Travel Joy or Curse

By Peter Edwards

We all travel; it is only the extent and modes that vary. Whether it is walking to the shop, scooting along in our wheelchair, driving to work or flying internationally we are now more mobile than ever. Travel is not without its challenges though. Some are incidents are infuriating especially when you have a deadline to meet and others are hilarious. Those who travel infrequently often envy those whose work revolves around travel. But it is not all wine and roses. In the last few years of my full time working life, I averaged 100 flights a year, which averages out at two a week. Just think of that for a second, being at an airport four times in a week (two departures and two arrivals) and in a plane twice.

Decades of travel created so many memories good, bad and often humorous. This book is my pictorial account of some of my experiences of over 60 years on the road, in the air and on water.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Edwards
• Release date: Oct 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370365296

Peter Edwards

Peter holds a Diploma in Professional Photography from the Photography Institute and has been a photographer for over 50 years. Now retired from a business career, he indulges his passion for photography by travelling to all parts of the world taking photographs to expand his portfolio and provides professional architectural photography services. He sells his images on ImageBrief and RedBubble. As well as writing photography books, he writes travel books. He welcomes feedback and questions. He can be contacted at [e-mail].

Book preview

Travel – Joy or Curse

Peter S. Edwards

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017 Peter S. Edwards

at Smashwords.com

Peter Edwards’s Image Gallery can be found at:

http://www.imagebrief.com/photographers/petered8

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 - Travelling as a Kid

Reluctant student

Play washed out

On the trains

Chapter 2 – Travelling for Work

Wakeup call

Burnt toast

All things frozen

Hairy O’Hare

Bermuda shorts

Flying in style

Engine failure LA

Meeting famous people

Cancelled Flights

Low tech maintenance

Luggage overflow

Crowded Schedules

Chapter 3 – Travelling with the Family

The galley runneth over

Mile high club

Alien invasion of Heathrow

Stuck behind the barrier

Trip from hell by bus

Driving in Paris

The red light district of Paris

Aliens again

Girls lost in Penang

Lauren’s birthday

Clash of cultures

A ferry trip

Honkers

Chapter 4 – Travelling in Africa

Road safety

St Patrick’s Day

Mine explosion

Up a tower

Bugs in the microwave

Armed and dangerous

The Okavango

Elephants and marulas

Elephant again

Lion fodder

Changing camp

The lion sleeps

Flying out

Planes that don’t fly well

All for a scotch

This is Africa Baby

All about democracy

Life in Blantyre

Kippers and custard

Honeymoon in Africa

Leaving Harare

Chapter 5 – Travelling in Asia

India

Malaysia

Vietnam

Chapter 6 – Travelling in Canada and Alaska

Canada

Seats for Sale

Anzac Day in Vancouver

Train in the Rockies

Bus to Athabasca

Bears and bins

Laundry Banff

Banff activities

An afternoon in Banff

Whales jet boat Victoria

Whistler

The cruise in the Inside Passage to Alaska

Tracy Arm

Juneau

Sitka

Ketchikan

Canada border home bus breakdown

Chapter 7 – Travelling the Middle East

Chapter 8 – Travelling in the Military

Brown Jobs versus Blue Jobs

Is it a toupee?

Filling the tank

Reluctant swimmer

Guard duty at night

Shot in the dark

Taking an axe to it

Buzzed at the bombing range

Flying Rhodesian Air Force

Mukkers

Sappers

Chasing elephants

Chapter 9 – The Awe Inspiring Destinations

Victoria Falls

The Taj Mahal

Power of the geysers

Westminster Abbey

Epilogue

Prologue

We all travel; it is only the extent and modes that vary. Whether it is walking to the shop, scooting along in our wheelchair, driving to work or flying internationally we are now more mobile than ever. Travel is not without its challenges though. Some are incidents are infuriating especially when you have a deadline to meet and others are hilarious. Those who travel infrequently often envy those whose work revolves around travel. But it is not all wine and roses. In the last few years of my full time working life, I averaged 100 flights a year, which averages out at two a week. Just think of that for a second, being at an airport four times in a week (two departures and two arrivals) and in a plane twice. Some weeks I did not travel at all. My record was fifteen flights in fourteen days during which time I travelled around the world. It went something like this: Adelaide-Sydney-Los Angeles-San Fransico-Washington-Minneapolis-Houston-Chicago-Toronto-London-Manchester-London-Singapore-Sydney-Adelaide. I developed a pathological hatred of airports, a place where I spent a large amount of time not progressing my travel in any way. Until the flight takes off, no progress is made. If airlines and airport builders/owners truly understood passengers they would design airports differently. I have travelled from and to over 100 airports around the world, some are better than others but all share the same flaw; they are designed for airlines and not the passengers that are their lifeblood. Unequivocally Manchester, England is the worst in my opinion and at the time I travelled to and from there, had the rudest staff in the BA Business Class Lounge. Their system of departure gates is bizarre and the train station is so far to walk it is almost quicker to walk all the way to your destination.

