Bokissa Private Island Resort: IDYLLIC LIFE OF AN ACCIDENTAL ISLANDER

David Ellis

PSSST!  Wanna buy a South Pacific island?

One that's just three hours or so from Brisbane, with a little resort tucked into a thumbnail of its 72ha (180 acres) – and rated by TV's Getaway travel program "one of the 50 best hotels in the world?"

Your island in the sun on which to build your own secret place for family or maybe investment-mates in its rainforests or along its beaches, and far enough away from that little resort – that takes up just 5% of the island – that you could be on another planet?

And if you want, have the existing owners stay-on and manage that resort for you, or run it yourself in your retirement… (and when the grandkids visit and you don't want them to miss school, you'll find you've got your own Kindy to Grade 7 school that's attended by a dozen children of staff who come across daily from a neighbouring island.)

This rare little gem is called Bokissa Private Island Resort, just off Santo in the north of Vanuatu, and made famous by James A. Michener who penned his famous Tales of the South Pacific about its beauties and mysteries after serving there during the Pacific War.

Retired Brisbane businessman, Dave Cort went there for a diving holiday with a mate in 1993, and jokes now about "becoming an accidental South Pacific island resort owner."

"We went to Bokissa for the-then daily shark feeding dive," Dave says. "It was pretty run-down and I didn't think a lot about it, but the next year I went back with our son Alan, who was then 26, and we stayed there.

"It was even more run-down, but it's natural beauty got to me, and we went back a few more times… each time finding it more run-down than before, and  in 1998 learned it was for sale – in fact almost sold – by a Melbourne group who owned the lease.

"Out of the blue I made a bid – and with absolutely no knowledge of the hotel industry, suddenly found myself an accidental South Pacific island owner."

Dave and wife Jan, with Alan, moved up to Bokissa soon after, and got into the mammoth task of renovating the run-down resort, landscaping its gardens and putting-in the infrastructure that would make it liveable for themselves – and more desirable for guests.

Today Bokissa Private Island Resort has fifteen private bungalows – called  farés – amongst the trees on a beach of talcum-white sands melding into aqua waters. Vast coral beds swarm with myriad fish and marine life, there are boats for reef and sport fishing (marlin, sailfish, mahi mahi, wahoo, dog tooth and coral trout,) and fly-fishing as well.

For divers, neighbouring Santo has some of the world's best wreck-diving from the Pacific War, including the sunken passenger liner-cum-troopship, President Coolidge recognised as the world's largest accessible wreck dive, and Million Dollar Point where the Americans bulldozed millions of dollars worth of wartime vehicles, weapons of all kinds, machinery and supplies into the sea at war's end…

On Bokissa itself there's a 25m pool with swim-up bar (currently under renovation,) landscaped gardens, bushwalks through the rainforest and along the beaches, wartime relics, snorkelling, kayaks and sailboats, volley-ball, soccer field, giant outdoor board games... and a library for something to read in the hammocks between the trees.

For seafood-lovers locally-caught lobster features at least twice weekly together with fresh-caught reef fish, for carnivores the famed Santo beef that's exported to Japan, island pork, freshest locally-grown vegetables… and to finish, a now-legendary homemade fruit salad, crepes, caramelised bananas, coconut cream pie…

Dave and Jan are long-retired – again – but still living on the island, with the resort managed by Alan who married a local staff member, Elizabeth in the island's own church (that's been used by numerous guests for also getting married;) Alan and Elizabeth have four children who attend their island school.

Staff are from nearby Tutuba Island whose people are the traditional landowners from whom Bokissa is leased, and come across daily to work at the resort, leaving the island at night purely to the Cort's and their guests (primarily honeymooners and winding-down couples.)

If owning all or part of this sounds like your idea of heaven in the Pacific, drop Dave a note on dave@vanuatu.vu.

…………………



PHOTO CAPTIONS:


[] ISLAND in the sun: Bokissa Private Island's Resort occupies a thumbnail of the 72ha island and can hardly be seen.

[] DAVE Cort takes his daily walk – beats dodging city traffic.

