Ride the Shongololo Express

• Email
• Tweet
• Print

Travel in style in Emerald Class

In South Africa we call a millipede a ‘shongololo’. This charming train of the same name may not have 1 000 legs, but it’s got plenty of wheels and the same determination to get to its destination.

The dining car

My friend Eric Moe, a veteran travel guru from Toronto, decided on the Shongololo Express for his first venture into Africa.

He was blown away. 'The coaches, although old (early 1950s) are comfortable, the friendly staff outstanding, and the whole experience was absolutely magical,’ he declared last week after his final tour from the train which took him and fellow passengers to Soweto.

Before that, he’d gone game spotting in Kruger National Park where a cheetah walked straight in front of his vehicle, marvelled at Mpumalanga’s awesome Blyde River Canyon, turned back the pages of history at the historic little town of Pilgrim’s Rest – centre of the 1880s Gold Rush and now a National Heritage site, and done lots, lots more.

'It’s superb value for money, great food, and I met fellow Canadians, Aussies, a couple of Americans, some Brits and Belgians’. Now Eric can’t wait to come back and ‘do’ more of South Africa.

Category: Routes & Trails