Eritrean Railway

By Stanley Sobari

#The Eritrean Railway was partially destroyed during conflict in the 1970s, but was restored to working order a decade ago | Route: Massawa to Asmara,Eriterea |Miles: 77 | Notable passengers: Italian troops sent by Mussolini ti invade Ethopia | Dining car: not on board, but the sure to try an injera (spongy flatbread) at one of the stops |Sit on: the left-hand side for the best mountain views

CONSIDERED by many to be the Holy Grail of rail travel, the little-visited Eritrean Railway is one of th last working lines still using steam engines. Barely changed since it was first bolted together by Italian colonists a century ago, it’s a spectacle to behold: with noble tank engines puffing and wheezing over 77 miles from the wharfs of the Red Sea to the capital city of Asmara. En route, they pass through epic Old Testament landscapes: mud-brick village pastures where shepherds drive their flocks, and mountains which echo sublimely to the hoot of passing trains. It’s not always a journey for the faint-hearted-gradients are steep and there’s more than one stretch where the train wobbles from side to  side as a near-vertical drop looms inches away. Trains terminate at Asmara: one of Africa’s loveliest cities, it shows the legacy of Italian rule in the for of pizza parlours, coffee shops and Art Deco architecture.

Ffestiniog Travel offers five days on the Eritrean Railway as part of its 13-day ‘Eritrean and Cairo’ itinerary (ffestiniogravel.com). As well as trips aboard a chartered steam-hauled train, visitors get to ride on a vintage Fiat Littorina railcar-a curious contraption that looks like a bus mounted on rails.

Map of Atacama

Activity Map of Atacama

By Stanley Sobari

#Alma Observatory

#Calama

#El Tatio geysers

#Guatin Gorge

#Juriques

#Lascar

#Licancabur

# Pukara de Quitor

#Quimal

#Rio Grande

#Salar de Tara

#San Pedro de Atacama

#Talabre

#Termas de Puritama

#Valle de la Luna

#Valle de la Muerte

#Alto Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa

#Hostal Sonchek

#Tierra Atacama

Stargazing

By Stanley Sobari

#gazing at the heavens at Ahlarkapin observatory

THE KNOW-HOW Sightseeing in Atacama doesn’t stop when the sun sets. High altitude, clear skies and minimal light pollution provide the perfect conditions for astronomy. ALMA-the world’s largest ladn-based observatory-is sited just 40 minutes southeast of San Pedro but until its visitor centre opens as planned later this year, it remains strictly for scientists. In San Pedro, guests staying at Hotel de Larache (explora.com) can make use of an observatory dome with a Meade 16-inch telescope to observe globular clusters and nebulae. Guests at Tierra Atacama can go on outings touching on Andean cosmology at the nearby Ahlarkapin Observatory (included in hotel rates; tierraatacama.com), while French astronome Alain Maury offers beginner-friendly Star Tours just outside town (spaceobs.com).

3 of the Best Tour Companies

By Stanley Sobari

RESPONSIBLE travel specialist Rainbow Tours offers a wide range of tailor-made trips and expert-led-group tours to Chile and the Atacama, with an emphasis on culture and conservation. A seven-night tour includes five nights in the altacama , staying in the upscale desert lodges of Tierra Atacama (tierraatacama.com) or Alto altacama (altoaltacama.com), with all meals, drinks and excursions. Also included are two nights in Santiago, return flights with LAN from London to Calama (for San Pedro de Atacama) via Santiago, and transfers (rainbowtours.co.uk). Adds-on to neighbouring countries  and spots such as Bolivia’s Lake aiticaca and the Salar de Yuni are also available. Desert Adventure, based in San Pedro, offers tours to the likes of Salar de Atacama and El Tatio two-night tour (desertadventure.cl). Ecotours Chile offers a variety of trekking and hiking tours throughout the Atacama (three-day tour; ecotours.cl).

Following the merger of LAN and Tam airlines, LATAM Airlines Group has launched a South American Airpass with savings of up to 60 percent for flights throughout the continent. Visit lan.com or tam.com.br

Route of the Taurus Express

By Stanley Sobari

#The Varda viaduct near Adana – the Taurus Express originally ran onward to Syria and Iraq, but this service is currently suspended

BELIEVE it or not, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express doesn’t  begin on the eponymous luxury service – it starts on the lesser-known Taurus Express, the train that carried a snoozing Hercule Poirot across Anatolia to Istanbul. Part of his route is still probably today: board a southbound train at the town of Konya (famed for its whirling dervishes) before the line sweeps through the canyons and snow-capped peaks of the Taurus range. The view from the window is as wondrous as it was to the perceptive eyes of the Belgian sleuth: tilled fields interspersed with the minarets of Ottoman mosques, and mountain villages with tidy yellow station houses. The grand finale is the century-old Varda viaduct (James Bond fell off the bridge in the opening scene of the movie Skyfall), before the train grinds to a halt just short of the Mediterranean at Adana.

The journey from Konya to Adana takes up to 6½ hours (first class seats ; tcdd.gov.tr). In 2015, a newly opened high-speed line should connect Konya to Istanbul as part of Turkey’s rail modernization plan – check the Man in Seat 61 website for updates (seat61.com).