From the left, Kevin Fearn, President Gillian and Ian Strachan, MBE.
Ian Strachan, MBE, and his wife, Judith, were the guests of the Club on Tuesday 3rd July. Ian transported us back to the days when adventure meant adventure with his talk of the flight he made from Bristol to Malawi in a two-seater Auster Observation plane.
His work in the Colonial Service in the fifties and sixties was in the former Nyasaland, now Malawi, and he was District Commissioner during independence in 1964. Eventually he had the idea that a return trip in early 1967 would be a real enterprise.
He arranged to meet Graham, an experienced Australian pilot, in Corsica so set off with his future wife Judith from Bristol on 4th January, but got lost over France. Eventually he made Corsica leaving Judith to return to Britain; she kept in touch for the rest of the journey accepting a proposal of marriage en-route.
Ian and Graham crossed the Med to Tripoli and hopped along the coast to Egypt and down the river to Aswam, being built at the time, and on to Khartoum, Entebbe, Nairobi and eventually Dar es Salaam. Ian recounted the many incidents along the way for refuelling, sightseeing and maintenance of the plane. Some were quite fun but many gave his audience moments of anxiety.
Such a venture was not without extreme danger and Ian, himself, suggested such a trip would not be possible today. However, sharing such tales made for a memorable evening.