Wednesday 4th October 2017
Arrival in Pretoria.
Not a bad night’s sleep although as we have come to expect the track was rather rough over some sections. Nevertheless, we are awake shortly after 6.00 to see blue skies again. The landscape greeting us is far flatter but more fertile and with fairly large herds of cattle in the trackside paddocks.
We are also fortunate to come across reasonable numbers of ostriches grazing in the fields.
After the usual very tasty breakfast we sit about in the various lounges just chatting about the previous couple of days and there seemed to be a general consensus that Rovos had certainly lived up to expectations.
We had thoroughly enjoyed the company of Peter and Suzanne Gallagher from Mandurah and we had agreed to try and catch up with them on return to Australia. Others with whom we had some enjoyable chats were Ashley and Barbara Schilling from South Australia and Andrew and Helen Pang from Victoria. The extensive travels of the last couple made us look like a couple of old stay-at-homes!
Finally as we approached Pretoria we were given one final treat as we watched a Rovos steam train link up with us and pull into the Rovos private station. Here we were able to see the work still going on to refurbish more trains to join the ever growing Rovos fleet.
Rohan Vos was on hand to greet all passengers as we stepped off the train and one can only admire what this man has achieved since 1989.
We say our fond farewells to fellow passengers and meet a very grumpy driver who drives us to O Tambo Airport Johannesburg and our hotel, the Peermont D’Oreale Grande for one night only.
Back to reality with a shared pizza in a nearby food hall and then it’s time to reduce our bags to a maximum of 20 kgs for the light aircraft flight to the Okavango Delta. We both think it’s all a bit unfair as Gail and I combined weigh not much more than some of the ‘ well-covered ‘ people flying.
Cheers
The Obese Ferret
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