Hectic Times - 1962 - 1963
Periods of leave gave opportunities for the type of travel, hitherto the preserve of the rich. In Tanganyika I trod the snows of Mt. Kilimanjro. Travelled to northern Uganda's Ruwenzories, the fabled 'Mountains of the Moon'. Spent restful days at Ripon Falls Hotel on the Victoria Nile. Watched a sunrise reflected by the Kazinga Channel connecting Lake Edward and Lake George. Shrouded in mist I stood on the lip of Murchison Falls where the Nile thunderously cascades into Lake Albert. Fleeting moments, but memories that would long remain. My first year in Africa soon passed, with many a travelled mile behind me. A two-week deployment to Zanzibar. Another exercise, another spectacle, another place to be explored. The spires and minarets of the Sultans palace. Zanzibar's famous carved doors. The harbour with its bobbing dhows and dead, bloated animals. The aroma of spices and suspect drains. Added together it created an image of moth eaten centuries. The two-week internal security exercise with the Scots Guards proved to be time wasted, for soon after our departure, Zanzibar suffered a coup. As the news broke an aircraft was deployed from Nairobi to the coastal town of Mombassa, 150 miles across shark infested waters from the island. (Journalistically the waters around Zanzibar were always shark infested). The plan, if one existed, was never revealed. We took lunch at a nearby hotel and waited while telex messages flashed between Nairobi and the Foreign Office. The Sultan had fled the island; the rebels now controlled all key points, there was no defence treaty, so with a sense of relief, and quite happy to have lost the war, we flew back to Nairobi, and tea.
June 1963
- Operation "Alfred"
South to Swazi
Two thousand miles south of Nairobi, sharing borders with South Africa and Mozambique, lies the tiny Kingdom of Swaziland. In June 1963 the colony was gripped by a wave of illegal strikes and civil disturbances that threatened a total breakdown of law and order. With the events of the Congo still fresh in people's minds, a battalion of the Gordon Highlanders was dispatched swiftly south. Taking several days, and staging through S. Rhodesia, two 21 squadron aircraft were eventually in support at Matsapa Airport, close by the town of Manzini. Within hours of the troop's arrival, all trouble and disturbances ceased. The following six weeks proved a struggle just to keep ourselves occupied. Flying to outlying districts, checking landing strips at Big Bend, Piggs Peak, and Havelock, where the landscape was disfigured by the white dust from an asbestos mine. Leaflet dropping to allay the fears of the local bantu who had been told by the agitators that we had come to harm them. More distant strip checks across the border to the mountain kingdom of Baustoland. Flights for the local school children, and flagrant, very flagrant, over fraternisation with the local white population. Perhaps the highlight was acting as Her Majesty's military representatives at the wedding of King Sobhuza's daughter. Resplendent in best uniform we attended the marriage site on a windswept hillside close to Manzini. The bride was radiant, the guests, colourful and I felt distinctly overdressed, but the experience was never to be forgotten. The weeks passed swiftly, shares in Castle Breweries most likely tripled during our short stay, but finally our presence could no longer be justified and were ordered north, home to Nairobi. (One staging point on the journey was the Rhodesian Air Force base at New Sarum on the outskirts of Salisbury. Named for the ancient site of Old Sarum on the outskirts of Salisbury, Wiltshire).
The Bride - Radiant
The Guests - Colourful