the past. This summer we knocked the last two trains off John's bucket list--Rovos Rail and the Blue Train, both in Africa. What follows is my journal and some of my photos. Don't forget that if you want to see a larger version of any photo, just click on it.

October 12-13. We are in Africa! We flew into Johannesburg from Atlanta, spent a night at a hotel at the airport, and then flew to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, where we will board Rovos Rail's Pride of Africa train for a two-week trip to Cape Town, South Africa. Considering the distances traveled, our flights weren't terrible and we are surprisingly somewhat rested as we begin this journey. 

We haven't seen much of Africa at all so far, mostly just the drive from the airport here in Dar to our hotel, the Serena. We enjoyed seeing people out on the streets, especially the brightly colored long cotton dresses many of the local women wear. I wish I had one! They are so pretty and right for the climate. The white women we have seen mostly seem to be wearing safari colors, beige for the most part. We were told light colors don't attract mosquitoes as much as darks and brights and especially blue. Maybe the local people have some sort of immunity, or maybe it's a conspiracy to make us look even more pale and drab than we do already.   

October 13, 2014, Monday. We are on the train, which is very nice as trains go, but significantly less storage space than other trains we have ridden, and so far, kind of jinxed. The chef showed up soon after we boarded and assured us he could make vegan meals for us, which he has done very nicely so far. He mentioned plant-based protein, and he even seems to have a grasp of that, mentioning beans, tofu, and lentils, so I'm pretty pumped. Lunch was lovely, and then we spent the afternoon rolling along, even seeing some African animals!  Dinner is served at 7:30, but at 7 the lights went out for the first time.. They cook with gas, so dinner proceeded as scheduled along with the romance of candlelight. Lights came on, cheers, ten minutes of both lights and AC, oops, lights off, time passed, lights on. We left the lighted dining room to find the rest of the train still dark and hot. To bed with torchlight, lights on at 10:30, and finally we are underway again. Most of us are resigned but not terribly impressed. I hope this will turn out to be  an anomaly and not a portent of things to come. It may have been a bad sign when prior to boarding, the train manager reminded us the train is an antique and promised us "adventures" on our travels. John is grumpy, and I wonder if he likes trains better in theory but not so much the reality of riding the rails. My expectations are low, so I am not disillusioned when things go wrong.