Beneath the African Sun - A Journey of Serendipity, Friendship, and Grit - Barry Maughan : 178

What happens when a comfortable life starts to feel small? We sit down with Barry Maughan to trace an 8,000‑mile drive from Alexandria to Africa’s southern tip in a 1969 VW combi bus, and the deeper journey from chasing success to finding meaning. A sudden coup in Libya shut a border and opened a path that led through dust tracks, steel‑belted tyres, and the unvarnished generosity of strangers who refused payment and offered help with a smile.

We explore the difference between governments and people, and why most danger comes from regimes, not villagers. Barry shares the Cairo friendship that quietly reshaped everything. Serendipity kept showing up, including a stop at a radio station in Addis Ababa between 1969 and 1975, which led to a career in broadcasting, covering history in real-time and later hosting programs for the Voice of America’s English to Africa service.

Along the way, we talk practical grit and tender moments: navigating without GPS, patching tubes under acacia thorns, and an unforgettable exchange between two mothers, linked by the same protective love. With a one‑year‑old in the back, the road demanded preparation and humility, and returned lessons about global citizenship, family, and care that outlast any itinerary. Beneath the African Sun, Barry’s new book, gathers the photos, the near‑misses, and the quiet truths about travel, courage, and the people who make a journey possible.

If stories like this move you, follow the show, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more listeners find conversations that change how we see the world.

His memoir, Beneath the African Sun.

Transcript

Opening And Big Question

DanielaSm 0:00

Hi, I'm Daniela. Let's talk about what happens when a comfortable life starts to feel too small. What if the road you didn't plan to take becomes the one that changes who you are?

Barry Maughan 0:15

People used to ask me, what did you like about Africa? I said, hey, the people are great. Government and that's up. No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. This is fabulous. It gave them a sense of being part of the world. That was a serendipity for my joke. You gotta embrace what's there in front of you and not be afraid of meeting people, of making yourself maybe look vulnerable. Don't be the know it-off.

Meet Barry Morgan And The Book

DanielaSm 0:45

My guest is Barry Maughan, author of Beneath the African Sun. What began as an 8,000-mile drive from Alexandria to the southern tip of Africa in a 1969 Volkswagen combi became a deeper journey from chasing success to discovering meaning. Let's enjoy his story. Welcome, Barry, to the show.

Barry Maughan 1:08

Well, welcome, Danielle. It's been a while. We've played uh uh Ring Around the Rosie for a while, but we finally got it together.

DanielaSm 1:15

Yes, yes, I'm excited too. I know you have a story, so why do you want to share your story?

Barry Maughan 1:20

First and foremost, I want to explode some myths about a wonderful, beautiful continent and its peoples. Whenever we were traveled in Africa, lived there for six years in Ethiopia, and made a lot of good friends, I was met with almost always kindness, consideration. Folks were very helpful to me. This is a continent uh rich in tradition, culture, history, but above all else, genuinely wonderful people. Governments, ah when people used to ask me, what did you like about Africa? I say, hey, the people are great. Governments, ah, not so. And you'd run into them when you're crossing borders or getting visas or whatever like that. But I just want the world to know that it's a place to not just fly over, but to get down and actually see the continent. Yes, safaris are great and all that, and uh I I have nothing against them, but just to get out and meet the rank and file people, that's that's what Africa is all about.

DanielaSm 2:25

All right. Well, that sounds fascinating and intriguing. So when did your story start?

