The First Seventy Years: 50 - Travelling Home
Eric Biddulph and his family set out to tavel overland from Malawi to England in an old Ford car.
Moira's deportation threw her plans to travel overland with David Gray back to the UK into turmoil. David's contract ended at Easter 1973 and he made arrangements to meet her in Turkey and travel eastwards together into Indonesia and beyond. Their intended itinerary had triggered a rethink by Mary and myself. Should we return to the UK overland as an alternative to flying? After a short deliberation we decided we should explore the possibility of travelling overland as a family. The first port of call was to arrange a meeting with the university finance officer to seek an assurance that I would be paid the equivalent amount of money to fund the trip as would be incurred in meeting the cost of the air fares. He agreed to do so but would require me to confirm when I had arrived back in the UK.
The second stage was to book a passage on a ship to India. This turned out to be easier said than done; involving dealing with agents in South Africa. A passage was secured with the Indian Shipping Line sailing from Mombasa to Bombay, now called Mumbai, in mid-July 1973. Having been required to vacate our flat at the end of June we moved in with Vic Newcombe pending our departure for the drive northwards into Kenya to join the ship. A mini-crisis arose when from the Indian Shipping Line office in Mombasa sent a telegram to tell me that the sailing had been cancelled.
Frantic messages to the agent in South Africa followed asking him to find me another sailing. Passage was arranged to sail on the MV Asia, an Italian ship sailing from Trieste to Bombay by way of the Cape and East Africa. 13 August 1973 out of Mombasa arriving on Jane's birthday, 19 August.
Arrangements for the trip had to be tightly drawn. Space was going to be at a premium in the two door Ford Escort which was going to transport us back to the UK. A box was made and bolted to the roof-rack to provide us with much needed extra storage space. The car was given a full service and a thorough inspection of everything that was vital to a successful and uneventful marathon journey across three continents.
We acquired a three-berth ridge tent with a bell-end which we fitted out with a shaped sponge rubber mat. This would be big enough for Paul to sleep on. The day of departure duly arrived and I pointed the car northwards. Zomba came and went. Lilongwe; Rumphi; Mzuzu until we crossed into Zambia for the one hundred kilometres drive to the border with Tanzania. Mbeya; Iringa; Dodoma to reach what is Africa's best location for wildlife; Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti Plains. Setting up camp in Lake Manyara Game Park we were soon to experience baboons out to steal food. A stone throwing session eventually persuaded them to go away but not before we had experienced gnashed teeth and loud hissing.
As the sun went down I realised that our pitch was very close to the path used by the elephants to reach their watering hole. This was a little scary; would our tent be trampled underfoot? Fortunately, they had a very well defined route and although it passed close to our site the elephants did not seem unduly perturbed by our presence.
On a drive in the Park I suddenly came upon a rhino. Having just emerged from a watering hole it had a clear line showing demarcation between wet and dry skin; a golden photographic opportunity. We moved on to camp for a few days on the ridge looking down into the Ngorogoro Crater. It was expensive to take a trip into the Crater and I was a little anxious about parting with such a large sum of money so early in what was going to be a marathon journey. In retrospect it was a regrettable mistake not to do the trip.