[] COOL retreat at day's end… the pool by night.

[] ROOM with a view: room in one of the inter-connecting double bungalows.

[] MILLION dollar views, and a hop, step and a jump into the water.

[] DIVING is spectacular over vast beds of corals alive with marine populations.

(Photos: Bokissa Private Island Resort.)

America's Bizarre Cold War Secret Hideout

David Ellis

GUESTS staying at America's oldest and most luxurious resort during the Cold War era from the 1960s to '90s, had no idea they were cavorting above a bizarre subterranean world that could have come straight out of James Bond, the fertile mind of Graham Greene, Hollywood's Dr Strangelove or maybe even TV's M*A*S*H.

Because below them was a cavern whose concrete walls were 1.5m thick, with chambers big enough to secrete the entire US Congress and House of Representatives and senior staff – and the ancilliary services they would need to govern the country in the event of an A-bomb attack on America.

The Greenbrier Resort at Sulphur Springs in West Virginia, 400km south-west of Washington DC, opened as an inn in 1778 for those wanting to "take the waters" from its mineral-rich pools and springs.

Over the years it's grown into a vast 5-star palace with banks of restaurants, cafés, bars and lounges, casinos, live-show theatres, and limitless sporting opportunities sprawling over 2600ha (6500 acres.)

But it was in the 1960s that it entered its clandestine role, one conceived by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as "the secret White House," nestled inconspicuously in the sleepy backwoods of the Allegheny Mountains.

Few were briefed on what was to happen, and those who were were sworn to State Secrecy, as unsuspecting workers burrowed into the hillside next to the Resort, supposedly creating a new Greenbriers "West Virginia Wing."

Everything and everyone had a code-name – from President Eisenhower whom the Secret Service dubbed "Providence" – to the so-called "management company" that would maintain this subterranean national secret, and whose bland cover-name for 30-years was Forsythe Associates.

The actual project itself was code-named Project Greek Island, but was usually just called The Bunker.

For weeks concrete trucks arrived around the clock, pouring 1.5m thick floors, walls and ceilings. Then a steel blast-door a half-metre thick and weighing 25-tonnes was brought in on a reinforced railcar from Ohio to safely seal the whole complex in the event of an A-bomb attack on Washington DC's White House.

Like Topsy, Project Greek Island just "growed and growed" to the size of two football fields stacked on top of each other, with every major emergency need being quietly installed, and for thirty amazing years from 1962 constantly maintained for instant use.

And to protect its cover as just a part of the Greenbrier Resort, the two meeting rooms for the Senate and House of Representatives – the Mountaineer Room and Governor's Hall, together with a 5000sq metre area where their staffs would work and dubbed The Exhibit Hall – were actually hired-out through the resort for corporate meetings, exhibitions and parties.

Their participants had no idea they were actually gathering in one of America's most top-secret locations...

Nor that carefully concealed around them were military-style dormitories that could sleep over 1100 Senators, Representatives, senior officials and technical support teams, a mini-hospital, pharmacy, cafeterias, storerooms of freeze-dried foods with 10-year use-by dates, a power-station, 64,000-litres of diesel fuel, water and air purification plants, radio and TV broadcasting studios – the latter with a back-drop wall showing The White House dome – and fitness rooms with exercise bikes, weights and rowing machines.

Its own telephone exchange linked The Bunker with the outside world, and a fire-proof Congressional Records Room could store papers in the event of Congress and the House having to meet, there was a small amoury… even a Chaplain's Room for those fearing that the end was nigh.

And an A-bomb Decontamination Room… chillingly down the corridor from which was the "Pathological Waste Incinerator" – a crematorium for those who may have fatally succumbed to radiation.

Latest-edition news and lifestyle magazines were changed weekly in lounges for 30-years by the "staff" of Forsythe Associates – in truth members of the US Army Signal Corps, who as part of their cover blended into the Greenbrier Resort above in "Forsythe Associates" uniforms servicing guest's TV sets.

