86 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21The Mbeya Hotel is rather a curious one. It is
the nearest place to the Lupa Gold Field, and
the proprietor, a former gold prospector, told us
some rare tales of how the men frequently came
in from the diggings with their pockets full of
gold, ordered a case of champagne and sat round
it on the floor of the bar until it was empty. They
kept on drinking champagne until they had no
more gold, at which point they went back to the
diggings to find some more. Consequently they
never saved any money and usually died in the
diggings just as poor as when they had arrived.
The Faireys left Mbeya on March 5 for Broken
Hill [in Northern Rhodesia — now Zambia],
but we set out at 0700hr the following day.
The clouds were fairly low so we flew above
them, and for about an hour saw very little
of the ground. When we did eventually come
below the clouds we found that the country
had become more even, but was still covered
with bush. After some time we managed to find
Mpika in Northern Rhodesia, where we landed
at 0950hr to refuel.
An hour later we left Mpika for Broken Hill.
The clouds were still very low and tropical
storms reduced visibility to nil at times, but by
following the Great North Road we were able to
keep a check on our position. Towards Broken
Hill a vast plain opened out and large cultivated
farms appeared; we were gradually approaching
civilised South Africa.
A smudge of smoke on the horizon indicated
the industrial town of Broken Hill (now Kabwe),
where we landed at 1335hr. Speedily we made
our way towards Boon’s Hotel, where we were
to spend the night. Broken Hill is a town of thepast, its mineral resources seemingly exhausted;
there is no money in the town, and altogether the
prospects for its future look very bleak.
In the evening we went to have a sundowner
with the District Commissioner, and after dinner
went to a dance at the Railway Hotel. It was a
very dull affair and I am sorry to say that Broken
Hill was the only place we visited which we
were pleased to leave.Into Southern Rhodesia
At 0715hr on March 7 we were airborne and
set course for Salisbury [now Harare]. After an
hour’s flying we saw that a tremendous valley,
some 2,000ft [600m] deep, was intersecting
the country from east to west. It was the great
Zambezi river. The ground of Northern Rhodesia
seemed to drop away from underneath us, and
as we passed over the gorge, Southern Rhodesia
[now Zimbabwe] came up to meet us with a
bang. The clouds were low on the hilltops and it
was raining intermittently. So we had an exciting
half an hour dodging around cloud-covered
hills and trying to follow the Great North Road
at the same time, while keeping more or less in
formation with the other machines.
Presently the weather cleared as the average
height of the ground decreased, and in the
glorious sunshine we found ourselves flying
over rolling pasture lands broken only by ranges
of small hills, and I am almost positive I saw
two black lions about 100 miles [160km] before
we got to Salisbury. We landed at Salisbury
at 1015hr and found a large crowd waiting to
receive us, among whom was Leonard Jearey,
one of my friends who had just resigned fromKeeping the Victorias of No 216 Sqn company during
the 1934 East African tour were four Fairey IIIFs
of No 45 Sqn, based at Helwan near Cairo. The IIIF
was powered by a Napier Lion engine, and it was
presumably for the Faireys that a spare Lion engine
was carried beneath the starboard wing of No 2
Victoria for part of the 1934 tour.PHILIP JARRETT COLLECTION