Rovos Rail - The Great Train Race Tribute - Pretoria to Heidelberg return, 2 nights from R23 300 pps

Join us on board as we tribute the 1930s Bentley vs Le Train Bleu Race with our two-night steam-hauled journey between Pretoria and Heidelberg. We salute this maverick event with a convoy of vintage cars and motorcycles, our thundering steam locomotive and daring enthusiasts in their planes overhead. The event also includes stalls, live music, a miniature steam tractor and a jumping castle.

In 1930, Bentley racing driver Woolf Barnato wagered a bet that he could easily beat the famous Le Train Bleu to Calais at the wheel of his own Speed Six Bentley. At 17h45 on 13 March 1930, as the train left Cannes, Barnato and his companion set off. The duo arrived in Calais so far ahead of the train that Barnato sought to put the challenge to bed by making it all the way to London before the train pulled into Calais. They crossed the English Channel on a packet steamer, completed another 100km or so and, to loud applause, Barnato parked outside the Conservative Club in St James Street at exactly 15h20pm - four minutes before the train arrived at Calais Station.