Around Mother Africa Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #447)

mountain range Lusaka handed us over to Mbeya but the pilot tried in vain to establish contact with Mbeya and called over and over again "Mbeya, Mbeya!" As we passed through the neck we flew over a series of parallel ranges and the weather seemed to be changing rapidly. The mountains were full of air pockets which made the light plane bounce up and down once more. Now and again we went through patches of mist and the pilot was still trying to contact Mbeya. In desperation he tried to keep on course by following the direction of the motor road which on the mountains turned and twisted as usual. A fast moving plane flying low and which turned and twisted the air was by itself not a very pleasant experience. But suddenly the mist thickened and we could not even see the road. Once we narrowly missed a mountain on the left and it was a shattering experience to hear the SOS go off high up in the air and I noticed that even the confident and experienced pilot was concerned. The ever loquacious Joe had become speechless and his eyes seemed to grow bigger and bigger. But he and the pilot appeared more resigned than I was in the back seat. I must have surely fainted when the mountain suddenly reared up on our left and I expected the journey to end at any moment with the plane like a pancake against some cliff. Suddenly we came through the mountain into as clear and beautiful a day as before we reached the range. Mbeya was far to our left and we reached it from the West instead of East as we would have done if we had kept it on course. We had flown non stop for 6 hours and for that day our journey had ended. We booked in at the local hotel and we found a non racial crowd in which the people in small