Unhurried by design: three days on Rovos Rail
For over 35 years, Rovos Rail has stood as a timeless symbol of heritage and refinement – a legacy of slow travel where the journey itself becomes the destination. Martin Jacobs boards to discover how luxury hums to the rhythm of the rails.
Over three nights and four languid days on a journey from Pretoria to Cape Town, I discover that luxury aboard Rovos Rail takes many forms. It’s in the atmosphere and attention to detail, in the storytelling and the stillness – a layered experience born of legacy, vision, and the Vos family’s unwavering devotion to the romance of the rails.
Day One: Luxury as escape
Coach 6417, Observation car open-air balcony – late afternoon
Pre-twilight syrupy sunshine sweeps the barren landscape, its warmth deepening the biscuit-tin tones of the vegetation. We’re somewhere between Warrenton and Kimberley; exact location unknown. As the sun drops, molten rays inch across the balcony at the back of the train, seeking those in its shaded corners. The view is vast and, save for a horse-drawn cart on a dust road, with passengers backlit by the sun, blanketed by silence.
Tray in hand, a waitress takes drinks orders from the handful of guests. “Make mine alcoholic,” the Australian beside me jokes, ordering a virgin cucumber mojito, and rejoining a conversation about Melbourne’s Mushroom Murderer. It’s a topic revisited throughout the journey, inevitable given that most of the guests are Australian. The stranger-than-fiction antics of the convicted cook have quickly made friends of these travellers. It’s from this macabre icebreaker that the conversation turns to the modern-day luxury of slow travel.
Four days spent in deliberate deceleration, in an age when technology promises to save time, yet only accelerates life. Rovos Rail offers an antidote; a digital-detox that trades screens for the chance to savour the here and now, and take pleasure in unhurried moments. Time slows, and becomes about simple indulgences, be that perusing the train’s library, napping, watching the landscape roll by over high tea, playing Scrabble, or turning strangers into friends while snacking on artisanal treats.
As one of only four South African guests, I’m a novelty for the Antipodeans, offering insights into their local travels. I recount my only previous cross-country train journey two decades earlier – overnight on the state-owned line. That Rovos Rail’s founder, Rohan Vos, stretches the same 1,600-kilometre trip over three days speaks to his belief that the journey itself is the experience.
For more than three decades, Vos has purchased both locomotives and coaches in disrepair – both from the state-owned rail network and from abroad – and painstakingly restored them. Since 1997, this labour-intensive work (it can take up to three months to refurbish a coach) has taken place at Capital Park, Pretoria, the company’s sprawling headquarters. It’s here that guests departing the city are given a pre-embarkation tour of the station and workshops, often by Vos himself. Passionate about locomotives and proud of the success story that is Rovos Rail, Vos enthuses about repairs, and points out the teams responsible for everything from painting the exteriors to handcrafting and upholstering furniture.
It is the anachronistic appeal of the train’s interiors, where every last detail from seats to screws has been perfectly considered, that transports guests from one world to another. Carriage after carriage decorated with mahogany-hued wood panelling, etched-glass sconces, curtain tie-backs and brass fixtures, and with sink-into leather sofas in the lounge car and stately chesterfield banquettes in the dining cars. For those in the know, there’s even the familiar springbok head (once the emblem of South Africa’s state rail) etched into the occasional window rescued from forlorn carriages. And so, as the train rolls on, I begin to see how Rovos Rail’s version of luxury lies not only in its nostalgic fittings, but in its refusal to rush.
Day Two: Luxury as service and ceremony
Coach 3325, Dining Car – evening
If the daylight hours aboard Rovos Rail are defined by leisure, the evenings belong to ritual. A hostess with a gong walks the length of the train, tapping a six-note tune that calls guests to dinner. Four-course dinners are dress-up affairs, with a dress code that turns the ordinary into a scene from Murder on the Orient Express. Cufflinks, sequins, suits, bowties and heels mark the nightly occasion, matched by the formality of staff uniforms. One of the most memorable coaches by way of design, the dining car is characterised by seven pairs of carved wooden pillars and arches that hint at Victoriana. Tables are laid for silver service. Dark green leather upholstery is edged by metal studs. These shine in the lamp light, as do the many knives and forks, cruet sets and silver butter dishes. Wooden ceiling fans languidly stir the air.
