While she was in
Nairobi, Mary Heath asked a local garage to remake her Avro Avian’s
undercarriage and repair the petrol tank. She was annoyed to find
that few of the telegrams she had sent to let the authorities know where she was ever
delivered - yet she still got the blame for
communication problems.
‘Owing to her slackness in letting us know her movements,
we are unable to keep pace with the vagaries of Lady Heath,’ one official file stated.
This seems unfair;
copies of telegrams she sent while in Nairobi to the authorities in
Khartoum and Cairo as well as in Kisumu and Entebbe still exist.
After about a week, she was off again, still with the Bentleys in tow. With the Avian heavily loaded, it
took nearly 250 metres for the craft to become airborne, the longest
run yet. Ahead was the 3,000 metre Kijabe escarpment, an intimidating height for a small and
overloaded plane. After a fruitless attempt
to gain altitude, Lady Mary decided to make an 80 kilometre detour,
following the railway line in hopes of finding an easier way over the
top. Even when she did, she scraped over the hills by a mere six
metres after lightening her load by throwing overboard her tennis
racquet, some books and a pair of shoes.
She stopped in Kisumu only to refuel before heading to Jinja on the Ugandan shores of Lake Victoria. That made her the first female pilot to fly over the equator, although (uncharacteristically) she doesn't mention this in her many writings.
Next would come the most challenging stretch of her entire flight...
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