CAPETOWN TO CAIRO

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 76, 9 March 1931, Page 5

CAPETOWN TO CAIRO

THE NEW AIR SERVICE. DURBAN, Jan. 13. This month Imperial Airways will open the first leg of a regular Cape to Cairo air service, scheduled to complete the journey in eight days. The first leg of the flight will bo from the north—from Cairo to Kisumu, a distance of 2620 miles. This leg will consume four days of flying, including stops for meals at aerodromes en route, and night stops at Assuan, Khartoum and Juba. In April, when the meteorological services south of Kismu arc expected to be working, the flights from Kisumu to Capetown will begin. The air route will follow the highlands, partly for flying reasons, and partly because the white population is mainly confined to the more elevated areas.

The fifth night from Cairo will ho spent at Mbeya-, after intermediate stops at Nairobi, Moshi (where Kilimanjaro appears in its snow-capped dome about the plains), and Dodonm. After Mbeya the flight, will continue through Rhodesia to Broken Hill and Salisbury, where the sixth night will be spent. Thence the flight will pass over the Matoppo Hills, and the grave of Cecil Rhodes, the empire-builder, who first dreamed of the Cape to Cairo Toute. From Rhodesia tho airway will lie over the goldflelds, farms and plantations of South' Africa, u,nd across tho Great Karroo to Capetown. When the full service is in operation it will be possible to travel from London to Capetown in 11 days. Tho fastest steamers take 15 davs. The full fare, including hotel and restaurnnt\aceomraodation, will be £125, which compares quite favourably with the steamer rates, which range from £(10 *o £9O. Rhodos' idea was a through Capeto Cairo train-service. The. conquest of the air has found a shorter way.