Hats off to two intrepid travellers A hat a kayak and dreams of Dar

Writer Elaine Davie

Better known as a labour and political commentator, journalist Terry Bell and his teacher-wife, Barbara, had the audience in stitches last Saturday when they recounted some of the hilarious misadventures described in their memoir, A hat, a kayak and dreams of Dar, which was launched in 2018.

The unbelievable story of the most-travelled hat in the world deserves a book of its own, but both its incredible journey and, independently, that of Terry and Barbara started in the same exotic location – a smoky bar in Morocco. The hat belonged to Terry who was a political exile from apartheid South Africa in London, where he was a student.

On a short holiday to Morocco in 1965, over a glass or two, or three, of wine with a group of other young travellers, Terry accepted a dare that would change their lives forever: to paddle a kayak from London to Tangiers. A sign of the misadventures to come, his hat was stolen by one of their convivial drinking companions, a Canadian.

At the time of his blithe acceptance of the bet, neither Terry nor Barbara was even altogether sure what a kayak was, let alone how they would set about the journey. However, with the rashness of youth, he was reasonably certain it could be done without too much diiculty. In fact, why stop at Tangiers, they decided, it wouldn’t take too much longer to paddle a little further, to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Having got married in the meantime, by August 1967, they were ready to set of. In the inter-

vening two years, the hat, meanwhile, had been engaged in its own adventurous travels – to Afghanistan and Iran, to Canada and back to London, where it was once more lost and found. Now it was inally in Terry’s possession again and ready to accompany them. The ibre glass kayak, named Amandla, was bought and short experimental paddles were taken, in good weather, up and down the River Thames between Richmond and Chiswick. These expeditions convinced Terry that there would deinitely not be anything to this trip – a piece of cake, in fact.

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