VICTORIA FALLS ITINERARY - ROVOS RAIL
Pretoria - Pietersburg - Victoria Falls
Combine the luxury of train travel with the excitement of a
flight in a vintage airliner. The adventure begins as the train pulls away from
the gracious station at Capital Park, Pretoria, a historic rail yard that is now
home to this exclusive private railway. It pauses at Witbank, a rich coal-mining
area where Rovos Rail was founded in 1986. At this town the intrepid young
Winston Churchill leapt aboard a freight train to escape from his Anglo-Boer War
captors.
The pride of Africa retraces his route towards Mozambique, reaching its highest
point at Belfast (1970m or 6463 feet), before descending the breathtaking
Drakensberg Escarpment. The descent between the quaint towns of Waterval Boven
and Waterval Onder is one of the most challenging rail tracks in the world as
the train winds through many switchbacks and tunnels. Journey on in comfort and
style through the lush, sub-tropical Mpumalanga bushveld, through country that
inspired Henry Rider Haggard's yarns of African adventure, to Nelspruit and the
Crocodile River Valley. Follow the edge of the world-famous Kruger National Park
towards Hazyview and Hoedspruit, the heart of South Africa's celebrated
game-viewing paradise.
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