There is now conclusive proof that since 1931, Airstream has been hanging around the RV industry.
In February 1960, the Airstream Wally Byam African Caravan was embarking from Alexandria, Egypt for Beirut, Lebanon. To load our Airstreams on the passenger freighter it was necessary to use a barge with a crane.
A disclaimer: please don’t try this at home.
Our Caravan moved north from the Atlantic/Indian Ocean in South Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, to the Mediterranean and Northern Hemisphere. In the U.S.A. our rigs were loaded with land based cranes onto freighters, and unloaded with the same in Cape Town.
We traveled over paved highways, strip highways, washboard roads, dusty roads, muddy roads, deep sand byways, and even no roads. We used modern bridges, rickety bridges, and even questionable ferries to cross rivers, and then traveled down the Nile by barge.
Now our beloved Airstreams hang in the breeze waiting to go from dock to ship as we wait with anxiety hoping that we won’t learn if our Airstream will float or sink.
So ends our African segment - we then would travel through the Middle East and the Balkans, and meet the 1960 Airstream Wally Byam European Caravan in Trieste, Italy.
Cape to Cairo is history.
