Chapter Fourteen 

 UP IN THE CLOUDS 



I LOOKED again to make quite sure. Yes, the box was really 

 there. So Hunt and I got out and, lining everyone up against the 

 plane, had several photographs tak^n. We said our last adieux to 

 all those present and climbed aboard, the doors were shut and the 

 motors started. I got into that *Mae West* suit. 



I looked hard at the air-strip, as I had seen Blaauw doing 

 several times before we got aboard. It was short, all too short, 

 and the little wind of the early north-west monsoon came directly 

 over the not inconsiderable hill whose steep southerly slopes 

 marked its northern end. We must take off running straight at 

 that hill, and I did not see how a plane of this size could hope to 

 achieve sufficient elevation in so short a distance. However, I 

 was no pilot and Blaauw clearly was one of the very best; so I 

 strapped myself in and reflected that if we did hit the hill it would 

 be over very quickly. It would certainly be a spectacular way to 

 die, and, anyway, I had seen the Coelacanth. 



10 a.m. on Monday, 29th December 1952. The engines roared 

 in their test, slowed down, and suddenly we were off in a tearing 

 rush of sound. I found myself gripping the seat and staring through 

 the small air-hole. We left the ground and suddenly the sea and 

 the slopes of the hill tilted so sharply that I caught my breath. 

 Blaauw was banking steeply and the wing-tip was so near the 

 trees I expected it to hit all the time; but we were safely away, 

 and by screwing my eyes I could see the last of the tiny figures on 

 the edge of the strip. One stood out in front waving. I assumed it 

 was Hunt, and hoped that he would not be left to face unexpected 

 repercussions, though he seemed to be very much at home and 

 at ease among the people there. We went westwards and up, up, 

 up, into the towering cumulus clouds whose marbled summits 

 Blaauw estimated to reach up to at least 30,000 feet. They certainly 

 were awe-inspiring and disquieting, great tumbled mountains of 



