Trains have a magic and mystery which is being lost in the West as the motor
car takes over. But in the many parts of the world they are still the main
method of transport - accessible to all, uniting families, forming crucial
arteries linking societies. On trains you can discover something about the heart
and soul of a country. In Great Railway Journeys, and the television
series which it accompanies, six exceptional travellers share with us their
discoveries, and their pleasures in travelling by train, whether in a steam
train, a shabby diesel or on a steam engine footplate.
Entertaining and thoughtful, full of personal memories and
beautifully described experiences, each journey has its own very unique
character, to be savoured by those who enjoy travelling, are interested in
contemporary life in other parts of the world, and, of course, love the magic
and mystery of trains.
In Pakistan, Mark Tully journeys from Karachi in the south to the Khyber Pass on the Afghan border in the north, making a diversion to travel to Quetta via the spectacular Bolan Pass on one of the most challenging lines built by British engineers anywhere in the world.
In South America Lisa St Aubin de Terán travels from Santos on the coast of Brazil, near Sáo Paulo, over the mountains and plains of Brazil to the Pantanal Swamp, a wilderness of lush vegetation, and on to the city of Santa Cruz, home of the cocaine barons in Bolivia. She vividly describes the contrasts of beauty and poverty which she finds in the two countries.
Clive Anderson takes a humorous look at the contradictions and confusions of present-day China as he makes his way from Hong Kong, via Shanghai, Beijing and the Great Wall, to end up in Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia.
Natalia Makarova travels on the Bolshoi Express, starting in St Petersburg, once her home and a city of poignant memories, to Tashkent, stopping en route to talk to old friends and revisit familiar places.
Michael Palin journeys from Derry in Northern Ireland to the most westerly station in Ireland in the beautiful county of Kerry in the South, from whence his great-grandmother emigrates in the nineteenth century.
Finally, in South Africa, Rian Malan escapes riot-torn Cape Town and makes his way across the country to Johannesburg, talking to people of all races and wrestling with South Africa's violent past and increasingly ominous future. He ends his journey amid the bizarre splendour of the Palace of the Lost City hotel in Bophuthatswana.