Sunday 5 May
Airborne at 0615, we entered what was then “Palestine” (coloured red on the map) at the oil pipe terminal at Haifa. I asked the new Captain why we were heading so far North , and he said something about picking up a passenger, but the Tiberias stop was probably for the saving of the souls of those who had had a good run ashore at Alex. We alighted on the Sea of Galilee, where the altimeter must have looked odd if QNH was set as the surface was 640 ft below sea level. We were not invited ashore but I was dispatched to the entry port to fill a bottle with the water, which my mother thought might have some curative properties for air sickness. My mother points out that the Roman Tiberias, where Peter walked on the water, was by then well under the Sea. (I vouch not for her history nor her geography!). On down the pipeline to Lake Habbaniyah, outside Baghdad, which my mother logs as a refueling stop, although I do not recall it at all. (The RAF station, visited in the 50s, was beautiful, but the lake was entirely forgettable). By now we were cruising I suppose between 5,000 and 10,000 ft to escape the low level turbulence over the desert. It was quite cool and passengers were in tropical kit, so blankets were issued. Map-reading may have been a problem because of the 4/8 cloud cover, but there was a DF loop which presumably Mr Marconi was working. I believe the WOP was a Marconi’s employee on secondment to Imperial. Our landing on the Shat at Basra was at 1630 and it was extremely hot, humid and oppressive. There was often a long time between alighting and picking up a mooring, when the entry port could be opened, and the interior heated up during this period. Mum hired a taxi and took us for a ride down town. Not a very distinguished city, but the (then new) airport hotel was superb with large and air conditioned rooms – a novelty!. We were also able to get some dhobi done overnight – which was becoming urgent.
Monday 6 May
We were called at 0300 and this was the only time, I believe, when we used a flare path of kerosene goosenecks mounted on floats. I imagine the guard launches had quite a time keeping dhows, driftwood and dead camels off the fairway; such problems were never mentioned to us by the crew, although the “new” captain delighted in winding up my sister by pointing where and how previous Imperial aircraft had come to grief. “ My old friend Capt Bloggins forgot to lower his flaps at (****) a few years ago and somersaulted. Nobody was drowned, though”. “One of the old HP42 Hannibals disappeared somewhere along here in (****). They think the wings must have got tired and fallen off”. From then on my sister’s eyes were riveted to the wings when it got a bit bumpy, and she used to wait in agony until the flap motors started to whine on approaches. Refueling was done at the mooring from tanker barges and the passengers were invariably taken off during this operation – either ashore, or for a ride in a high speed launch. At Bahrein, Shell (or whoever) really played a blinder and over-filled us. The excess arrived in the forward mail compartment and the whole aircraft stank of Avgas. The rear door by my seat was opened to help clear the fumes which, combined with the heat, helped to settle no passenger’s tummy. The next stop was Dubai. We did not see the old Imperial fort at Sharjah, where we would have slept if we had night-stopped, but the Imperial Agent still lived there. My mother says that “two Arab guards festooned with cartridge belts showed us their inlaid silver daggers, demonstrating how they were used by passing their fingers across their throats. They then took (my sister) and Mike to see a dead camel!” Anything to keep the young amused. The Baluchistan coast was “bleak and desolate”, says my mother “ a country of deep ravines and dried hills”. We landed at Karachi at 1630, and “were put up at a rotten old-fashioned bungalow hotel. We drove out on a long barren road to the sea view, but it was so dirty we did not stay long”. I think it was at this point I first experienced Gyppy tum – possibly from drinking Galilee water!. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">
[ 01 February 2002: Message edited by: Flatus Veteranus ] I suppose it was "Delhi Belly" <img src="eek.gif" border="0">
[ 01 February 2002: Message edited by: Flatus Veteranus ]</p>