Zero Degrees

CCIX

In To Africa

 

No one asked for her passport. She was so famous, even here, even in the remoter stretches of French West Africa, that the local French colonial authorities merely kissed her on the cheeks when arriving and sent her off with a heartfelt Bonne chance!

Instead, they feted her. Aircraft were still relatively rare in the air above French West Africa, even the Air France mail planes, and so a visit from any aviator was an event, however obscure they might be. Amelia Earhart, though, was considered the equal of any Ambassador and was given the requisite treatment. The heavy multi-course dinners ran late, and so Earhart and Noonan rarely got to sleep before one A.M. They were often up around four.

Earhart at the Dakar Aero Club

It was in Dakar that Earhart began tapping the logistical resources that had been placed on reserve for her, the U.S. military grade high octane fuel (used for high-powered liftoffs) and the lonely Lockheed supplies needed for emergency repairs. Local mechanics puzzled over her instructions in English, but it was all worked out with good favor. Her French was functional, not technical, but she made herself understood. 

The Republic of Mali issued this stamp in honor of Earhart’s 1937 layover

Beyond Dakar, the Electra’s first stop was Gao, in what is today Mali (in fact, Fred and Amelia never went as far as Timbuktu).  The Dakar-to-Gao hop took seven hours, and Earhart later described it as “uneventful” though the desert sun shone directly into her eyes the entire time, wearying her. Perhaps that is why she confided to her journal that

In my life I had come to realize that when things were going very well indeed it was just the time to anticipate trouble.

There was some trouble in the upper atmosphere. The winds that were driving the great Saharan sandstorms of the season were colliding with the winds that were powering the coastal rains in Guinea. Earhart’s sky was clear, but the Electra was being batted and rattled by air pockets. It was a relief when she circled Gao’s airfield, waving from the cockpit to the small, excited figures who had been watching for her from the ground.  

The Electra at Gao on June 11, 1937. Gao lies directly on the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian and marks the invisible boundary between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres