A Helldrick of a Train Trip
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008Day 220
We had gotten so comfortable at the B & B and loved Cape Town so much part of me was sad to leave. Although the desire to explore more of this country and continent quickly had me wanting to finish breakfast and get on our train out of town.
Our taxi dropped us of at the busy train station that was filled with commuters at 9am Tuesday morning. We found platform 9 and waited for our train to arrive. We were headed into the wine country to a town named Stellenbosch. “Let’s take this one”. I pointed to the closest carriage to us. “No, here this one is fine”. Jordana decided the next carriage was better. Fine, no problem. The train pulled in and we took our seats in the fairly empty carriage. As we began to pull out I heard a guy yelling at the front of the train. I couldn’t see him but definitely could hear him. “Maybe he works for the train”. Jordana said optimistically. “Don’t think so, thanks for picking the crazy guy train”. He was screaming announcing each stop and making it clear there is no smoking permitted on the trains. I thought he was drunk or high. Then he came over to us and sat down.
Jordana was buried in her book and tried to ignore him so I had the pleasure of conversation. “Mister! Do you know there are 88 wheels on the train? Yes, 11 carriages, 8 wheels each!” OK, great. “Do you want to see my drawings?” How could I refuse as he pulled out a notebook from his bag. It was then I realized this guy was harmless, actually I think he was autistic. Helldrick had drawings on every page of trains, lorries (trucks) and cars. Each one contained a 10 digit phone number that he’d seen on the side. His memory was incredible. He would rhyme off every stop, we are talking 20 stops here. All in exact order they would come up. All the station workers and police aboard knew him. I figured he does this all the time and I thought they train might as well hire him on. He called Jordana sweetie and myself mister. When we came to a large factory or a yard filled with old cars he excitely would jump up. “Sweetie, mister!” He yelled as he poked us for our attention. “Look look, all de old cars out there”. Mostly he settled in and spoke to me, Jordana hid behind her book.
Finally we pulled into Stellenbosch and I almost expected Helldrick to follow us to our hostel. It was also his stop. Instead he popped up, shook my hand and gave Jordana a kiss on the cheek. “Goodluck and travel safe!” With that he was off. It certainly made the hour and half trip more interesting. We found our hostel, The Stumble Inn. A nice place with a swimming pool. We booked our wine tour for the morning and were off to check out the town.
Stellenbosch is a university town, home to one of the most prestigious universities in South Africa. Its also a conservative place and one of the places where apartheid was born. The students do give the very polished town a lively feel. We walked around the beautiful whitewashed buildings on what turned out to be a beautifully warm day. After a good thai dinner we went to sleep resting up for the day of wine tasting to come.
Michael Coroneos