Then The Washington Post newspaper in May 1992 ran a bombshell story exposing Project Greek Island and its clandestine operations; it was decommissioned soon after and in 1995 opened by the Greenbrier for public tours with everything apart from the most security-sensitive items still in place, just as during its bizarre thirty secret years.

A near-half-million tourists have toured it to date.

…………………..



PHOTO CAPTIONS:


[] GREENBRIER Resort – America's oldest and most luxurious… and home to clandestine Cold War secret.

[] UNDERGROUND meeting room for House of Representatives in the event of an A-bomb attack on Washington.

[] THE BUNKER's own telephone exchange to the outside world.

[] EMERGENCY rations for 1100 Senators, Representatives, senior aides and technical support teams.

[] SEALED-OFF: 25-tonne steel door to seal The Bunker off from the world outside.


 Originally issued for FOR WEEK BEGINNING 11 JULY 2011

DOING IT RIGHT – BARGING INTO LIFE’S LUXURIES

David Ellis

AFTER taking part in the Allies' D-Day landing in Normandy in 1944, the little one-time grain-barge-cum-troop-carrier Etoile de Champagne returned to her homeland Belgium – but instead of a heroes welcome she was ignominiously driven into a river shallows and scuttled to prevent her falling into German hands.

There she lay partly-submerged for over a quarter-century until Australian architect Brian Evans found her in the early 1970s, raised her, replaced the temporary troop-landing bow with a more-original rounded one, and converted Etoile de Champagne into a luxury 6-cabin floating hotel.

For the next decade and a half Mr Evans operated his "hotel-barge" on the canals of Europe for those seeking a truly personalised, indulgent and laid-back holiday experience – complete with two Bentley limousines whose drivers leap-frogged the barge to towns and villages for daily shore-side sightseeing.

In 1989 Mr Evans sold Etoile de Champagne to his skipper who later sold it to current owner and skipper, Chris Bennett – who was looking for an "out" from owning and running a high-pressure film and music graphics company in London.

"I no longer wanted to be at the corporate helm," says Chris, a still-youthful 55. "I had twelve full-time staff, six freelancers and a team of printers, and was putting-in 18-hour days, 7-days a week…

"Fran (his wife) and I decided we'd take time off, bought ourselves a little barge in France, and lived on that while we sussed-out the niche barge-holiday market."

The rest, as they say, is history. The Bennetts began taking guests – just six at a time – on their little barge which they sold in 2005 to buy the larger 6-cabin, 12-guests Etoile de Champagne that they re-named Savoir Faire (it means To Do It Right.)

Irish-born Fran worked aboard as barge-manager until 2008 but now spends much of her time at their home in Amsterdam as a life-skills and inspirational speaker.

Chris drives Savoir Faire and supervises a crew comprising a First Mate, tour guide, chef and two housekeepers/waitresses as the luxury barge wends a leisurely path along inland waterways from Amsterdam during Springtime's tulip season, then Brugge, Paris and the Burgundy Canal (built in the 18th and 19th centuries) over Summer and Autumn with cruises ranging from 7-days to two-weeks.

Next year he's planning a Paris to Champagne cruise as well.

And he has good credentials for these very people-oriented sailings, as he's the son of an engineer who constantly travelled the world on business, and regularly lived in hotels for up to six months at a time.

"I went to sixteen schools around the world including Australia, and was fascinated by the hospitality industry and lucky enough to have many hotel staff take me 'behind the scenes' – it was invaluable experience that I still put to use today."

This included on one cruise the twelve guests all having special dietary requirements that meant twelve different menus each day to cater for everything from allergies to vegetarian, ethnic to Kosher…

And on another sailing, the Spanish guests having staff clear the dining room every night after dinner so they could dance – all the wives were retired professional flamenco dancers.

And no matter where they come from, all guests aboard Savoir Faire are equally pampered, with grand French cuisine, complimentary wines with lunch and dinner, an open bar with hors d'oeuvres in the evening on returning from daily sightseeing that's included in the price (two mini-vans follow the barge,) a cosy salon for reading, yarning and board-games, outdoor sitting areas for viewing the spectacular countryside and towns and villages (and which are so close you can almost reach out and touch them,) a CD and book library, and bicycles for riding along the canal tow-paths.

