This archive report was first published on 10 May 2020.
As I reflect on my travels to Kenya, I am reminded of my son Jan's question a few weeks ago: 'Why don't you write about travel by ships?' He pointed out that I first came to Kenya by ship and often talk about it.
My initial reaction was that the time was not right for that, given the recent coronavirus outbreaks on cruise ships. However, I decided to write about Evelyn Waugh's description of his voyage out to East Africa on the SS Rhodesia Castle in 1959.
Waugh's ship took the usual route through the Suez Canal, and the passengers were able to stop off at various places along the way. In contrast, my ship had to go all the way south down the west coast of Africa, round the Cape, and up to Mombasa in 1967 due to the war between Israel and Egypt.
My experience was quite different from Waugh's. The food was cloying and repetitive, and the band played the same numbers over and over. Relationships became frayed, and I well understand why so many murder stories are set on cruise ships.
Waugh compares the privacy and spaciousness of a cruise ship to the squalor of a flight. He notes that the journeying is more natural by ship, allowing you to acclimatise to the changes in culture and weather. You have time to prepare yourself for the destination by talking to fellow passengers who have experienced it, and to make friends – as well as enemies.
