The Train - Cape Town to Jo'Burg

On Sept 4, I took at Uber to the train station and boarded a train from Cape Town to Jo’Burg. The original trip was estimated at a 26 hour journey, leaving at 10am and arriving the following morning around 12:30pm. Around 10:30am I started panicking as there was no one else in my car and we were still parked with no obvious clue that we would be moving soon. So I started going car by car until I found a nice woman in another room that confirmed for me that we were on the right train and it was probably just late...also many more people get on at the Bellville location. Ok, that made me feel better, but it was still weird watching the minutes pass and the train just sitting there. Finally around 11am, we pulled out of the station, went down the track about half a mile and stopped again. Sometimes this train just stops. There are scheduled stops, about a dozen between CT and Jo’Burg, but sometimes it stops and I’m not sure why. Last night a train rep came to our cabin and told us the train was currently running 3 hours behind. Today, another train rep came to our cabin and told us we were running 5 hours behind. So...I’m going to be on this train for a minimum of 31 hours. The scenery is beautiful and if i had my own cabin, I’m pretty sure I’d be enjoying this. I’m still enjoying this, but having a roommate does put a damper on things.
My Roommate on the Train - I am rooming with a 57 year old African woman with weak english, and dying mother and lots of opinions on my eating habits (I ate breakfast at 8am and lunch at 1pm...why am i always eating???) I only understsand her half the time, so I am living in my headphones and being rude by ignoring her. I have offered to share my food, my candy and my scotch with her....so I’m not being totally rude, but I’d rather listen to my book or watch Supergirl than struggle with conversation that I can’t always understand and have her judge my massive appetitei (image, two meals in the same day!) I may be pulling the scotch out again before the trip is over. Technically, we should only have 3 hours left as of this writing, but I don’t know exactly how far behind we really are at this point.
The Train - Our cabin can fit four people but there are only two of us in here. The beds are actualy fairly comfortable, but I couldn’t find my pills last night so I didn’t sleep very well. In our car we have both a toilet at the end of the hall and another compartment with a hot shower. HOT shower. The train has a hot shower. I love it. There is a dining car with a limited but acceptable menu and prices aren’t too high. There is also alcohol, so if i don’t want to break out the scotch, I can always go get another Savannah Dry (I checked, its on the menu).

The train finally pulled into the station roughly 9 hours late.

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