Now there may be some tiny embellishments in these stories for which I make no apologies. The retelling of these stories, sometimes during which a tiny bit of embellishment occurs creates a new strong memory of the incident. So the truth is, I really don’t know whether these are stories are the absolute truths or not.

Of course there are some benefits to frequent airline travel. Being a Platinum Frequent Flyer courtesy of Qantas changed my view of airline travel. Suddenly I became a person and not a number; I was welcomed on board by name and the airline made great efforts to ensure my comfort and minimize inconvenience during flight delays. I have to complement Qantas aircrew in international Business Class; they are truly amazing. The cynical side of me would say that this was due to the amount I spent with them each year. However the human side recognizes the things that they did for me, not because they had to.

My friend Gary Carter from Sydney who I met in Sitka, Alaska suggested that I write this book possibly because I bored him totally regaling him with stories about my travel experiences. I am grateful for the suggestion and having travelled for most of my 66 years, l took up his challenge and this book is the result.

It may be hard to imagine in these days of cheap flights on budget airlines that only 20 years ago airline travel was out of the reach of many. At that time a 3,000-kilometer (1800 miles) flight cost about $700 (or about the fortnightly pay for a person on the average wage in the early 80’s). In today’s terms that would be around $1,850 and by comparison an equivalent flight now can be booked for less than $300.

Those of us that now travel economy class, disparagingly known as cattle class, either didn’t travel back then or took a train, bus or even drove huge distances. So it was for me. Born and raised in Central Africa into a working class family, there was never going to be such a luxury as airline travel.

However it slowly changed when airlines were deregulated, planes became more fuel-efficient and our standards of living improved creating more disposable income.

During my latter working years, my travel increased significantly and Qantas became my friend. I became a person to them not just another nameless passenger and I have to tell you that flying with a Platinum Frequent Flyer card in your wallet creates a totally different travel perspective.

It seemed that I was always away from home; another city in another country, another airport, another flight and another hotel. Of course my friends and family thought that I lived a wonderful life but business travel is a far different experience to that of a holiday. In fact my daughter’s friends thought I was a spy because it was difficult for her to explain what I did for a living and was often away from home, sometimes at short notice. I came to loathe airports; after all I spent so much time in them waiting; a time when no progress in made.

Decades of travel created so many memories good, bad and often humorous. This book is my lowly effort to share some of my experiences on the road, in the air and on water.

I apologise for some of the images that are very low quality. Many were taken on very crude cameras in difficult conditions.

This book is dedicated to my fellow travelers.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Travelling as a Kid

Reluctant student

My journey starts as a five year old. My earliest memory was walking to school. It was also my earliest memory of travel. A most reluctant traveller, I was chased to school with an army webbing belt threatening my posterior. What is more I already knew the way that the belt felt when it connected, particularly the metal bits. This knowledge added to my incentive to keep well ahead of it.

It wasn't the travel that was the issue but the destination. I had been there for one day already and had decided that this was not for me. Really, they expected me to sit, listen and behave for five hours. How ridiculous! The trains belching smoke and the unique smell of burnt coal that passed my family house regularly were far more interesting and I didn't risk a whack if I didn't watch. This set the scene for my future school career but was totally at odds with my future travel experiences. I hated the travel but loved the destinations.

Play washed out

High school opened some opportunities to travel that were denied to me in primary school. Playing sport meant that matches were often played away from home, which meant the team had to travel. A notable journey occurred after being selected to play cricket for my school against a school in Livingstone, Zambia. Livingstone is the border town across the Zambezi River from the world famous Victoria Falls and named after the missionary David Livingstone.

Livingstone's Statue in the rain forest

His fame as an explorer was his obsession with discovering the sources of the Nile River. It was during Livingstone’s exploration of the African interior, particularly the Zambezi River expedition that he became the first European to witness the magnificence of Victoria Falls.

Thirteen of us including our schoolmaster/coach boarded the train in Bulawayo for the overnight journey to Livingstone. I can tell you that a