• 2015
Slow Train Through Africa

Summary Griff Rhys Jones travels across Africa by rail, savoring the joys and frustrations of exploring a captivating continent via a romantic mode of transport. View more details

  • 2015

Slow Train Through Africa

Directed : Unknown

Written : Unknown

Stars : Griff Rhys Jones

All cast & crew

7.4

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Apr 9, 2015

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Official sites : Official site

Language : English

Production companies : RDF Television West

Summary Griff Rhys Jones travels across Africa by rail, savoring the joys and frustrations of exploring a captivating continent via a romantic mode of transport. View more details

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Apr 9, 2015

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Official sites : Official site

Language : English

Production companies : RDF Television West

Photos

Griff Rhys Jones in Slow Train Through Africa (2015)

Episodes

View All Seasons
Episode 1 • May 05, 2015
North Africa
Gryff starts his North African voyage by train in Morocco, visiting former royal capitals Marrakech and Fez, fascinating for their ancient artisnala 'souks' (closed markets), traditional Arab-Berber homes, medicine and cooking. After a bizarrely inevitable air hop via Spain, he enters former french colonies Algeria -visiting Constantine- and Tunisia, ending the railroad logic in the phosphate-mined desert.
Episode 2 • May 11, 2015
Kenya & Tanzania
Griff travels trough East Africa by colonial railways, or at least what's left of them. They were established i-during the German-British race to the sources of the Nile at lake Victoria. In Kenya, they started a rich agricultural colony, but are being replaced by car transport, even though roads are generally poor. In Tanzania, the Germans lost the race and the tracks are largely in pitiful state, so Griff has to do some distances by other transport.
Episode 3 • May 18, 2015
Zambia & Zimbabwe
Griff crosses the colonial legacy of empire building visionary Cecil Rhodes, whose dream of a British railroad from Cairo to the Cape required colonizing Rhodesia, split in the countries shown in this episode. In North Rhodesia, now Zambia, he visits a train drivers school and gem cutting center. Over the spectacular Victoria Falls he crosses into Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where the Mugabe dictatorship wrecked a healthy economy, including the railroads.
Episode 4 • May 25, 2015
Namibia
Griff takes the train in Namibia, a nearly-deserted desert country with a colonial past under Germans and British, which left many traces and works on in tourism. Passengers are rare, but enormous quantities of ore produced in huge mines are transported to be shipped at sea.
Episode 5 • Jun 01, 2015
South Africa
Griff crosses a thousand miles of South Africa, reaching the most southerly passenger railway station on the continent. Griff begins in Pretoria, catching Africa's most modern train on a short journey south, to Johannesburg. On board he almost finds himself in trouble with the security guards for attempting to eat his breakfast, which is against the strict train rules, which also include no singing. Johannesburg is home to over four million people across a vast, sprawling city that grew because of the amounts of gold found underground. The goldmines needed workers and railways were built to transport them.

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