Lessons for Life

On the steps of the Giraffe Farm house Tim Hughes bids his father, Gervas, farewell before heading north.

Lessons for Life 

Tim Hughes decided to leave his first job with Ronny McLean in the lower Gwelo district and visit is beloved Aunt Joanie and his Uncle Brian Freyberg farming on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.

Lessons for Life

Tim advertised in the Salisbury Herald to obtain a lift to East Africa, sharing expenses. Ken Wallace answered; he was working at the Kariba Dam project and told Tim to meet him at Kariba. The next day he said his good-byes to Dorothy, his father and his girlfriend Erica, who were used to him making quick decisions.

Bag in hand, Tim hitch-hiked to Kariba and at daybreak the following day they left for the thousand mile journey in Ken’s Jowett Javelin. Sharing the driving, they stayed at serviced rondavels each night; the accommodation, for Europeans only, was built at half day intervals along the Great North Road.

Ken’s car did not travel without problems: the prop-shaft developed a bad vibration. Jowett Javelins have a simple circular universal joint made of reinforced canvas belting and six bolt holes in the belting had enlarged from use. Ken solved the problem by bolting six shock-absorber rubbers in the holes. A nut on the car’s front suspension fell off, allowing the left front mudguard to drop onto the tyre, nearly causing an accident. Without a word, Ken calmly walked out of sight, back down the road, found all the parts that had fallen off, jacked up the car, bolted the torsion bar back in place, put his tools away and took off at high speed.

Instead of using the main road via Tanga, Ken took the short cut to Pangani, Tim’s destination. The car’s sump was holed by a large rock in the middle of the road. Ken patched the hole with a mixture of soft soap and sugar, topped up the oil from his spares and drove to the Tanganyika coast.

Tim’s reaction to Ken’s resourcefulness was admiration.  Thinking laterally would shape the rest of his life.