KwaZulu-Natal, April to July 2015 - Creighton Aloe and Steam Train Festival

One beautiful sunny Sunday in July, 16 of us from Richmond went to the Creighton Aloe & Steam Train Festival. We had a great time passing through some lovely countryside.

There are lots of stalls selling a range of goods at the Creighton Country Club.

Some of the Richmond contingent. Most of us had a breakfast roll while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

Making our way along the platform to find our carriage.

One of the 2 engines that pulled the carriages.

We were in the first carriage which had inside and outside seating plus a bar.

We had good views from the outside seating area.

Winter is the season when the aloes flower and we saw hundreds of them along the route between Creighton and Riverside.

At one point the train stopped and we were able to get off and have a closer look at the aloes which looked beautiful in the sunshine.

We saw this helicopter fly past us on several occasions.

While we were having a wander around looking at the aloes the train backed up and then came steaming towards us at full speed.

We crossed a couple of bridges on our way to Riverside.

Riverside is a small settlement that used to be much larger but, sadly, the sawmill closed down some years ago so many people moved away.

This is the remains of the Riverside Hotel. We couldn't go inside as all the floorboards have been removed.

After 20 minutes at Riverside we got back on the train and travelled back to Creighton. We had lovely views as the railway travels alongside the river for much of the journey.

As we approached Creighton the brown, parched land changed to green, irrigated fields - Creighton has a thriving dairy industry.

1. Splashy Fen Music Festival. 4 days of music in the Drakensberg foothills

2. Chelmsford Dam. 3 trips to the dam taking the twins fishing.

3. Cars in the Park. Cars of all ages, bikes and more.

4. Clansthal, KZN South Coast. A long weekend by the sea.

5. Art in the Park. A 5 day display of South African artists.

6. Comrades Marathon.The oldest ultra-marathon in the world.

7. Creighton Aloe Festival. A trip on a steam train through beautiful countryside.

8. Richmond. Local events and improvements to our house.

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