I strike up a conversation with thirty-something honeymooners across the aisle – he a tall and suited Englishman, she Irish, wearing a vintage satin dress, a modern take on the classic Romantic heroine. While marvelling over the array of the best of South Africa’s vineyards on offer, they recount how a day before embarking on this journey, they’d completed Rovos Rail’s four-night trip from Victoria Falls to Pretoria. History buffs, they found it a fascinating experience, and are looking forward to the visit to Kimberley’s Big Hole and Diamond Museum, one of two excursions (the other being a guided walk through Matjiesfontein) included in our journey.
A waitress, like her colleagues well-versed in impeccable service, seizes a conversational gap to outline the evening’s menu: beetroot carpaccio dotted with goat’s cheese and toasted pecan nuts, five-spice ostrich with honey, butternut purée and garden peas, Kwaito garden-herb cheese alongside a watermelon preserve, and a chocolate mud pie finale. More than one wine will be showcased by a sommelier over the evening. A marker of a truly luxurious travel experience, dietary preferences and beverage choices are noted upon embarkation, and remembered by staff.
I meet with chef Junior Motsoane the following morning to learn how Rovos Rail’s menus are conceived. I marvel at how – on a train in motion – knife skills could be so mastered as to result in paper-thin carpaccio. “It was a lot easier finding my feet working than it was sleeping, initially! That took me a couple of months to perfect,” he says, laughing. Motsoane tells me how Rovos Rail’s menus are unique to their journeys, meticulously planned to tell stories of traditional South African flavours. Across our journey, dishes include bobotie and lamb loin. Cheese courses pair locally-made cheeses with unusual relishes and preserves, and eye-candy desserts include homegrown favourites like milk tart, koeksisters and malva pudding. It strikes me that here, luxury isn’t about excess but precision, a choreography of care.
Day Three: Luxury as ease and intimacy
Coach 3520, Compartment Tsumeb – late night
By the third evening, that sense of considered indulgence has become second nature. So bonded are the majority of the guests that post-dinner drinks in the Observation car have become a nightly ritual. The Irish half of the honeymooners has ordered ‘baby Guinness’ shooters for all. Mimicking the appearance of a Guinness, the rich combination of Baileys Irish cream and coffee liquer is intensely sweet.
It’s close to midnight when I return to my compartment. Outside, the landscape is impenetrably black, the occasional distant light twinkling much like the stars, a treat in themselves. Away from city lights, they stretch from horizon to horizon, a glittering umbrella across the night sky, the Milky Way clearly visible. Inside, the sparkle sings of attention to detail. My coach’s dedicated hostess has completed her nightly turn-down service. The bedspread has been stowed, pillows plumped, duvet folded, and electric blanket switched to my preferred setting. Atop the bed, a bite-size nougat and assortment of Rovos Rail postcards. The mini-bar has been restocked with my preferred beverages, the kettle and teacups set out (along with an assortment of decadent biscuits) either for a midnight snack or to kickstart the next morning.
It’s in the details that luxury shows, and in the quiet assurance that everything – from the clink of a crystal glass to the fold of a duvet – has been considered in advance. In the stillness of my cabin, I realise that on Rovos Rail every gesture is designed to make time itself feel like the ultimate indulgence. For three days, I’ve lived inside an oldworld ideal of luxury, one that’s less about speed than surrender. On Rovos Rail, the greatest extravagance is time: unbroken, unhurried, and entirely one’s own.
Martin Jacobs was a guest of Rovos Rail.
Watch a video of the Pretoria to Cape Town journey here.
