The English press record our adventurous trip!

I  thought that, before I start the story of my life in Rhodesia,  I would include this newspaper cutting which was printed in the Evening Chronicle, the daily paper circulated in the Bath area in Somerset, shortly after our arrival in Salisbury.

As it is difficult to read, this is a reprint.

BATH MAN TELLS OF 8,000 MILES BY CAR TO AFRICA.

Elephant Gave Them Their Most Anxious Moment.

After a road journey of nearly 8,000 miles from Bath, Mr and Mrs Donald Beak, formerly of Fiveways Garage, Batheaston, and their two children are now settling down in Southern Rhodesia.

They went there the hard way, driving in their own Land Rover through France, across the Sahara and on through Africa, to start a new life in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia's capital.

Now they are making their home in a caravan which they had sent on to Southern Rhodesia by sea.  In their hotel just after their arrival Mr Beak said " We decided to emigrate because of the high taxation in England.  We chose Southern Rhodesia because we thought it would be the most pleasant of the places in the Commonwealth, to which we could go.

WIFE'S IDEA

"Going by road was my wife's idea.  We spent six months planning the trip and another six months getting ready.  We started off from Bath on Jan 22 - my wife Dulcie, our son David, aged 16 and our daughter Diane aged nine, and myself."

After crossing France they sailed on Jan 29 to Algiers.  "On Feb 3, we started what we expected would be the worst patch of the journey, the crossing of the Sahara.  It is waste land of every description - mountains and flats, sand and rock, with no sign of life of any kind.

"Actually it was not as bad as we had expected.  The road is a rough track, but it was negotiable for a vehicle like ours.

"We stopped every so often for water, which was available at wells; there was also petrol at pick up points.

"There is a certain amount of traffic across the desert.  Transport trucks supplying the desert villages make a series of patrols and the Foreign Legion forts keep in touch by radio, so travellers are not completely lost."

THE TRUE DESERT

"The true desert is the section between Tamanrasset and In Guezzam - 250 miles of soft sand.  We got across it in 10 hours and had to dig ourselves out only twice.  I got across by simply driving flat out.  For long stretches there was no road at all and we had to drive by compass.

"We stayed four days at the hotel in Kano.  Here £70 was stolen from my brief case in a hotel wardrobe.

"On the way to Fort Archambault we went through Bongor, the most primitive town we saw on our journey,  The natives wore literally no clothes and were still using the disc ornaments which they carry in the lips and ears.  Some were carrying bows and arrows. They were though very friendly and brought us a bowl of milk.  The roads here were fair, but there were many hazards. We crossed the rivers on primitive native ferries and once we had to make a big detour because a bridge had collapsed.

"Once a bridge collapsed under us and we could not get the car free until 60 or 70 natives had come to our rescue.

"We crossed the equator at 6,000 feet and had never felt so cold in our lives.  We did not have a 'crossing the line ceremony' because we were not quite sure where the line was."

After crossing the equator, the party had an experience which they will remember for the rest of their days.

"Driving along a narrow road we suddenly saw the hind quarters of an elephant - 15 feet away"  Mr Beak said.  "He turned around, blocked the road, flapped his ears and raised his trunk; it was an anxious moment. "He started to walk towards us.  We just banged into reverse gear and drove back 150 yards - and believe me, no car ever reversed so fast!

WADDLED OFF

"For 15 minutes the elephant stood and watched us.  We thought of all the stories we had heard about elephants in that part of the country over-turning cars.  Then the elephant rubbed his back on a tree, turned and waddled off.  We decided to make a dash for it.  We drove towards the spot where he had left the road - only to find him touching distance away.  We just scraped past him racing by so as to give him no time to do anything.  It worked - we didn't see any more of him."

Later they heard lions, and saw a leopard crossing the road at night.

OVER THE BORDER

When they crossed the border into Northern Rhodesia they felt they "were getting somewhere".  By now the miles to Salisbury had come down to 3 figures - all the way so far it had been four.

"We crossed the Zambezi into Southern Rhodesia at Chirundu and drove to Salisbury.  When we started the mileage on our speedometer was 5,160; when we arrived  we had clocked up to 12,896 - we had done 7,736 miles" Mr Beak said.

