The Perfect Trip – South Africa

By StanleySobari

#The mighty Amphitheatre at the heart of the Drakensberg is  also rich with dinosaur foosils and prehistoric cave art.

Beyond Cape Town and the Garden Route, discover the north and east of this land of soaring mountains, unspoiled coasts and rich wildlife

The Blue Train

By StanleySobari

BEST FOR RAILWAYS JOURNEYS Rose gardens, pigeons and the vinegar whiff of fish and chips: the ambience that lingers in the avenues just beyond Cape Town station would have seemed familiar to a past generation of British-born colonials, reacclimatising en route to motherland. The forecourt itself, though, is a tribute to modern South Africa, log-jammed with taxi drivers and snack merchants loudly appealing to a new breed of commuter.

This clamour fades beyond the blue rope that cordons off a private platform, home to a quarter-mile of gleaming azure metal. The Blue Train is a luxury sleeper service that began life in the 1920s, and its current incarnation is a happy marriage of vintage opulence and contemporary comfort. Double-size compartments eliminate the yogic contortions demanded aboard a more typical sleeper train, and are furnished with geometric brocade and dark marquetry in homage to this mode of transport’s Agatha Christie heyday. Best of all, there’s a yawning, gold-tinted picture window showing this magnificent country slide by.

Table Mountain is left behind swirled in its mist, slipshod suburbs give way to flamingo-dotted lakes and then it’s out into a rolling enormity of vineyards and orchards.

Amongst the waistcoat ted butlers in the lounge car is Frits van Helden, who at 56 has been swaying down the Blue Train’s thickly carpeted corridors for 39 years. ‘Everyone who worked on the railways wanted a job on this train,’ he says. ‘We were all hand picked.’ The trains have evolved since then – ‘we ran steam locos well into the ‘80s, and our best suite took up half a carriage’ – but the view is ageless. ‘It’s a thousand miles to Pretoria,’ says Frits, looking out at the Hex Valley’s snow-dappled crags,’ and I know every one of them like an old friend.’

Lunch, dispatched amid a festival of linen and crystal, is parsley-crusted rack of lamb with many toothsome courses either side of it. Between the dessert wine and the cheese board the train is swallowed by a long series of tunnels; the last opens into the Karoo, a coppered scrubland that covers a third of South Africa and most of the voyage.

The Blue Train pitches itself as ‘a window to the soul of Africa’, a maxim that isn’t confined to the scenery. If Dutch-born Frits is the oldest hand aboard, then Takunda Mposhi is the youngest – a 24-year-old in his third month of service. ‘Our country has seen great changes in my lifetime,’ He says performing the deft mechanical original that converts a compartment’s armchairs into a wonderfully plump bed. ‘On this train, people from every background and of every colour work together and play together. When we get back to Cape Town we will all go down to the beach.’

Suites are butler-serviced and include digital entertainment systems and marble-fitted en suite bathrooms with baths. The dining car specializes in native produce such as Karoo lamb and Knysna oysters (including all meals and drinks; bluetrain.co.za).

EIFEL TOWER

By StanleySobari

#If all the iron in the Eiffel Tower, seen here from the Palais de Chaillot, were melted down into the shape of its base. It would fill the square to only 6cm deep

THE WORLD IS FILLED WITH building and monuments named after monarchs, generals and businessmen, but it’s rare to find great landmarks that credit the architects or engineers who actually built them. The giant tower that greeted visitors to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889 was planned to be merely a temporary construction. Perhaps that’s why it was   excused from bearing the name of some national symbol or lofty ideal, and instead commemorates the genius of Gustave Eiffel.

To appreciate the impact of the Eiffel Tower on a Parisian of 1889, consider the timeline of the record-breaking structures that came before. The Great Pyramid at Giza set an early standard, at over 140 metres tall. Much later, a few medieval cathedrals managed to edge past it. By 1888, the tallest thing made by man was the 169-metre Washington Monument a  giant stone obelisk. Impressive, but still something that a time-travelling ancient Egyptian would have instinctively understood. So for 4,400 years the ceiling of architectural achievement had been raised only modestly when Gustave Eiffel opened an entirely new chapter, with a tower more than 300 meters high, and made not out of stone like all its predecessors, but wrought iron.