As well as the daily excursions led by the live-aboard tour guide, guests can walk the tow-paths between locks – in seven days on the Burgundy Canal from Ancy-le-Franc to St Florentin there are no less than 26 locks in 60kms.

And so tight a fit are some of these locks, that Captain Chris has to ease the 40m-long, 5m-wide Savoir Faire into them with just 5cm (2-inches) clearance on either side.

For full Spring to Autumn itineraries and prices contact Mary Rossi Travel 1800 815 067, www.maryrossitravel.com, or Chris Bennett direct on savoirfaire.sales@gmail.com


Photo Captions:


[] SAILING through the French countryside, Savoir Faire.

[] TIGHT fit: Savoir Faire clears locks with just 5cm (2-inches) clearance on either side.

[] CAPTAIN Chris Bennett – "it beats 18-hour days, 7-days a week running a graphics design business."

[] PRETTY as a picture countryside you can almost reach out and touch.

[] LADY of the lock: Savoir Faire passes through 26 locks in 60km on the Burgundy Canal.

(Photos: David Ellis)

 Originally issued FOR WEEK BEGINNING 31 OCTOBER 2011

Struth! Whisky decanter of the stars

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says if you are heading to the UK and want to pick up a really nice decanter of a truly good whisky for that special someone you're catching up with, drop into London's Luxury Beverage Company and ask about their Isabella's Original and Isabella's Special Editions.

And adhering to the axiom that if you have to ask the price you can't afford it, when you do blurt out the question, you will find that no, you most likely can afford neither the Original nor even its much cheaper cousin, the Special Edition.

Because while both contain the equivalent of a bottle of an Islay Very Old Single Malt Whisky, in the case of the Isabella's Original it comes in a fine English Crystal decanter encrusted with over 8,500 diamonds, almost 300 rubies and the equivalent of two bars of white gold, while the cheaper Isabella's Special Edition is merely coated in-part with white gold and with its named spelled out in diamonds.

And the price? The Original will set you back 3.8-million GBPounds (AU$5.8m) and the cheaper Special Edition just 450,000 GBPounds (or AU$689,000) – although if you ask nicely you might at least get the whisky component duty-free.

We'll drink to that!

Struth! Five legged elephant dwindles traveller's confidence

The sight of an aroused elephant apparently stunted one honeymooner's enjoyment
(flicker user: lens_buddy)

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says Britain's Thomas Cook and the Association of British Travel Agents have compiled a list of their countrymen's more bizarre complaints.

Howlers include one British honeymooner who on return home complained to his travel agent that his honeymoon had been ruined – because he'd been left feeling inadequate after confronting the sight of an "aroused" elephant.

Another complained about the seaside holiday spot that had been recommended to him because "the beach was too sandy," while a couple were upset to discover fish swimming in the sea.

"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea," the wife said. "The children were startled."

And it seems some travellers also have a lot to learn about other aspects of nature. "I was bitten by a mosquito – no-one said they could bite," one traveller wrote to his travel agent.

Then there was the British guest dining at a Novotel hotel in Australia who complained that his soup was too thick and strong. The waiter pointed out that it was the gravy for his main course.

And one young lady even blamed a hotel for her pregnancy. "My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room, but we were placed in a double-bedded room," she wrote to her agent. "We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant – this would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

Other complaints included "There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners."

Another holiday was spoiled because "too much curry is served in restaurants in India".

QE2 in The Falklands: A Queen takes her lads to war

 
CAMP BEDS 'N CAVIAR AS QE2 STEAMS INTO WAR

David Ellis

FEW governments send their troops into battle on a diet of caviar.

Nor do they choose the world's most famous cruise liner to land them into the fields of war.

But that's what Britain did when it requisitioned the 70,000 tonne Queen Elizabeth 2 from Cunard Line for use as a troopship in 1982's 74-days war declared by Argentina against the UK in the Falkland Islands.