" We didn't have a puncture throughout the journey. We broke three springs, which we replaced, and we replaced a water pump gland; that was all the mechanical trouble we had.  To drive to Southern Rhodesia is a good trip for an engineer, but it's no ride for a novice.

"And Southern Rhodesia, well here we are now, living in our caravan at Coronation park, Salisbury;.  It looks fine - we like it very much.  I am going to get a job and look around" he added.

My Life Before Charente to be continued :-) 

 

The section of my life story during our overland trip is published on Kindle if you should be interested:-

 

See

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/THE-GREAT-1953-TREK-ebook/dp/B008KK0KHU/ref=pd_ys_iyr1

French Equatorial Africa to the Belgian Congo

February 25 1953 (Wednesday) Land Mileage 4383

We started later than usual, due to the fact that we had been late the night before and we were definitely less rested than in previous days!  It was 07h00 before we got going, only to find after a short distance that we needed to stop again, as the petrol line was choked. Dad removed it and used the air line  to try to get it clear, but in the end he had to give it a really good clean out, with the result we lost another hour before we were moving once more.   David, meanwhile, had found some bananas; they were very green and never did ripen, but it was exciting to think that we had found bananas straight from the tree, even if inedible! We were used, of course, to getting our bananas  from the supermarket!

We passed several of the locals, who all appeared to be out hunting, carrying spears, bows and arrows. They seemed to be following a fire, which we later found out that they had lit purposely. They followed along behind the fire and collected the dead animals caught up in its wake for food; this we understood included things like rats and snakes. I must say we found the whole idea pretty revolting, but presumably it was an easy way for them to get a meal.

At 11h30, we went through the village of Kembe and crossed the Kotto River; here we stopped to enjoy the view and take some photographs. There were some really stunning rapids where we stopped; they were quite lovely and sparkling in the bright sunshine, as the water rushed over the rocks.

Kotto River Falls

After a brief break, we were on the road once more. Passing through the village of Gambo, we saw a Citroën with a Cape to London sticker on it. We discovered later that it was a man from Bulawayo, Rhodesia, who was in the process of breaking the record for this trip. He had no idea how lucky he was to pass us by where he did! Only a few minutes later, we were crossing a wooden bridge over the M'Bari River, when one of the planks collapsed underneath us, leaving us tilted at a pretty precarious angle. 

Apologies for the lousy quality of this photo; however,  I am  surprised that Mum even remembered to take it!  Looks like my Dad on the right of the photo..... thankfully the Land Rover did not roll over on to him!

David, Mum and I scrambled out over the driver's seat to safety and fortunately the water level was very low, though very smelly and unpleasant. Dozens of locals suddenly appeared on the scene and said they would help to get us out for the equivalent of £2. We had very little choice but to go along with them and with much chanting, the four of us doing most of the work, we finally got the vehicle on an even keel again, but on the wrong side of the bridge!   By this time, more reinforcements had arrived and we seemed to be surrounded with people demanding more money. Dad gave us a wink to get back in the vehicle and after parting with the promised £2, (a vast sum in that part of Africa in those days) he started up and before they realised what we were about to do, we had shot across the bridge missing the broken plank. David looked back and said they obviously thought it was a big joke, as they were all laughing and waving to us.

At 14h30, it started to rain, not too heavily, but the first we had seen since leaving France and it was enough to make it an unpleasant driving experience. We carried on for another one and a half hours, until we arrived at Bangassou. This was on the border between French Equatorial Africa and the Belgian Congo, and we had to cross by ferry over the River M'Bomu. We also needed to fill up with fuel; this we discovered was very expensive there and we did not have enough cash on us!   We found another very helpful Frenchman, who extricated us from a difficult situation by cashing a traveller's cheque and he then invited us to his house for a drink.

Having decided to stay the night, we managed to arrange a room at the local rest house. This had stand-up baths, which we found quite unique, but loads of hot water, so we managed to have really enjoyable clean up. We then cooked our own supper and had the privilege of sitting at a table to eat it!   David slept on our own camp bed in the room, but Dad, Mum and I slept in the Land Rover. The room had no beds, and as we only had the one camp bed, David was the only one who slept indoors.

To be continued :-) 

 

I have put this section of my life story on Kindle if you should be interested:-

 

See

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/THE-GREAT-1953-TREK-ebook/dp/B008KK0KHU/ref=pd_ys_iyr1