🎬 Featured Story: The Ultimate Railway Rivalry
They call it the ultimate rivalry in luxury travel, but for me, it was just the Tuesday schedule.
I drive the Rovos Rail. She works the Blue Train. We are strictly verboten from fraternising with "the competition".
Our routes cross exactly once a week at a remote siding just outside De Aar in the Northern Cape. Because of the single-track system, one train always has to pull over and wait for the other to pass.
Three months ago, my train was the one waiting.
I was leaning out of the locomotive window, wiping grease from my hands, when the Blue Train glided past. Through the dining car window, I saw her. She was setting a table, perfectly poised in her crisp uniform. She looked up, our eyes met, and the world seemed to stop - just for a second - before her carriage vanished down the track.
The next week, it was her train waiting on the siding.
As I throttled past, I sounded the horn. Two short blasts. I looked down, and there she was, standing in the open doorway of the observation car. She smiled and offered a small, secret wave.
It became our ritual. A weekly three-second romance at 80 kilometres per hour.
But yesterday, a signal failure stopped us both. The Rovos Rail and the Blue Train were parked side-by-side in the middle of the Karoo. The sun was setting, casting a golden glow over the scrubland.
And then, I saw her step off her train and walk across the gravel towards my locomotive.
(To be continued...)
Which side are you on - the vintage charm of Rovos or the modern luxury of the Blue Train? Would you prefer they communicate strictly through these trackside encounters, or should they secretly meet up during their turnaround days in Cape Town?
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