THE GREAT ESCAPE
Your Great Adventure
- Includes
- Itinerary
- Tour Highlights
- Gallery
- Price & Dates
- Hotels
What's included
19 January 2024 - 21 September 2025
- Accommodation
- All meals and beverages
- Room service
- Limited laundry
- Guided excursions (where applicable)
- Government tax
- Off-train beverages
- International sparkling wine
- Gratuities
- Personal expenses
- Visa
- Travel insurance
- Pre and post tour accommodation
- Flights and transfers
- DAY 1
- DAY 2
- DAY 3
PRETORIA
10:00 am Depart Rovos Rail Station, Pretoria. Travel southeast across the Highveld and the goldfields of the Witwatersrand towards Heidelberg, site of the first Rand gold strike, and Balfour, a small mining town in Mpumalanga. Guests may freshen up in their suites before joining fellow travellers in the lounge car and observation car.
13:00 pm Lunch is served in the dining cars. The Drakensberg Mountains were first named by the Voortrekkers who thought the unbroken chain of heavily weathered peaks reminded them of the spines on a dragon’s back, hence the name ‘Dragon Mountain’ or Drakensberg in Afrikaans.
16:30 pm Tea in the lounge and observation cars. The train climbs to Majuba Hill – site of the decisive battle that ended the First Anglo Boer War – then passes Newcastle, which has what is reputed to be the largest cella-dome Hindu temple in the southern hemisphere.
19:30 pm Dinner is served in the dining cars en route to Elandslaagte. Dress: Formal
Pass Glencoe, site of the first battle of the Anglo Boer War and now the centre of the province’s coalfields.
NAMBITI & SPIONKOP
5:45 am Breakfast is served in the dining cars until departure.
Enjoy a game drive in the Nambiti Reserve, a private Big Five bush retreat set on 20 000 acres of malariafree bushveld with incredible biodiversity including savannah, grasslands, thornveld and tall acacia trees.
11:00 am Brunch is served in the dining cars.
Transfer (±30 min) to Spionkop Lodge for the afternoon. A choice of two excursions is available:
1. Hear the historic tale of the Battle of Spionkop OR 2. Enjoy a game drive in the 11 000-acre reserve.
19:30 am Dinner is served in the dining cars en route to Estcourt. Dress: Formal
Shortly after Chieveley, on the right of the track, stands a memorial to Winston Churchill who was captured here in November 1899 while trying to free an armoured train trapped by a Boer ambush.
ARDMORE CERAMICS
7:00 am Breakfast is served in the dining cars until 10:00. The train descends the escarpment to Lions River.
Visit the famous Ardmore Ceramics Gallery. Here, artists are encouraged to express their imagination based on nature and Zulu folklore and tradition.
13:00 pm Lunch is served in the dining cars. The train traverses the spectacular Valley of a Thousand Hills.
16:00 pm Arrive at journey’s end at Durban Station. A number of museums and cultural sights, the beautiful botanical gardens and the superb shark-protected beaches are but a few of the city’s many charms.
This safari between Pretoria and Durban departs during the summer months and includes game drives, a battlefield tale with a world-class historian and a look at unusual African ceramics. Experience the Nambiti Conservancy – a Big Five private retreat set on 20 000 acres of malaria-free bushveld in KwaZulu-Natal. It has an incredible biodiversity including savannah, grasslands, thornveld and tall acacia trees. Situated on an expansive game farm, Spionkop Lodge – which adjoins an 11 000-acre nature reserve – is the perfect base for exploring the mountains, bush, birds and battlefields of the region. Ardmore Ceramics is a story about the Zulu people whose sense of rhythm, colour, dance and song, as well as the spirit of the African imagination, is exerting its influence on the other continents of the world. Visit this charming centre in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands before travelling the Valley of a Thousand Hills to Durban
Highlighted places:
~Nambiti Reserve
~Spionkop Lodge
~Ardmore Ceramics Gallery
~Valley of a Thousand Hills
Dates for all suites | Pullman Suite | Deluxe Suite | Royal Suite | Single Supplement |
---|---|---|---|---|
19 Jan - 21 Jan 2024 | RM 8,190 | RM 12,210 | RM 16,540 | +50% all suites |
9 Feb - 11 Feb 2024 | RM 8,190 | RM 12,210 | RM 16,540 | +50% all suites |
22 Mar - 24 Mar 2024 | RM 8,190 | RM 12,210 | RM 16,540 | +50% all suites |
12 Apr - 14 Apr 2024 | RM 8,190 | RM 12,210 | RM 16,540 | +50% all suites |
6 Sep - 8 Sep 2024 | RM 8,190 | RM 12,210 | RM 16,540 | +50% all suites |
4 Oct - 6 Oct 2024 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
15 Nov - 17 Nov 2024 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
24 Jan - 26 Jan 2025 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
14 Feb - 16 Feb 2025 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
7 Mar - 9 Mar 2025 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
11 Mar - 13 Mar 2025 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
15 Aug - 17 Aug 2025 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |
19 Sep - 21 Sep 2025 | RM 8,925 | RM 13,260 | RM 17,850 | +50% all suites |