extensive 2 foot gauge railway and recognises the interests of photographers and those wishing to ride on the trains. The Festival will also feature vintage and heritage agricultural, military and vehicular equipment and members of the public will be attending. For those interested in steam, the railway should be supplemented with traction engines and road vehicles. Please note that whilst Geoff's Trains will make reasonable efforts to ensure that the interests of our participants are considered, we are not responsible for the programme. Sandstone and Geoff's Trains are planning a series of photo charter trains that will run during the Festival exclusively for our participants, There will be three morning and three afternoon charters that concentrate on early morning glint photographs, runpasts for both stills and video and wherever possible avoiding any unauthentic background activity. We will concentrate on sunrise and sunset glint shots with authentic train consists. There will be runpasts suitable for stills photography and video and we plan to reduce activity at lineside that, whilst being good for the festival, may detract from the authenticity of your photographs. Sandstone are charging Geoff's Trains for these charters and they will only be available to participants who have booked through Geoff's Trains or our partners. Geoff's Trains will run a series of charter trains in Natal following the Sandstone Festival. We will leave Sandstone on Thursday and will spend Friday with the Paton Country Narrow Gauge Railway's two sugar cane tank locomotives. This is a rare opportunity to see these locos in the sugar cane fields in Natal's Umzimkulu River valley. The first Garratts in Natal steam charter will be on Saturday. There are two transfers from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport to Sandstone on 03 and 05 May. The first transfer will see you at Sandstone on Saturday, 04 May, the first day of the Festival. The second transfer allows you to fly from Europe on Friday night, arriving at Sandstone for the first time on the morning of Monday, 06 May. There are also two options at the end of your Sandstone visit. Either travel by road to Natal on Thursday, 09 May for a day with the Avonside locomotives. Your tour will then end at Durban airport on 11 May, in time to fly to Johannesburg for connections to Eurpoe and Britain. Alternatively, stay at Sandstone until Saturday, 11 May, when you will transfer back to Johannesburg in time for the evening flights.
Friday, 03 May 2013 Depart Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport at 12h00. Travel by coach to Ficksburg, where we will arrive in time for dinner. 123