Overland To Cairo By Any Means (The African Quartet Book 1) - Emerson Grossmith

Overland To Cairo By Any Means (The African Quartet Book 1) by Emerson Grossmith

Book excerpt

Going overland in 1982—‘my African Experience’

En route to Africa

The idea of going to Africa in the first place started out innocently as just a dream via a long distance aerogramme from my younger brother who had been recently posted to Nigeria.

Harry, and his girlfriend (later wife Kate), had gone to Manchok Teacher’s College in Kaduna State, Nigeria to train teachers as part of their ‘African experience’ for the Canadian University Services Overseas (CUSO) in 1981.

In a letter sent to me dated December 1981 from Nigeria, they invited me to join them in Kenya for the following Easter 1982, he wrote:

‘I realize this sounds like a hair-brain[sic] scheme but I really (and Kate too) want you to come… if you are interested, the quickest way to let us know is to send a telegram. They only take about four to five days [to get here]. We will also do the same if it looks like you’re coming. So start saving your money!!’

Nowadays, this would not seem like quite an obstacle what with e-mail, cell phones and i-Phones, but this was pre-internet days so god knows what might happen to a telegram travelling between Canada and Nigeria in 1981.

Nevertheless, the die was cast, so to say and I started thinking of that hot, tropical land called Africa as an adventure of sorts.

Unfortunately, at the time, I was freezing my ass off working in the great frozen north of Canada and even trying to send a telegram from Spirit River, Alberta seemed insurmountable.

However, with the aid of a remote ‘camp phone’, and an annoying five-second delay, I was able to arrange travel plans with my travel agent in Calgary.

Initially, I sketched out some rough travel plans that would include a trip starting in Calgary, flying to Los Angeles, then via Hawaii, onto to the Orient (Tokyo, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bangkok), and finally arriving in Kenya sometime in March, 1982.

My lovely travel agent in Calgary had tried to talk me into going with one of the many overland companies that do overland trips, i.e. Guerba or Kontiki Expeditions to name two. They organized these mega overland treks that lasted months usually starting out in London or Amsterdam and finishing in either Nairobi or South Africa.

The idea of being crammed cheek by jowl in a 4X4 huge overland truck for months on end through the vast continent did not appeal to me. I also knew that many couples who went on this type of trip often broke up with some girlfriends finding comfort in their 4X4 driver.

Moreover, this was not my idea of travel and what if you liked a place and wanted to stay longer—then what?

Seemed a no brainer to me: I wanted to be on my schedule not on some company’s itinerary.

***

At any rate, my job in northern Alberta entailed living in a remote camp and working outdoors in minus 50 F doing geophysical surveying for potential oil drilling rigs for Shell Canada. I usually worked 21 days on with a week off between shifts so as not to get ‘cabin fever’ in the Canadian mid-winter.

Given the magnitude and multitude of difficulties in timetables and flights—my brother and I never really expected to pull it off or to actually rendezvous in Kenya.

To quote from a later letter my brother sent me dated January 17th, 1982:

‘IMPORTANT—the time frame you gave us for your trip seems a bit tight. Do you think you can make it through L.A. - Honolulu - Japan -Taiwan - Thailand - Kenya in one month? Would it not be better to fly to Kenya first and go east instead? …I don‘t know what the chances are of us meeting in Kenya, but it sure would be fun!’

Well, to say the least, the timing was crucial as there was only a three-week window of opportunity in which to connect with my brother and his girlfriend in Kenya.

As luck would have it, I was able to put together back-to-back 21-day shifts in the “Great White North” of Alberta with the last shift being solid overtime.

As a result of the double shifts, I did manage a short, but exciting stay in Hawaii and the Far East as I left Canada earlier than expected by about a month.

This was the first time that I was doing an around-the-world-trip.

Upon arriving in Hawaii, the gorgeous stewardess put a lei of flowers around my head and I must have looked quite a sight as I left the plane with the flowery lei on me.

Moreover, I was a tad naïve regarding the discomfiture that a traveller actually has to endure to complete such a task.

For one thing, I was totally ignorant of the concept of reconfirming onward flights, especially from Hawaii which, incidentally, just happened to be the wedding destination for Japanese tourists at this time of year.

I ended up being stuck in Hawaii during this wedding month of March. As a result of failing to reconfirm my onward flight, I subsequently missed my initial flight to Japan.

This entailed returning to the airport in Honolulu every morning in the hopes of a Japanese couple cancelling their flight home or extending their honeymoon.

Killing time in Hawaii was not such a bad sentence, as I am sure there were worse places one could be stuck in.

I often went to Waikiki Beach with a jovial German chap who was an airline steward for Lufthansa. He was on a stopover from an onward flight and he summed up my situation the best as we laid under palm trees in the brilliant sunshine—

‘Eine anderrer scheisse tag in Paradiseh!’

I asked Klaus what this meant and he answered—

‘Another shitty day in Paradise!’

Beach life caught up with me as I burnt myself to a crisp on one of those days and suffered, as I could not lie on my back in the stuffy Honolulu Youth Hostel.

I soon grew tired of going to the airport and left my pack in left luggage and just took the bare minimum with me back to the hostel. As a result, I often showed up at the airport to enquire about possible cancellations in just swimming trunks, tank top and flip-flops.

This is exactly what transpired when I eventually got a seat and the boarding clerk told me I only had twenty minutes to catch the flight.

I had to run to the left luggage, grab my gear and have a small carry-on K-Way with pants, shirt, undies, shoes and socks. I checked my pack in and ran for the passport control and boarded the flight all sweaty from the run—luckily I made it on time.