(African drum beats)
- [Noel] It's just Incredible.
I just love this part of the world.
Welcome to Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast,
and today I'm taking the train.
- [Narrator] Today I'm taking a ride
on the Madaraka Express,
a slightly nicer name than the train's former name,
the Lunatic Express, from here in Mombasa across to Nairobi.
First, I had to try and collect my ticket.
Booking my ticket for this trip had been pretty awkward.
You see, you can only book online
using something called Mpesa,
which is an online payment solution that they use in Kenya,
that you can't access
unless you've got a Kenyan mobile phone.
I had to book using a travel agent in Mombasa,
who ordered the tickets
and sent me the collection codes via email.
Once I've collected my tickets,
I headed to get some food
which wasn't quite the fish and chips that I expected.
- Okay, when I ordered fish and chips I didn't expect this.
Flies everywhere.
I think I'm going to leave the rest,
I wasn't hungry anyway.
So, security here is intense.
And just to get into the building
you've got to go through about three different checkpoints.
My train doesn't leave for a while yet,
so about another sort of half an hour
until I can actually enter with a ticket with my bag.
In the meantime, every time I go in,
I have to leave my bag out here,
I have to laeve my passport and everything this side,
and then go through and then come back out,
and collect them on my way out.
So, I've come back outside for a little bit,
to sit in the sun,
before we can get on the train over to Nairobi.
Aside from the hassle,
getting in and out of the build,
security was absolutely insane here.
Everyone has to put their belongings in their bags,
while police dogs walk up and down
checking every single bag.
Of course, I couldn't film that process,
as my phone had to go in my bag
along with all of my other belongings.
Finally though, we could enter the building
a couple of hours before departure,
of course, ensuring our hands were clean first.
Very much, thank you.
Thanks.
So the train I'm taking today
is called the Madaraka Express,
and it connects the two largest cities in Kenya,
here in Mombasa and the capital city Nairobi,
which is where we're heading now.
They've built this massive infrastructure for it,
and there's like one train a day.
After a couple of hours,
the train pulled in from Nairobi
and I had it through to get on board for the return leg.
Here there's a statue of a 15th century,
Chinese Explorer called Zheng He in this station,
something that hasn't necessarily gone down too well
with a lot of Kenyans.
The Madaraka Express is also known as the SGR,
the Standard Gauge Railway to differentiate itself
from the narrow gauge of the old Lunatic Express.
Today I was riding in first class,
so I climbed aboard
for my five-hour journey across Kenya.
- On board for the five-hour journey back to Nairobi,
first class.
- Yeah, I just said that.
(honking)
Pretty soon we were pulling out of the station in Mombasa
and starting our journey over to Nairobi.
(bright music)
- Now the Madaraka Express follows the route
of what was called the old Uganda line,
which connected Mombasa on the coast,
with the country of Uganda in the center of Africa,
through the side of the country.
And that line quickly became known
during this construction as the Lunatic Express.
And the reason for that was
because surely only a lunatic would attempt
to build a railway line across
the inhospitable terrain of Southern Kenya.
It was tough going as well,
during the course of building this railway line,
three and a half thousand men lost their lives.
It's an incredible death toll for such a short railway
of just a few hundred miles.
And the majority of those were through things
like lion attacks and malaria from different insects,
and different diseases that they were getting here.
It really was an incredible achievement
when they've actually managed to finish building it.
Over the years of course,
the Uganda railway fell into more and more disrepair,
and by 2016 it would take 24 hours
to cover the 350 miles between Mombasa and Nairobi,
a journey that today we're doing in about four and a half.
At that time in stepped the Chinese,
and rebuilt this railway line from scratch,
as a high-speed railway line
called the Madaraka Express.
Now we can reach blistering speeds of 75 miles an hour.
We can now get from Mombasa to Nairobi
in a time of just five hours, which is pretty good,
really, and it's pretty comfy too.
