Train travel - the ultimate way to see the country but don't count on its being on time

I have one of those fancy alarm clocks that has 27 different sounds to help you sleep or wake up or relieve stress or whatever. But my favorite when the insomnia beast is hanging with me is to put the sound on train and listen to the even clack clack clack of the tracks. The sound soothes me and i let my imagination play the game of where am I going and where will I wake up in the morning?

As I write this my body sways to the rhythm of this train which is taking me from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Although traveling single, the train is far from full and they have given me a full size cabin which would normally sleep 4. My bunk is made up with fresh sheets and extra pillows and the landscape of Africa passes by my window.

And we are 8 hours behind schedule. Yes eight hours sitting on the tracks in a dingy train yard not moving. No explanation and minimal apologies. This is life here although my table mates who are all Afrikaners (native South Africans of Dutch descent who speak a Dutch/German based language) say this is the worst they have seen.

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8:45 PM The latest update has us 12 hours behind schedule arriving into Cape Town around 1 in the morning. However, they have agreed to allow us all to stay in our cabins another night and disembark tomorrow morning.

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1:00 AM and we're in the Cape Town train station off on some side track. The train also carries cars and it was decided they didn't want to try to do that in the dark. I'm still not sure when I'll actually get off of her but it matters not. I'd do this trip again for sure.

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