Getting to London without a plane

Dear Sir,

 

In view of the current flight disruptions we should remember that in the sixties it was possible to buy a single train – boat – bus ticket from Kampala Station to London Victoria by (EARH) East African Railways and Harbours. You could buy the ticket anywhere on the EARH network.

 

Until the floods of the early sixties the route was:

 

In Uganda: Kampala to Namasagali by train via Jinja; Namasagali to Masindi Port by boat; Masindi Port to Butiaba by bus with a night in Masindi (it was a railway hotel, and railway station but it never had any rails); Butiaba by boat along Lake Albert and down the Nile to Nimule.  Later this became Kampala –Gulu by train then bus from Gulu to Juba.

 

In Sudan: Nimule to Juba by bus; Juba to Kosti (N Sudan) by river steamer – between 5 and 8 days; Kosti – Khartoum by train - Wadi Halfa by train; Wadi Halfa to Aswan (Egypt by lake steamer).

 

Aswan – Cairo – Alexandria by train.

 

Alexandria to Italy or Greece or Turkey by Mediterranean steamer; then train across Europe.

 

Does any of your readers remember this or travel any part of it?  Over the years I have travelled most of the route, but not all at once. You can still see the remains of the Lake Albert steamer at Butiaba.

 

 

 

Barry Sesnan