Beyond The Blue Horizon – Alexander Frater

He kept setting off, getting lost over the Continent and coming back again. Whether he ever got past Marseilles, let alone to India, never discovered, but I had a sneaking sympathy for him because I had had directional problems of my own. Before leaving Karachi I asked a red-headed man named King to check and set my compass and, after setting off, I realized it was taking me too far to the right. I managed to get to Rutbah Wells by dead reckoning and spent the night in the Imperial fort.

I told one of the Imperial pilots about my problem and he reminded me that even the roughest westerly heading would eventually take me to the Mediterranean. I said yes, but how would I know which bit of coast I was over? He gave me a pitying look and said, “You go down and ask.” So that’s what I did. I landed in a place that was full of anthills and sat under the wing until a farmer came along in a cart and told me I was near Haifa.

When finally reached Alexandria I had the compass checked, found it was 45 degrees out, pressed on to England, sold the Moth and came home by Imperial Airways. As we droned across the Iraqi desert the captain sat reading the Illustrated London News with such intense concentration that he flew right past Rutbah Wells without even noticing. I wondered whether I should say something, but I was young and shy and he clearly did not wish to be interrupted.

He only looked up when the plane began to run out of fuel and, quite calmly, landed on the sand, broke into one of the RAF’s emergency dumps and stole enough petrol to get us back to Rutbah in time for dinner.’ Mr Tata laughed and drank some tea. An elderly clerk hurried in to ask his advice about a charity matter, reminding me that his non-business interests and responsibilities range from being Presi- dent of Honour for Life of the Aero Club of India and Honorary Air Vice-Marshal of the Indian Air Force to trusteeships of bodies like the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, the N.R.

Tata Family Trust, the Bai Navajbai Tata Zoroastrian Girls’ School and the N.R. Tata Poor Relations Trust. He also holds honorary doctorates from Bombay and Allahabad. When the clerk had gone Mr Tata said, I learnt to fly simply for pleasure and excitement but in 1929, soon after I had got my licence, I received a visit from a tall Englishman named Nevill Doing the (Sub)-Continental Vintcent.

. and absurd incidents that had me laughing out loud. If you find air travel irresistibly exciting you’ll have great difficulty putting this down. A brilliant book’ Time Out ,rr CtEOPATR* •» . T**’” LEXANDER FRATER BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON Boston Public Library boston, MA 02 ‘ll 6 Beyond the Blue Horizon Alexander Frater has contributed to various UK publications – Miles Kington called him ‘the funniest man who wrote for Punch since the war’ – and been a contracted New Yorker writer; as chief travel correspondent of the London Observer he won an unprecedented number of British Press Travel Awards.

Two of his books, Beyond the Blue Horizon and Chasing the Monsoon , have been made into major BBC television films. One, The Last African Flying Boat (based on the former), took the Bafta award for best single documentary, while a programme for BBC Radio 4 (about his South Seas birthplace) was named overall winner of the Travelex Travel Writers’ Awards. He lives in London, though, whenever time and money allow, is likely to be found skulking deep in the hot, wet tropics.

Also by Alexander Frater Chasing the Monsoon A Modern Pilgrimage Through India Tales from the Torrid Zone Travels in the Deep Tropics Alexander Frater beyond the BLUE HORIZON On the Track of Imperial Airways PICADOR First published 1986 by William Heinemann First published in paperback 1987 by Penguin Books First published by Picador 2005 an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford Associated companies throughout the world www.panmacmillan.com ISBN 0 330 43312 1 Copyright © Alexander Frater 1986 All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 135798642 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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