Vintage Air Rally set off from Crete, Greece on 12th November 2016 for a five-week expedition to recreate the intrepid flight paths taken during the 1920s from the Mediterranean to South Africa.
The aircraft being flown by the teams will cover over 5,000 miles, setting off from the late autumnal Mediterranean headed towards a hot summery Cape Town, South Africa. All of the planes were built prior to 31st December 1939, some of the aircraft will have been flying during the time that these flight paths would have been forged south.
Departing Crete, the teams flew to northern Egypt where they stopped before heading South East to fly past the Great Pyramid of Giza. Flying lower than its summit, the teams had unparalleled views of the last surviving wonder of the ancient world.
Heading towards the Red Sea the teams then made way for Luxor where they traced a low-flying 600-mile path along the Nile to Khartoum, Sudan. After a quick stop in Ethiopia, the teams continued on South to Kenya where they landed in its capital city Nairobi.
After Nairobi, the teams flew down into Tanzania where the teams got unparalleled views of the highest peak in Continental Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro. Travelling down through Tanzania and into Zambia the teams are currently in Livingstone Zambia, named after the Scottish explorer David Livingstone who first explored the local areas and was presumed the first European to see the Victoria Falls and named them so after Queen Victoria who was ruling at the time.
From Livingstone, the teams will fly over the Victoria Falls, which splits the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. From the falls they will fly further into Zimbabwe and then onwards across the border into South Africa where on December 16th they will touchdown in Cape Town after five weeks of flying. The teams will have recreated the exploratory routes taken by those in the 1920s discovering the new territories the British had started exploring.
To learn more about the race click here.