It must have had the matrons of Madison Avenue choking on their Moets at the thought of all those size 12 boots being suddenly parked in place of the finest Italian hand-mades in restaurants, lounges and staterooms.

And Her Majesty's finest doubtless never thought they were going to have it so good going into battle. But their dreams of a Champagne cruise were quickly shattered: gone were the casino and the plush bars, closed were the lounges they must have mused of lolling around while awaiting the call of duty (and in their place were dormitories with row upon row of camp stretchers,) missing were the health club – not to mention the tennis court, the pool and the duty-free grog shop.

(The tennis court and pool, they soon discovered, had been decked-over and were now mini helicopter pads, and the grog shop had been stripped bare of its treasures and securely locked.)

And over the thousands of square metres of cosey carpets had been placed countless sheets of timber hardboard to protect them from hobnailed boots.

Worse still, any chance of getting away from Army tucker and into QE2's legendary caviar and foie gras, the duck in cherry sauce, the lobster medallions with parsley cream dressing, the Beef Wellingtons, and the crepes flamed with Cointreau and served with double cream… well, sorry, fellas.

Cunard was taking its larders off QE2, and the Army was putting it's on.

Then a cheeky Welsh Guards Officer put it to his superior officers, with a copy of his letter strategically sent to Cunard's Boardroom, that he and his men, for queen and country, faced possible death in the Falklands… and couldn't they enjoy just a little of Cunard's renowned hospitality?

The Army and the shipping company conferred – and remarkably Cunard left on board enough caviar for the trip to the Falklands… QE2 wouldn't be hanging around once she'd unloaded her human fighting machine, so there'd be no need for caviar supplies on the return journey as well.

Why the British government wanted QE2 caused plenty of tut-tutting amongst those who'd suddenly found their annual ocean soirees cancelled, but there was good reason: QE2 was the fastest passenger ship afloat, with a top speed of over 32 knots, she was large enough to carry 3,600 troops, and she was built tough enough (to true Scottish shipyard traditions,) to withstand any minor skirmishes.

Thus most of HM's troops found themselves on their camp stretchers occupying much of the crews' quarters (50 per cent of the crew had been taken off. After all, there was hardly a need for a Cruise Director, bar staff, kennel maids, nannies, disc jockeys, wine stewards and exercise supervisors.) A luckier few, however, mostly officers, did score some of the passenger cabins.

QE2 took 18 days to zig-zag her way to South Georgia Island (so putting the Argentine's off her trail,) where she transferred all 3,600 troops to a fleet of smaller vessels for their final landings ashore.

Then, empty, she steamed back home where it took several months and several million pounds to get her back into service to resume her weekly 5-night trans-Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York.

And just to show the company had not lost any of its capacity to ensure its guests were once more pampered to the extreme, for each 5-night crossing Cunard would load aboard two tonnes of prime beef, 68kg of caviar, 45kg of foie gras, a tonne of fresh lobster, another tonne of fresh fish, 1.3 of duck, 2.5 tonnes of fruit and vegetables… plus 22,000 bottles of wine, 13,000 bottles of beer, 1,300 of spirits – and enough supplies to whip up 24,000 scoops of ice-cream.

When she retired after nearly 40 years as an Atlantic liner and world cruise ship, the grand QE2 had carried over 2,000,000 passengers and steamed some 8,600,000kms.


PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] QE2 steams out of Southampton for the Falklands cheered on by well-wishers.

[] STRANGE sight: British troops muster aboard QE2 heading to the Falklands.

[] MORE regular sight after QE2 had landed her human cargo and was refurbished.

[] QE2 in all her glory for world cruising.

[] BRITISH troops in the Falklands in 1982.

[] ARGENTINE troops readying for action in the 74-day war.

 

(Photos: Cunard Line and British Army News)

 

Airbus A380: Big solutions

YOU CALL THAT BIG? – THIS IS BIG

David Ellis

IT'S made up of more than 4,000,000 parts from 1,500 companies around the world, takes nine months to build at a cost of US$390m, seventy-seven have already been sold, deposits put down on 180 more, and one customer wants ninety – worth US$35.1-billion at list price….