‘Gustave Eiffel knew how to master the most advanced technology of the time,’ says Stephane Dieu, who looks after the tower’s heritage. ‘For a start, the foundations of the tower’s four pillars had to built in damp soil close to the river. Above all, it was his faith and love of science that guided him – you can see that from the frieze around the first floor, which gives the names of 72 French scientists.’

The commercial success of a 300-metre observation tower was only possible of course thanks to the invention of the elevator. Four sets of diagonal lifts climb the tower’s splayed feet to the mid-levels, through a lattice of girders that join in crosses and starbursts. The second journey is a vertical one, up the centre of the structure. As the cabin glides ever higher, the four edges of the tower close in around it. Just before it seems like the iron is about to run out, the lift stops, and opens its doors.

Solving technical challenges was only part of Eiffel’s work. When construction had hardly begun, some 50 of the leading French artists and  writers of the day signed a joint letter to the press, condemning this ‘black and gigantic factory chimney’, which would crush the great monuments of Paris under its ‘barbaric mass’. Eiffel wrote a lengthy rebuttal: ‘Why should something that is admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?’ he asked. Two years later, the tower received nearly two million visitors during the exhibition.

And yet Eiffel’s supreme achievement was meant to be dismantled by 1909. It was only saved on his insistence that it could serve as a testing ground for scientific experiments and later as a radio transmitter.

Bridges and buildings by Eiffel survive from Hungary to Bolivia. He even designed the internal framework for the Statue of Liberty. But if it hadn’t been for Eiffel’s determination, the tower that bears his name might be remembered today only from a few yellowing postcards.

If you know your travel dates two or three months in advance, it’s worth booking a timed ticket to skip long ticket office queues (toureiffel.fr). you’ll need to print it out or show it on a smartphone screen.

DISCOVER ICELAND

By StanleySobari

#Regent Holidays, holidays with stories to tell, Iceland full circle fly-drive

DISCOVER Iceland’s stunning natural beauty on a two week fly-drive. Travel full-circle and encounter the incredible waterfalls and geysers of South ziceland before driving the spectacular east coast where narrow fjords caved by ice Age glaciers create calm natural harbours. Cross the Mordrudalsoraefi highland pass en route to the volcanic Lake Myvatn region and continue to Husavik-iceland’s whale watching capital. Speak to a Regent Iceland specialist about tailor-made Iceland holidays.

Northern lights | reykjavik city breaks | fly-drivers | group tours | tailor-made holidays : To speak to a Regent Holidays Iceland Specialist call 020 7666 1296 or visit : www.regentholidays.co.uk

KNOW YOUR TRANS-SIB!

By StanleySobari

#A train prepares to depart kazanksy vokzal-one of nine main railway stations in Moscow

RATHER confusingly, the Trans-Siberian ca nrefer to either a single route from Moscow to Vladivostok or to several different routes (including BAM) that cross Siberia. Ticket prices vary widely depending on passenger classes, routes and the type of train as a rule, expect to pay around £400 for a berth in a four-bunk cabin, travelling from Moscow to Vladivostok.

Trans Siberian

Eintirely within Russia, the classic Trans Siberian route runs from Moscow to Valdivostok o Russia’s Pacific Coast, passing through taiga forests  and the Urals. Stops include Yekaterinburg and the southern shores of Lake Baikal. It takes between five and 10 days nonstop, depending on the service. The most luxurious train on the route is the Golden Eagle-which for the first part of it s journey out of Moscow is sometimes steam-hauled (15 days, goldeneagleluxurytrains.com).

Trans Mongolian

the most popular route is the Trans-Mongolian, travelling from Moscow as fas as Lake Baikal, then forking south towards the Mongolian capital of Ulanbaatar. The train hits Beijing five and a half days after departing Moscow.

Trans Manchurian

The Trans-Manchurian can also be used to get between the Chines and Russian capitals. Trains leave the Trans-Sib east of Lake Baikal, taking a path to Beijing through little-visited parts of China it’s six and a half days from Moscow to Beijing on this route.

Booking a trip on the Bam

BAM is possibly the most off the beaten track of all Russian railways-hotels are few, English is barely spoken and train services can be scarce (often operating on alternate days) – all of which mean advance planning is essential. Real Russia is among the very few companies which can arrange bespoke tours in the BAM zone – including guides and hotels in the towns of Severobaikalsk, Tynda and Komsomolsk-na-Amure (realrussia.co.uk). It can also arrange tickets for the entire BAM journey and the other Trans-Sib routes.