MY TIME IN RHODESIA & BOTSWANA
On 28.12.72 I arrived in South Africa, after a two week journey from Southampton to Cape Town on the Transvaal Castle a Union Castle Liner. My travels started with a circular tour of South Africa and then I hitched from Cape Town, arriving at Beitbridge in Rhodesia on 26.3.1973. My last lift was from Pretoria, in South Africa, to Salisbury with a young South African on his way to join the Rhodesian army. It was a two day drive staying overnight in a motel at Beitbridge.
I had relations living in Salisbury, my uncle and two male cousins, but I had no idea of their address, only a post office box number. I went to the main post office, made a request, and was given an address which I visited only to find they had moved. The new residents kindly made some enquiries for me and managed to get a phone number for my uncle which proved to be correct. One of my cousins came and collected me and I stayed with them for two weeks, several miles outside Salisbury. If I didn’t go into the city with them in the morning, I either stayed at the house or hitched in later.
On my first trip into Salisbury, my uncle drove to his place of work, he had a furniture warehouse next to the loco shed. I visited the shed on 30.3.73 and 2.4.73 and I saw all of the steam locos left on their allocation, namely 2 x 12th, 2 14th and 5 x 16th, and CFM 960 en-route to Bulawayo works.