We're talking about the Airbus A380, the biggest civil aircraft in aviation history whose statistics and everything else about it are simply mind-blowing. Yet even more gee-whiz and golly-gosh is just how those 4-million parts from thirty countries find their way to Airbus's A380 assembly plant at Toulouse in south-western France.

Because while most can be trucked, railed, river-barged or flown-in from Europe, the UK and others places around the globe – including 800 factories in the USA alone – getting sections of the super-size fuselage, wings and tailplanes to Toulouse is an exercise of virtually military logistics.

And it's meant spending millions of dollars on construction of a special ocean-going freighter, several river barges and a half-dozen low-loaders because nothing else was capable of carrying these sections, plus research by teams of scientists into river currents, flows and depths, weekly police closures of major roads – even regular removal and replacement of massive overhead road signs to allow over-height parts to trundle across the French countryside in dead of night.

The unique Ville de Bordeaux freighter was built with a 120 X 20-metre span-free cargo hold, and every week collects an A380's voluminous forward and aft fuselage sections from where they're built in Hamburg, and heads to Saint-Nazaire on France's Bay of Biscay where the centre fuselage section built there is also loaded aboard.

Then it's off to Cadiz in Spain for the horizontal tailplane, and across the English Channel to Mostyn in Wales for the A380's two vast 45-metre long, 7-metre wide  wings that are constructed at Broughton in North Wales.

And getting each of those 38-tonne wings down to Mostyn is a lesson in dexterity in itself, taking a whole week on one of those special barges to travel just 35-kilometres at a snail's pace 5kmh – juggling tidal cycles so as to be in exactly the right position at exactly the right time to clear historic stone bridges by just millimetres and river bottoms by equally few millimetres, clearances reckoned-on by those teams of scientists who even calculated the  affects of just one hour's rainfall on the depth of the River Dee.

Finally the Ville de Bordeaux re-crosses the Channel to Pauillac on France's River Garonne, where its bizarre-looking stockpile is loaded onto custom-built 75-metre long barges that will carry it 95-kilometres up-river to a road transfer station at Langon.

And from there it's a 240-kilometre road trip, that although undertaken week-in, week-out, never fails to draw crowds to gawk at the six amazing 96-wheel low-loaders used to move the vast sections on the final part of their journey.

Each of these low-loaders is hauled by a throaty 600hp prime-mover, departing Langon at precisely 10pm on the same night each week – complete with police escorts and an Airbus support team of sixty to deal with any breakdowns along the way, assist divert traffic onto other roadways, and to remove and then replace huge overhead road signs as the convoy rolls by.

Overhead power and phone lines along the 240km route were even permanently removed and buried underground to assist, roads widened where necessary to a minimum 13-metres, bridges strengthened and roadside trees removed.

Then finally once at Toulouse the assembly of the next A380 begins, each one taking nine months to complete and the plant putting out three completed aircraft a month.

And for trivia buffs, here are a few A380 facts and figures:

[] The A380 can carry 525 passengers in three classes, but one airline wants two with 853 Economy seats each.

[] There are plans for a "stretch" version with 960 all-Economy seats.

[] An A380 weighs up to 560 tonnes at take-off (82 times more than Charles Kingsford-Smith's Southern Cross,) including enough fuel to fill 21 road tankers and fly it non-stop Sydney-Istanbul.

[] 10,000 bolts hold the three fuselage sections together, 8000 the wings to the fuselage and there's 500km of electrical wiring in each aircraft.

[] There's enough room on the two passenger decks to put nearly three tennis courts.
 

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

 

[] UNLOADING centre fuselage section at Pauillic in France.

[] SPECIAL BARGES were built to carry the massive wings.

[] TIGHT fit: barge with fuselage sections squeezes under a bridge.

[] EVERY week crowds gather to gawk at the 96-wheel low-loaders and their huge cargoes.

[] NOW that's an over-size load.

[] FINALLY finished – nine months later and another A380 is up and flying.

