Driver defies lions
I have a cutting from the Daily Express dated May 15. 1967. The headline reads “Driver defies lions for new tyres“.
It continues:
Rally driver Eric Jackson talked today of his epic middle-of-the-night walk through lion-infested country in Tanzania. He made the trip to get a new tyre for the Corsair 2000E which is racing the liner Windsor Castle from Cape Town to England.
The tyres had been ripped to shreds by Tanzania’s car-breaking roads.
Jackson, who comes from Barnsley, and co-driver Ken Chambers from Barnet, Herts, had 17 punctures and the last was beyond repair.
So Jackson started walking.
He said “Like any Englishman, I imagined that there was a lion behind ever bush and a snake on the ground every time I put my foot down.”
He took four hours to reach the nearest town. A garage owner supplied him with three new tyres and drove him back to his car.
A local white hunter told me “He must have been mad. In that area, I wouldn’t do it myself“.
Let me tell you what’s funny about this press report. Usually, journalists spice things up, don’t they? Well, the reality was a lot more interesting!