Another Gold Coaster
I was just being anorakish - if that's a word - when I came upon this thread on Google regarding Vikings to West Africa. Too many memories came back so, sorry, but I just had to add my two-penneth.
In about 1954 I flew with my mother to Accra on a Hunting Clan Viking. It took about two days and the stop-over was Tangiers. Can't remember there being any other stop-over, but it was a journey of lots of little hops round the west coast of Africa. At times the turbulence was such that I can still hear the immense rustling of sick-bags! - Sorry if you're reading this while having breakfast or similar.
Other memories:
Well, I too would visit Accra airport to watch the planes come and go while drinking coke or fanta over the road at the Lisbon Hotel, behind the car park, where only a white picket fence kept onlookers from the tarmac.
Favourite was the Air Liban DC 7C; I think I just liked the 'Christmas tree' on the tail.
And yes, I too went to Achimota school, probably from about '54 to '57 when I returned to the UK to boarding school. I would have been approx. two years older than William Boyd, although we sometimes shared lifts together as I lived at Mile Seven on the Accra-Aburi road and William might have lived at Legon at that time, again memory fails me. Sandy was also our doc. and of course played golf with my dad. I think they won a pairs cup together at some point. Although whether at the Accra course or Achimota I can't remember.
Also a frequent flyer on the 'lollipop specials' first with Argonauts and then Strats. and Britannias finishing with 707s. Didn't fly VC10s until being posted to Kuwait with my job in 1979, probably one of the last scheduled flights. In the early days they would route across Europe via Rome or Frankfurt to Tripoli and then Kano, sometimes Lagos, and then Accra.
Does anyone remember the old Arab with the camels at Kano airport who would periodically blow a huge horn?
I was last in Ghana in Jan. '67 for the Xmas holidays and my father eventually left in '69. He worked for a construction company, George Watson and Co. and was involved in building many parts of the university at Legon and other projects. Like a lot of the men the golf club was the cornerstone of the community, and the clubhouse was humming every evening until the men were persuaded home by the wives and families. Lots of Star and Club beer involved of course!
Lots of happy memories and good to know there's still a few young 'Gold Coasters' kicking around out there. And all this because of a few old plane nuts too!