 

(Photos: Airbus SAS)

 

Shongolo will Train you to Wild Africa

TRAIN YOURSELF TO GO WILD IN AFRICA

David Ellis

WHEN Leon Plutsick and his business partner decided to go beyond their travel agency and restaurant ventures and start their own tourist train, they didn't call in business consultants, bank managers nor even their accountants.

They called in a witchdoctor.

"Witchdoctors have extraordinary inner senses and perceptive powers," Leon says. "If they say Go Ahead, then you know your thinking is right. If they so No, then forget it."

It was in 1995 that Leon's witchdoctor disappeared into the night from their meeting in Johannesburg in South Africa, to return a few days later with the good news. "I have seen that your venture will be a success," he said. "But you must call your train, Shongololo."

And such a success has the Shongololo been, that it's grown from one train fifteen years ago to a diverse collection today, doing tours to such far-flung places as Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning  "The Smoke That Thunders" as the locals call the eternal mist that hangs over these massive cascades,) Kruger National Park that's often compared with Kenya's Masai Mara for the finest in game viewing,  wine country around Stellenbosch and garden country of Mossel Bay, the bizarre desert dunes of Namibia in the south-west, and the Germanically-picturesque one-time colonial centre Swakopmund.

"Other tour operators use ordinary trains, planes and automobiles, but we wanted a train with all the comforts and services of a hotel… in reality, a hotel on wheels.

We carry our own mini-buses, and stop where we want for day excursions – so that with our hotel on wheels and our own buses, our tours are in fact like cruises on land," Leon says. "And you only have to unpack once."

But why Shongololo?

"When the first trains came to Africa, the village people said the way they wound their way through the landscape and across the ridge tops reminded them of a centipede – a Shongololo in the Zulu dialect.

"That's why our witchdoctor said we had to name our train Shongololo, and also because, like a centipede, while all the spinning wheels on our carriages look like they are frantically busy, they're really just getting the 'centipede' from one place to another in an orderly and comfortable way.

"We went to South African Railways for help in modelling our First Class carriages on their trains, and then built up a set of locomotives, carriages and wagons – flatbeds for our buses, power-generating and storeroom cars, a kitchen car, a dining car, two lounge cars and nine sleeper cars.

 "Today we lease engines from Transnet in Southern Africa, using diesels mostly but occasionally getting hold of a steam engine."

The First Class sleeping cars feature full-size beds, ensuite facilities, a safe, and tea and coffee making facilities

And fifteen years after beginning their venture they now operate six trips a year between Johannesburg and Cape Town, four between Johannesburg and Victoria Falls, two to Namibia, two between Victoria Falls and Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and eight along the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

Journeys range from between 12 and 16 days and prices start from $4400 per person twin share, including accommodation and rail travel, daily sightseeing tours with guides in air-conditioned mini- buses, breakfasts and dinners.

"And being in hospitality as well as a travel agent, I'm very aware of the importance meal-times play in peoples' holiday relaxation and socialising. We start the day with Continental Breakfast, and then offer a choice of four to six daily excursions in our mini-buses… culture and heritage of the area we are in, adventure, eco-tourism, wildlife, or a look at the general highlights of the region.

"When our passengers come back in the afternoon – and we take a maximum of only 108 on each train – they clean up, take drinks in the lounge cars as we  enjoy last glimpses of the countryside before night falls, and then dinner.

"Our chefs create classic African and international fare: curries and seafood, spicy Cape Malay specialties, exotic ostrich steaks and crocodile spare ribs (it tastes a bit like rabbit,) prime beef, and of course we highlight the excellent wines of Southern Africa."

For full details and colour brochures contact Sydney-based Bench International on 1300-195873 or visit www.benchinternational.com.au


PHOTO CAPTIONS:


[] LIKE a centipede across the landscape, the Shongololo winds its way into the mountains.

[] DINING is exceptional on classic African and international fare.

[] CABINS like this make for easy sleeping along the way.

[] ALONG the famed Garden Route's coastline.

[] LION in wait: the king of beasts gets right of way.

(Photos: Bench International.)