Baboons thread their way beneath the carriages of a train crossing a bridge. A hippo wades in the river below, as a lone leopard prowls, sniffing for an antelope to eat. This luxurious train transports passengers through South Africa’s most famous game reserve, the Kruger National Park, yet it never moves.
The train, which has been converted into a boutique hotel, serves as a gilded viewpoint from which guests may stare out over the animal world from the golden sunrise till the Milky Way sweeps across the twilight sky. A tiny platform erected to the bridge houses a small circular pool where humans meet at 4:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) for high tea in the late summer wind.
The chirping of birds is silenced by a loud groan. ‘ It’s a hippo,’ a waiter promises visitors as they lean over the balcony, hoping to view it in the muddy Sabie River below. ‘ Adorable,’ says Karen Lane, 56, who traveled from Johannesburg to commemorate her husband Rich’s 30th wedding anniversary. ‘ It’s really an experience,’ says Chichi Mudau, a 36-year-old sales worker wearing a Gucci bucket hat and a neat manicure.
‘The location and service are both exceptional. It’s like a fantasy come true. Everything about it appeals to me’, he added. Moments later, the party will go in open safari trucks to get up and personal with giraffes, elephants, and zebras in their natural environment, munching grass, playing in water, and occasionally breaking into fights. For decades, the bridge that spanned this enchanted environment sat empty. In 2016, the hotel won a tender to renovate it into upscale lodging, complete with a train that never moves but always provides bird’s-eye views.
This railway line was the sole access to Kruger in the 1920s. However, the final locomotive passed through in 1979, and the line was abandoned. ‘To discover the carriages, we traveled to a railroad graveyard,’ said Gavin Ferreira, 39, executive manager of operations. ‘They were in fairly bad shape. Some had been pillaged’, he stated. The carriages, which have been converted into hotel rooms, provide a step back in time,’ he says.
Walking through the vehicles, they’re numbered from 1 to 25, although the number 13 is bypassed due to an ancient hotel superstition. Each carriage features only one chamber, with a huge bed draped in new linens and overstuffed cushions. Sunlight pours in through the windows above the tub and sink, allowing you to gaze out over the river while brushing your teeth. A silk bathrobe is waiting for you nearby. The modest balcony beckons, but don’t forget to shut the door behind you. ‘Monkeys here may get extremely violent,’ the butler cautions, and they can swoop in.
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