- From Mombasa the train winds its way
West across the Tsavo national park,
one of the largest national parks in the world.
It's home to all sorts of wildlife,
and I was lucky enough to have a window seat
to savor every moment of this Safari on rails.
(bright music)
- You see here is the incredible thing about Africa
and why I love it so much.
We're only an hour out of Mombasa,
on a five-hour journey
and already we've passed through some
of the most remote places I've ever seen.
We've been through remote villages,
we've seen tribes people out there.
We've seen elephants
and impala just roaming around at the side of the tracks,
and we're an hour out of Mombasa, we've got four to go.
And some of the more remote parts of Kenya
are still yet to come on this journey,
it's just incredible, I just love this part of the world.
(bright music)
Now one thing that has amazed me while I've been here
and traveling through the middle of nowhere,
is that I've managed to keep a full 4G phone signal
the whole way across,
even in the most remote of areas here in Kenya.
And a big part of the reason for that is
because Google actually operate
a load of kind of balloons up in the sky.
It's called Google Loon.
If you look up on FlightRadar,
you'll see about 20 or 30 of them overhead Kenya
at about 60,000 feet floating there,
and they provide a 4G signal to these really remote areas.
So the internet without a phone signal
even in places like this, this is pretty cool really.
And it's interesting how they're keeping the world connected
through new technology and things up in the sky,
pretty good.
- And speaking of remaining connected
in the most remote parts of the world,
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- [Narrator] Or watch live TV from the UK,
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Being only a few hours long,
the Madaraka Express doesn't have sleeping carriages,
and it's just split between first class and standard class.
The carriages are all fairly new and shiny
and they're all air conditioned too.
(bright upbeat music)
Cruising across the heart of Africa
with the sun setting over the Savannah,
there was only one song
that suited the moment absolutely perfectly,
and it was absolutely perfect.
(bright upbeat music)
As the sun disappeared,
it seemed that probably my sanity went with it too.
- Half an hour.
- [Narrator] Yeah, I've absolutely no idea
what I was thinking there, but nevermind,
we were sooner arriving into the bright lights of Nairobi.
The Madaraka Express has cost over $4 billion,
making it the most expensive infrastructure project
since Kenya's independence in 1963
and one fifth of its national budget.
Most of this is in the form of a loan from China,
and with the inevitable allegations of corruption
as well as an increasing debt to China,
some Kenyans have already started to call the new SGR,
the second Lunatic Express.
For me though, the Madaraka Express is an incredible ride
through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.
After all,
where else can you get such an intimate glimpse
of the real Africa in five hours
and for less than a hundred dollars?
If that makes me a lunatic, well, so be it.
- [Noel] Hello, is the bar still open?
- [Receptionist] Yes, It's still open but are closing.
- [Noel] Closing soon, time for the quick one yeah,
(chuckles)
I'll be fast, thank you.
Time for one before you close,
- We are doing our last call.
- [Noel] Be fast, yeah (chuckles).
It won't take me long don't worry.
You know, everyday that I'm here in Africa,
I come back to the aeroclub
and I tell myself it's the best day
that I've had in Africa.
And every day it just gets even better,
because it's just such an incredible place.
Every day I've been here so far
has been better than the last,
and it just leaves me feeling sort of quite amazed,
because I've got a few more days here.
I mean, it just keeps getting better everyday.
Africa is such, such a wonderful place for me
the scenery, the terrain, the views that you get everywhere
just incredible.
The wildlife, just so abundant and everywhere.
It's incredible to be able to see it
even on the train like we were today.
The people of course, the most warm
loving people I've ever met anywhere in the world,
and that's no exaggeration people here are just incredible.
And you know what?
I love it here, I love Africa.
Got loads more to come,
make sure you hit that subscribe button,
so you don't miss any more of the videos I've got coming
over the next sort of few weeks here in Africa.
In the meantime, thanks very much for watching,
take care and I'll see you on the next one.
Bye bye.