A curious picture...

[FlyTexas]

Kitty cats! Thanks for sharing that pic as well as your other wonderful pics, Peter.

Brian

[petermcleland]

You are welcome gents!...I'm having a lot of fun sorting through these transparencies and building an archive of digital pictures...The eventual aim is to place the whole thing on DVD and send a copy each to members of my family. Plays hell with my nose though as each slide has dust that needs to be cleaned off with the blower brush before scanning and I'm a bit alergic to dust...Had a bonus discovery this afternoon. A sealed plastic box of plastic mounted Agfacolor slides with no dust...They cover a tour down in South Africa after I had taken part in a pistol championship in 1979. The slides were taken as we toured the battle grounds of Ishandlewana and Rourke's Drift and with such a nice box, they are not dusty!

EDIT...It was 100 years after the battles in 1879

[speedbird591]

When we stayed at the PanAfric you could hear the Lions at night from the hotel

Leif, I can't help thinking that at some time in the past we must have been drinking in the same bar! The Panafric I remember very well. Tusker beers in the Simba Grill and the room key chained to a huge wooden animal so you wouldn't lose it and the kitehawks by the pool that could swoop and snatch a whole hamburger out of your hand without you seeing it coming

The edge of Nairobi NP came up to the airport perimeter fence and it wasn't unusual to see giraffe looking over the top of it!

Ian ;-)

[cstorey]

We used to stay at the Norfolk which sadly I think was blown up at some stage. The Masai Mara was quite wonderful in those days ( early-mid 70s) and I wonder what it is all like now

[DispatchDragon]

Ian
its very very liekly we did cross paths - did you ever here the story about the cargo crew who convinced a bunch of very
drunk Callie trolley dollies to streak the atrium lobby of the Nairobi Hilton??? would have been 74 I guess -- thats why we
moved to the Panafic

Oh yes and We (AAY) have a Captain who comes from Nairobi in fact she learned to fly at Wilson, she says Nairobi NP
is fairly unchanged as is the mara - elsewhere thought htere is horrible poaching


Leif

[Filonian]

Thanks for posting Peter. Keep 'em coming.

Wonder how many gallons of Tusker I downed in Dar-es-Salaam before it became Ndovu? :drinkers:

Graham

[petermcleland]

Wonder how many gallons of Tusker I downed in Dar-es-Salaam before it became Ndovu?

Golly! Graham...I didn't even know they had changed its name...I only went to Dar-es-Salaam once and that was 25th to 26th August 1959. We had Venom FB4s at the time and we flew down on the 25th from Eastleigh. That day and the next we did flypasts and Formation and Solo aerobatic displays over Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam for the Sultan of Zanzibar's 80th birthday...I was number four in the aeros team and I did the solo displays, so I was a rather busy chap and burned a lot more fuel than the others...I did my solo display out of the downward "Bombshell Break" (the last manoeuvre of the formation aeros display). So while the other chaps were wending their way back to Dar, I was "Flat Out" boring around Zanzibar trying not to knock the the roof off the Sultan's palace. I got back to Dar with a few drops left, but that didn't stop me replenishing all my lost sweat with Tusker lager :flying:

Dar-es Salaam is such a charming and mysterious name...I wonder what Ndovu means in Swahili :think:

[petermcleland]

Here is one for Leif...A Viscount at Lusaka:-



I think it was Castle Lager there Leif

[Filonian]

Wonder how many gallons of Tusker I downed in Dar-es-Salaam before it became Ndovu?

Golly! Graham...I didn't even know they had changed its name...

Dar-es Salaam is such a charming and mysterious name...I wonder what Ndovu means in Swahili :think:

Peter. it changed in '72/'73' after some sort of fall out in the East African Federation. The bottle had a picture of an effalump's head on the label. Not too sure about the direct translation of Ndovu - either elephant or tusk. Snow Cap became White Cap if I remember correctly. Grey cells tend to dim after such a long time :roll: :roll:

We used to call it Dar-es-Alarm, due to Idi Idiot's continual rantings. One story was of a supposed bombing of a border village. We worked it out that a Cessna flew over and dropped a couple of hand grenades. Story has it that soldiers were seen running out of the huts and into the bush, pulling up their trousers. Don't know what they had been up to.

On another occasion, after a heavy session at the Kawe Club, I can remember being woken up twice by a rather loud bang and all my windows rattling. First fuddled thoughts - monsoon season. Then looking out - no clouds - not due yet anyway?

Next day, one of my lads came up to me and said that British Commandos had landed during the night and tried to blow up the bridge over the creek. :roll:

My reply - cobblers, or words to that effect. If our lads had attempted that, I assured them that the bridge would have gone -along with the Italian Club and Sun and Sands Hotel. This would have, of course, been a major inconvenience because that was the only road out of town to the Kawe Club.

These explosions went on for about a week, and I can remember walking down Askari Avenue - bang - turned and looked down a side road just in time to see the bonnet of a chauffeur driven car sailing majestically into the air. The poor driver suffered busted eardrums.

Etiennes on Ocean Road was another of my favourite watering holes, being just 100 yards from my house, and it was not uncommon to hear me, a lad from Leeds and a lad from Hull break into a drunken chorus of "Ten Green Bottles" in pigin Swahili. Not a pretty sound.

On another occasion, when the Peoples Militia was forming, I used to give arms drill to my lads with their wooden rifles. My warped sense of humour caused me to lose gallons of sweat. When I was asked why the overtime list had not been posted, I replied, "No overtime this W/E, but you are to report Saturday morning, in uniform, ready to be transported up to the border to do battle with Idi's men, thereby allowing me to sleep safe in my bed." My guillotine operator promptly legged it - he having only joined up for the uniform and boots - leaving me to cut the chipboard for the printing machines. He came back after an hour or so, having got the job sussed out. Think I lost about two stones during that.

I used to have a little tale, thus: -

I was quenda..ring down the bara bara in me garri, when I ran into the back of a taka taka wagon. There was a hell of a shauri.

Basically, I was driving down the road in my car, when I ran into the back of a garbage truck. There was a hell of a row.


Enough of my ramblings, bored you all enough, must go and get the hoover out. Does anyone on here know of a tutorial on the swithing on, and use of same gadget?


p.s.

Swahili

Noun ndovu

elephant

Graham

[petermcleland]

Right...I misunderstood all that till I finally realised that they had NOT changed Dar-es-Salaam to Ndovu, but had changed the name of the beer :o

Hmmm...Thinking about it, I'm not sure which is worse...I rather liked the beer when it was called Tusker