I think I am, I think I am...

Vanessa Stephen is a child again on a train ride through the Valley of a Thousand Hills

I guess most kids these days would imagine they were Harry Potter on their way to Hogwarts, but I felt more like a character on an Enid Blyton adventure.

Sitting in a Puffing Billy, riding over old stone aqueducts and through aloe-filled valleys with soot landing on your eyelashes, you can't really feel like an adult. Or maybe you can. Perhaps some fall into the tragic wartime hero/heroine role as they pull their collars up against the wind while leaning dramatically out of the old wooden-framed windows on their way to an unknown place .

The imagination comes alive as soon as you enter the Stokers Arms on a misty afternoon in Kloof and see the 1903-built locomotive quietly steaming in front of you.

It's the real deal. A fat, round, softly gleaming engine in front of a string of old carriages - all made mostly from wood and finished with craftsmanship not often seen these days. There's no minding the gap as passengers walk the railway tracks to the train and haul themselves up to the carriage doors, hanging on to picnic baskets and small children.

We booked early and went for gold, otherwise known as first class. I was quickly very thankful for this small, closed-off box of plush, comfortable seats - green leather polished by decades of restless bottoms against dark lacquered wood. The minion classes behind us were not nearly as comfortable and with small children attached to every adult, it quickly became noisy in the same way that a Boeing crashing through a percussion instrument factory is noisy.

In first class, we burrowed into our spacious haven and attacked our picnic in the first five minutes. Thick ham and mustard sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs were washed down with lashings of ginger beer as the whistle blew and the old train belched smoke and steam and set off at a pace for the Valley of a Thousand Hills.

This adventure back in time began in 1982 when a small standard-gauge shunting locomotive was donated to the Railway Society of Southern Africa. Their Natal branch used it to form the Umgeni Steam Railway and it's been puffing away monthly ever since. The remarkable thing is that it is still run and maintained entirely by volunteers. Perhaps they are fulfilling their Huck Finn fantasies as their faces and arms turn black from shoveling coal into the furnace - their eyes certainly glow with a fire that is not simply a reflection.

An hour of climbing through hills with wide, ever-changing views takes you to the colonial Inchanga Station, where a craft market and model railway await. This may not be the market that fulfils your every dream, but the mixture of people is fabulous and it's an amazing place to sit under a tree and watch the crowd browsing through second-hand books, home-made jams and biscuits or being stripped of money by their children at the pony rides.

Men gather round the engine as it's manoeuvred to the other side of the carriages on a parallel track, ready to begin pulling us back the way we came. Camera phones are clutched in every hand while the locomotive's smooth lines are admired and touched. The soot-stained volunteers strut alongside the engine, looking busy and happy. Finally, sticky-faced children are once again hoisted up into the carriages, and picnic baskets lie empty as families stream back for the return journey to Kloof.

Excess sugar seems to have bolstered the minion-class children and there is a steady wail coming through the compartment door as over-excitement and exhaustion take over.

The giggling, screaming and wailing gradually fade as they fall asleep to dream of misty valleys and billowing engines. Again the chugging of the locomotive up a steep hill comes to the fore.

It's quite a long day and, with soot blowing through the window and sticky little hands everywhere, something of a grimy one. But it's good to be a child again and sit with the wind streaming through your hair as you hang out of a wooden window and imagine the dragons that lie beyond the next mountains, guarding the Cullinan diamond's big brother.

•  © Vanessa Stephen

WHAT TO PACK:

Take a picnic. It's fun and you'll be terribly envious of others if you don't. There are refreshments for sale but if you're going back in time, why not go the whole hog? Tissues or wet wipes can only be a good idea when there's the possibility of your spilling a sugary drink or, if you're like me, hanging out of the windows too long and ending up with a blackened face. Don't wear white, it's just not worth it.

WHEN TO GO:

The Umgeni Steam Train runs on the last Sunday of every month. There is a trip at 8.30am from the Stoker's Arms in Kloof with a one-hour stop at Inchanga, and a 12.30pm train with a 90-minute stop. If you're keen and flush you can hire the entire train for special events such as weddings. As the railway is a registered non-profit organisation, all profits from the journey go towards the preservation of steam locomotives and rail in KwaZulu-Natal.

WHAT IT COSTS:

A return ticket is R150 per adult and R120 for children aged 2-12. Pensioners pay R130.

NEED TO KNOW:

The train and its steps are high off the ground and it can be tricky to get into. It may not be easy or indeed possible for elderly or disabled people to get on.

CONTACT:

Robbie on 082353 6003 to check that the train is running; booking can be done through the website, which also gives directions: www.umgenisteamrailway.co.za.