Luxury Train Africa Through A Advancement Of A Region
History from the vantage point of luxury train Africa is amazing. Every continent has it unique identity and Africa is no different. Its character is composed of topographical features but also of the people whose contributions have left concrete signs.
In Africa there were no wheels before the colonial era. This was a serious drawback for economic development because legs, though ingenious and very adaptable, are not as swift or smooth as wheels. Carrying everything on the backs of animals or the heads of porters meant that good could be transported across rough country, but laboriously.
In South Africa there are few rivers that are navigable for more than a few kilometers. A long mountainous spine runs up the eastern site of the country making the hinterland difficult to access from the wet eastern side. A barrier of deserts protected the heart of the country from the west. When gold was discovered in large quantities near the center early colonists began the enormous engineering challenge of building smooth platforms across rough country.
Because rail tracks must support massively heavy loads they have to be laid so firmly that they will stay flat and secure for hundreds of years. Cuttings, excavations and bridges must be constructed so that a smooth gradient is created even across mountain ranges. A thick gravel bed must be put in place and sleepers placed across it. Then heavy steel rails are laid on top of the sleepers so that a massive train, thundering across it will not disturb the rails by a millimeter.
In South Africa a route had to be constructed from the port of Durban to Johannesburg where mines had already been established hundreds of kilometers away. At first ox wagons transported engineering supplies across the Drakensberg mountains that rear jagged peaks thousands of feet above sea level. A railway line had to follow tortuous contours up the sides of mountain slopes, following gradients the were sufficiently easy for steam engines to traverse whilst hauling heavy loads.
Another route from Cape Town to Johannesburg had to traverse the arid plains of the Great Karroo which is like vast sea bed from which the water has been drained. Though there are are fewer mountains and fast flowing rivers the greater distances and aridity of the terrain make the task equally challenging. When it is considered that the people who built these routes had no mechanical diggers, tip lorries lorries or bull dozes with which to work the extent of their achievements is quite marvelous.
In addition to the main routes constructed for military and trade purposes there were many shorter lines constructed between small towns. In some cases they were private enterprises built to profit from the transportation of agricultural produce to markets. The steel rails lie on he ground still in many parts of the country partially overgrown by weeds and with the buildings that once served to accommodate staff and goods crumbling away. It seems that there is still a belief in their economic worth that prevents them from being abandoned altogether.
In Capital Park, Pretoria there is a railway museum the preserves many of the artifacts that were typical of luxury train Africa in its early days. From this museum tourists can still travel in carefully restored period carriages to enjoy something of the style and the adventure of colonial days. These are luxury trains with observation cars. From them one can observe what has become of the efforts of colonial builders and engineers.
You can find a detailed summary of the advantages of opting for luxury train Africa travel and download the latest Rovos brochures from our site, today.
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