My friend Judy and I set off in September, 1964, flying from Salisbury to London in a Central African Airways DC8, chartered by the Overseas Visitors' Club. It was a long journey - 24 hours - with stops in Entebbe and Benghazi.

We were absolutely exhausted when we arrived but went straight to a friend's party in Margate that evening!

We spent the night in Margate and then rushed back to London to prepare for our first continental tour, which started two days later. We had spent hours poring over the maps and itinerary and could not wait to get started.

The Overseas Visitors' Club in Earls Court was to become our base for the next few months - it offered reasonable accommodation, a mailing address, companionship with like-minded young people, mostly from "the colonies" - and resources for finding jobs, accommodation, tours etc. We hardly had time to look around London before we were off to the continent. I did walk with a friend to Kensington Gardens, but we had to leave the rest of our London sightseeing until we came back