atlantic rail open day – review | cupcakes and sailors

I was somehow added to the Atlantic Rail group on Facebook and am rather glad it happened as I was notified that they were having an open-day. Forwarded it onto my mum and decided this was the perfect trip/adventure/experience to turn into a proper family day (something we haven’t done since 2005 – which is sad I know).

We woke up to a very cold and rainy morning but didn’t let that deter us at all, we bundled up and headed to the train station anyway. After a few wrong turns and some extra sightseeing (this with TWO garmins giving the wrong directions) we finally arrived and ran inside to hide from the rain.

They definitely put some effort into the whole event, there were Harley’s you could rent and go for a ride, stalls all selling home-made goodies, face painting and even a colouring in station/competition for the kids.

We also found a really cute little restaurant made from an old train! Decided that seeing as my 82 year old Ouma (great-grandmother) missed the day’s activities due to being up in JHB we’ll take her for breakfast on the train one morning.

We piled into our compartment and the kids automatically headed straight for the windows, hanging their heads out like woofs in a car. My little one loved it and every time the train made any noise he’d get a huge grin on his face. They even had people come in to ask for and clip our tickets just like they would have done back in the day!

The trip we took was exciting even though we didn’t really go anywhere, just in a straight direction for the first half and then back again for the second. It was fun none the less and the whole family enjoyed it.

The only disappointment was the state of the tracks when we did the turn around, we had to close our windows as the stench was just too bad, the tracks looked like a dumping ground, now I know that it’s not Atlantic Rail’s fault but it still wasn’t pleasant.