HOW IT IS DONE

Evening Star, Issue 21820, 8 September 1934, Page 2

HOW IT IS DONE

OVER AFRICAN AIR (A. Hodgson in. ‘ Nyassaland Times.’) The Magic Carpet has ceased to be a fairy tale, and one may now find Victoria Station, or Chileka, a convenient spot for stepping on to it, and being transported; to a dozen countries in the space of nine days. . You leave Milan at 3 p.m.. If dear and you waken early next morning, you may see the Apennines. You are now running along the shore of the intensely blue Adriatic. Eight a.m. and here is Brindisi. You breakfast, and a launch takes you to one of the Scipio class of flying boats. Engines start, and then it is sheer enchantment taking off the water and up and over a turquoise sea. The window's are opened, and here arc the lonian Islands iri all their loveliness.

We see the Gulf of Corinth, a narrow cleft between chasms, cut _ sheer through like a cheese. You arrive at Athens about 5.15, having had lunch served in the air. Mere you will bo taken to the hotel Grand Bretagne, passing the Temple of Zeus. You will nave time to visit the Parthenon before dinner. Leaving Athens at 6 a.m. you fuel at Mirabella, Crete. While this is being done you are taken aboard the Imperial Airways’ yacht for tea or drinks and a bathe, if you are quick, in the most transparent and ' loveliest of seas. Alexandria is reached .at 12.45 where you lunch. You are then taken to the station- where you board the train for Cairo. Imperial Airways have their own Pullman coach, most comfortable, with armchairs which you can move about, electric fans; and tea is served. You pass through miles and miles of cotton and maize. CAIRO AT NIGHT. Cairo is reached at 6.15 p.m. You dine on a. terrace, , with rose-shaded lights, and the life of Cairo passing by. But be wise and to bed early for you are being called at 1.30 a.m. This hardship was amply rewarded by the spectacle of Cairo from the air by night, with its glittering necklaces of lights.We took off. at 3 a.m. and at this hour (feeling rather like an ancient ruin myself) a steward switched off the lights, and while watching our red exhaust pipes and the blue sparks from one of the propellers. _ I fell fast asleep, to awaken ■to the "sun rising over the desert. Sleep if you can, for you are flying nearly 1,200 miles today, 1,181 to be exact,, the longest run on any Empire route. However, these machines are immensely comfortable, 1 and you will have three stops, Assiut, Aswan for breakfast, and Wadi Haifa for lunch. ‘ . .

Sun glasses are noy a necessity,Her, the desert is a yellow shimmering glare. I have not : hiehtioned that amazing river, the Nile. You.do- not fly over it the whole time" as you would on the northbound trip, but it is always there to greet you at Assiut, Aswam (of Dam fame), Wadi Haifa and Khartoum. Northbound you will see it all the way; and do not miss the temple at Abu Simbel near Wadi Haifa. Our kindly pilot new all over this temple to enable ua to take photos and also for our pleasure took us oyer Luxor find the Valley of Kings. There is so much to see, the Great Barrage at Aswam, the Temple of Isis now surrounded -by water,. and thq hundreds of - villages all ■ along the banks of the Nile....

Khartoum is _ reached 1 fit 5 p.m.J and here as always the most comfortable of hotels;_ your own private bathroom and. dinner: on the terrace with' the -Nile flowing past. Here are silver, ivory , and leather things laid out to tempt you to buy. They are niade in Omdurman.

It is difficult to realise we dined and slept in Cairo last night, aid here wb dine and sleep nearly 1,200 miles away> This is the junction of the Blue and White Niles. We now follow the White Nile through the Anglo-Egyptiari Sudan. Leaving Khartoum at 6 a.m. you have two stops. Kosti, then Malakal for lunch. The next and final stop for the day is Juba, a jumping-off place for the Belgian Congo.

FAMOUS HERD OF 3QO ELEPHANTS, It is between Malakal and Juba that you may, if you are lucky, see the famous Bor herd of between three and four hundred elephants. A truly marvellous spectacle. At the Juba Hotel I was greeted by a most, friendly Uganda cob and some baby ostriches. Countries follow, quickly how. Uganda; you fuel at Entebbe; then along the edge of Lgke Victoria Nyanza to Kisumu in Kenya, and right on the Equator, You leave the Hahnibal machine at Kisumu for another of. the. Atalanta type. This last machine, which flies from Kisumu to Capo Town, is not as comfortable as the Hannibal, which is left with much regret, but, is much faster. From Kisumu ,to Nairobi, a short flight, to tho' ever-welcome bath and dinner. Landing, at Nairobi you will see much game peacefully grazing on the aerodrome. Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles, zebra, and hartebeest. LIKE A VAST CHRISTMAS PUDDING. , You leave Nairobi at 7.30 the following morning, and We fl.ew, very high above the inist. It. was _ a beautiful sight to see pile upon pile of white fleecy clouds beneath us, arid one could take endless photos of fine cloud effects. We also had a marvellous but fleeting view of Kilimanjaro, looking like a vast Christmas pudding covered with white icing. Breakfast at Mbslii. Grape fruit, sausages, and bacon and eggs seem _ especially good after the early morning flight. . Between Dodoma and Mbeya you cross the Sererigeti Plains,, which _ are simply .covered With game, and as it is very flat, open, country you get, marvellous views of hundreds of antelope, zebra, etc. We saw a herd of about forty elephants, the babies walking her tween the females, while the bulls stood on the outside of the herd with raised trunks and outspread ears, at the shadow of our passing. The ground here, as in the Sud, is covered with game trails. . ‘ : .You reach Mbeya at 3.30 p.m., which means a good, long rest. This is your last night’s stop before reaching Salisbury. ' ' .. I have but one regretv and, that is that my first view, of the Pyrariiids was from the air, arid they looked like a child’s bricks.