Travel
around midnight. During this entire experience
it was difficult to imagine that the train was
continuing its journey at high speed but we were
advised that during the early hours of the morning
the speed would be reduced to facilitate a less noisy
overnight sleep.
After a remarkably good night’s sleep we prepared
for breakfast around 8am and as we looked out of
the window the scenery was changing dramatically
as the train was entering the wine regions of South
Africa and I could hardly wait for my first sight
of Table Mountain towards the outskirts of Cape
Town where my late Mother was born and within
the sight of Table Mountain. She had always said
to me that I should try and visit Cape Town to
witness the stunning scenery and go to the top
of the mountain. We were advised that we would
be making a short stop of around 30 minutes to
exchange drivers before lunch and guests were
invited to stretch their legs along the platform of
our stop. I asked our butler if there was a possibility
I could view the engine which I was advised was
not a normal request for security reasons and after
authorisation by the General Manager of the train
I was permitted to visit the engine compartment
accompanied by a butler. Not quite a ‘foot plate’
experience but certainly privileged to be invited.
Having spent a day and a half with our butler
there were very warm farewells upon our arrival at
Cape Town main station and my experience on this
train had been something I would never forget.
The welcome at our hotel on the Waterfront
District of the City was modern, clean and very
welcoming and I immediately pointed out that my
objective over the next seven days was to see as
much of Cape Town and the surrounding areas as
possible coupled with a desire to try and trace my
late Mother’s school in the district of Rondebosch
where she attended Primary School in 1930. We
decided to book tickets on the ‘hop on and off’
bus tour routes and a two day pass included a
30 minutes boat trip experience around Cape
Town’s harbour. Quite separately we were able to
experience a wine tour in the Stellenbosch region
and a trip to the Cape of Good Hope. The cable car
to the top of Table Mountain must not be missed
and affords the most beautiful panoramic visual
experience to be seen in the African continent
and now considered as one of the ‘new wonders’
of the world. However, the cable car is not for the
fainthearted, but clear sunny weather made the
viewing experience very special.
I had privately commissioned the reception of
our hotel to do all they could to trace my late
Mother’s school and they were so keen to assist,
but it was proving an almost impossible task as
most of the schools in the area around 1925 were
58
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Terry finds his Mother’s school
no longer in existence.
Almost by fate and having given up the possibility
of tracing the school with the sparsest of information
available, the phone rang in our bedroom early
morning on the day of our departure. With great
excitement a young gentleman in reception
informed me that they had traced my mother’s name
and school through the Educational records of the
Council in the City. I was absolutely delighted with
this news as my Mother had never mentioned the
name of her school. A taxi was arranged to take my
wife and I over a 45 minute journey from the hotel
to the school where arrangements were made for
us to be met by one of the Heads of Department to
be given a tour and with consent to especially take
photographs for my future records.
The school, now private, had been built in 1925
and had been beautifully preserved and extended
with modern day classrooms and wonderful
facilities and a totally separate building dealing
with the schools history. My late Mother would
have been five when she attended this school and