Play It Again Sam

Some people are achievers for whom adventure is accomplished early in their lives. Perhaps they play sport to a high level be it playing rugby for England or scoring a hat-trick against Manchester United, moments for which they are rightly proud. Others serve time in the forces emerging with a tales of travel, achievements, moments of mischief and occasionally disaster. Mountaineers dream of climbing the highest mountains.

I was none of these and my adventures had been modest at best despite living a happy and full life but learning to fly at a later time in my life became the opportunity and inspiration for this adventure.

This is the story of realising my dream of adventure at the “young” age of seventy one, joining a group of intrepid aviators to fly from London to Cape Town in our single engine aircraft. We would fly down the picturesque East Coast of Africa and return by the more scary West Coast route traversing the thunderstorm belt at the equator both on the outbound and return journeys. The journey was not helped by the arrival of the Arab Spring uprising just as we were crossing North Africa.

The two months, that our journey took, were exhilarating, challenging, frustrating, relaxing and extremely hard work in roughly equal measures. We learnt that things rarely go to plan in Africa as suggested by the oft quoted response to problems of “TIA” - “This is Africa”.

I hope that you will enjoy my tale of succeeding against the odds, marvelling at the sights and people of Africa as well as sharing our flying safari with you from the comfort of your armchair.