Rhythm and blue

MUCH earlier I make my way to Cape Town's central railway station in peak-hour traffic. The taxi driver deposits me at the kerb, away from the commuting throng, and with suitcase in tow I follow a carpet – blue, of course – to the Blue Train's waiting lounge.

It is just before 7.30am and the train isn't due to leave for about 90 minutes but already a team of immaculately groomed staff has assembled to greet passengers. I suddenly worry whether I'm dressed appropriately. In the past week, I have travelled along South Africa's scenic Garden Route where I watched whales, avoided baboons and traipsed through an elephant sanctuary. My boots could do with a polish.

Too late. I check in, sit down and accept a welcome cup of coffee and canapes. Champagne is also available but I know where to draw the line. For now, anyway.

Other guests start to arrive – a Scots couple with their young-adult daughters, an English couple, several Germans, some North Americans and South Africans. The average age is probably mid-50s. Their motivations vary: some love train travel; those with time want to experience the country from a different perspective; others just want to be indulged. I tick all three boxes.

This Blue Train – there are actually two train sets in service – can sleep up to 74 passengers but there are only 19 booked on our mid-week journey. There are 27 staff on board, so none of us will be waiting long for anything.

The porters again line up, this time wearing white gloves, to take us to our suites. Israel shows me to mine, a deluxe compartment with ensuite shower. It's spacious in a neatly compact way with comfortable armchairs, which later disappear under the twin beds, concealed behind inlaid timber panelling. There is a small fold-away table, a phone and a television tucked above a wardrobe.

The amber-coloured panelling, used throughout the train, is produced locally, as are the soft furnishings. The lighting is discreet, the bedding is comfortable and the ensuite is finished with marble and gold fittings – this is luxury with a capital L. We haven't begun the 1600-kilometre haul to Pretoria and already I'm worried that 27 hours on board won't be enough.

At precisely 8.50am, on schedule, the Blue Train gently slides away from the platform and the commuter trains filling with Capetonians.

Beyond the station, the morning mist partially shrouds Table Mountain and Lion's Head, providing a stunning backdrop as we leave this beautiful city. We pick up a little speed, passing shipping containers stacked high in the sidings, industrial sites and working-class suburbs where laden clothes lines dominate rows of backyards abutting the rail easement.

Cape Town's north-east suburbs give way to a patchwork of vineyards, apple and peach orchards and market gardens as we pass one of the country's oldest European settlements, Paarl.

A couple of hours later we approach the Klein Karoo (Little Desert) and the landscape becomes harsher. It is now that I begin to understand the Blue Train's motto: "A window to the soul of South Africa."

One aspect of the country's history is reflected in the train's luxurious interior, which hails from an era when such wealth was accessible only to the white ruling class. But the real soul of the nation is revealed in the rich diversity of the landscape, from comfortable estates to shanty towns with unmade roads and roofs of corrugated iron held in place by rocks.

The train never exceeds 90km/h and every four hours or so it comes to a standstill at a nondescript station to take on a new driver. The ride is smooth and quiet – even the noise as we head through a tunnel barely penetrates the soundproof carriages.

In the early afternoon we pull into the Victorian-era town of Matjiesfontein for a 45-minute stop. I have read a little about the place that served as a hospital base and remount camp for thousands of troops during the Boer War but I'm not quite prepared for this quaint break in the journey.

I head along the platform to the exit, where a man dressed in a black waistcoat, bow tie and bowler hat and holding a bugle flashes me a grin and roars, "Show time!" This is Johnny and it's his job to shepherd us to an old double-decker London bus for a 10-minute tour of the town.

And 10 minutes is all it takes.

We drive a couple of hundred metres along Matjiesfontein's main street, turn around and head back the way we came. We slow to a near-halt as Johnny points out the local landmarks, including the Lord Milner Hotel, the Laird's Arms pub, the post office, a vintage-car museum and, we're told with a flourish, the first house in South Africa to have a flushing toilet.

It seems to be a town of firsts. As we lurch through an overgrown paddock, we learn this is where, in 1890, the English, including celebrated bowler George Lohmann, thrashed the locals in South Africa's first international game of cricket.

"We just drove over the pitch," Johnny says.

Matjiesfontein and, possibly, some of its 300 inhabitants are caught in a late-19th-century time warp. In 1884, a young Scot, James Logan, passed through on his way to Australia. Seeing the area's potential as a stop for weary travellers heading to the interior, he bought land beside the rail line and the nearby Baviaans River.

Logan died almost 90 years ago but in a nod to the town's heritage and its contribution to the war effort, the Union Jack is hoisted every day on the hotel's turret and on a hill close to the airstrip.

In the front bar of the Laird's Arms we sip sherry beneath mounted animal heads and stained sepia photographs of the area's long-dead war and sporting heroes. I have to remind myself this is a slightly eccentric tourist town in South Africa trying to preserve its colonial history, not a Hollywood film set.

Enough. I head back to the train a little early – if ever there was a train to miss, this is not the one. Moving from one period ritual to another, I sit down to high tea with silver service and petits fours in the lounge car and follow this with an afternoon nap.

I am the only solo passenger on board and shortly before dinner Mosa, the food services manager, appears at my door with a proposal. The train manager, Vincent, and boutique manager, Anita, would like to join me for dinner.

The evening turns out to be a highlight of the trip. The three of us – from vastly different backgrounds – talk easily, sharing travel stories.

Inevitably the conversation turns to apartheid and how the country is finding its way in the 15 years since white rule was replaced by a democratically elected government.

Vincent is one of millions of South Africans denied the same opportunities as the white population. Over dinner, without bitterness, he describes some of his experiences growing up under apartheid. Instead of setting him back, it has fanned his gentle determination.

He strikes me as a metaphor for this fast-evolving nation.

I had hesitated a little at the cost of a night on the Blue Train. But the ambience of a meal in its elegant dining car, a drink in the lounge with other travellers, the silver service and a window on the soul of a nation doesn't disappoint.

FAST FACTS

Etihad has a fare for about $1715 flying non-stop to Abu Dhabi and then via Johannesburg to Cape Town. South African Airways has a fare for about $1968 flying non-stop from Perth to Johannesburg where you change aircraft and then fly non-stop to Cape Town (that fare includes a Qantas flight from Sydney and Melbourne). Fares are low-season return from Melbourne and Sydney, including tax.

The Blue Train departs three times a week from Pretoria and three times a week from Cape Town. The southbound trip includes a stop at Kimberley and excursion to the diamond mine; the northbound trip stops at the historic town of Matjiesfontein. Charters are also available to Hoedspruit and Durban. It costs from $1466 a person for a deluxe double, including all meals, drinks (except champagne) and excursions. See www.bluetrain.co.za.