Why Tell This Story

Barry Maughan 2:30

Well, it started back in New York City when both uh my wife and I were in jobs that um uh didn't seem to be going anywhere. Uh I had this uh philosophical dilemma. I was um uh hawking um crest toothpaste and honeycomb cereals and shaman toilet tissue for um a major advertising company in uh New York City and doing quite well. But then I start to think, what is this adding to the world? I mean, we could do without all these products and and never never miss it. Uh and then uh my wife was uh, like I said, uh in a job that really didn't fit her. And so we started thinking, hey, let's we don't have children. We have saved enough money, so let's go and uh see the world. Well, how best to do it? Uh we were well off, but not that well off, that we could just fly hither and yon. So I said, Well, I really want to see the people, so let's get a uh uh combi bus, buy it, and um get a tram steamer across the Atlantic. You could do that then, and uh go pick it up and then tour around Europe. And uh maybe by then the wonderlust would have um worn off and we can come back home and uh look for things that um we really wanted to do in life. And then of course um uh I have to I have to credit Mo Mar Gaddafi for my whole trip because um we decided, well, we're gonna winter in Morocco. Let's not just cross the Strait of Gibraltar, but let's let's say we'll go to Alexandria. We can get on a on a cruise liner and uh get the camper on board, and then uh stop along Barcelona, uh Genoa, uh Lebanon when it was really, really nice, um, and uh stop in Alexandria, and then we'll just drive across the North African littoral to uh winter in Morocco. Well, we got to Alexandria. Lo and behold, two days later, uh Moam Gaddafi and his men staged a successful coup against King Idris and closed the border indefinitely. So there that went. And after that, I would say it was a journey of uh serendipities. And I would always uh say to people, you know, serendipities

Leaving New York For A Different Life

Barry Maughan 4:58

are there for a reason. You have to have the heart and the courage, not to place myself up on a pedestal, but just to go with it. They're there for a reason and to embrace them. And uh step by step, uh we embraced them, got down to Addis Ababa, uh, found a job there as uh in broadcasting, and then um continued the journey uh three years later to the southern tip of the continent.

DanielaSm 5:22

Mary, I have a question. What year was that that you decided to leave your job in New York?

Barry Maughan 5:28

Uh 1969.

DanielaSm 5:31

Wow.

Barry Maughan 5:32

Way, way, way, way back.

DanielaSm 5:33

That's when I was born.

Barry Maughan 5:35

Yeah, 1969. Um yes.

DanielaSm 5:40

Okay, so things were a bit more challenging to travel in Alexandria.

Barry Maughan 5:44

Alexandria, Egypt. Sorry. That's the beautiful city um on the Mediterranean, a northernmost city in it.

DanielaSm 5:51

The only goal you had was let's travel and see the world. You didn't have any other plans.

Barry Maughan 5:56

Not really. Um we were footloose and fancy-free. We didn't have children. Uh, we had no other encumbrances that saved a little money because we were in good-paying jobs, just jobs that didn't uh suit our our needs at the time. And so uh we were open to travel, and uh thank goodness for my uh wife, Suzanne, who um didn't mind roughing it. You know, a lot of ladies uh would be adverse to that because uh it meant going a long time maybe without being able to uh uh shower as much as you want, or to live in a very confined space with someone else, and yada yada yada, and she was up for that. And uh she was fantastic, and we had a lot of great experiences in Europe, uh Norway in particular, loved Norway. Uh but then we uh when we got to Alexandria, this was after meeting a chap on board the cruise liner, a chap by the name of uh Iberhimel Tahawi. He was uh a general. Well, generals are a dime a dozen in uh various parts of the world, and uh but I always felt like there was something very, very special about this man. But we met as friends, talked about uh not politics or economics, sports and religion and whatever, and we just hit it off. And uh at the end he gave me his card and says, uh, if you're ever in Cairo, uh look me up. Well, a lot of times that's a nice way for people to say adios in a in a in a good way. I took his card and I said, No, president of the Young Men's Muslim Association, YMCA. Okay, it's a good job, but you know, nothing too heady. So um when we got to Alexandria and uh Moam Gaddafi closed the door on us going to Morocco, then uh I said, Hey, look, we're in Alexandria. So let's go see the pyramids. I mean, we're this close. Now, this was during the War of Attrition, one of many wars that uh Egypt was having with uh Israel.

DanielaSm 8:03

Uh-huh.

Barry Maughan 8:03

It was not as easy to just drive down to Cairo. So we had to drive the uh desert

The Libya Coup And Serendipity

Barry Maughan 8:10

road as opposed to the agricultural road because all the uh Egyptian MiGs had been um landed on the agricultural road to make it harder for them to be destroyed by the Israelis.

DanielaSm 8:23

And Barry, so when you left New York to be until this happened, you were traveling in a fancy way, you were going to fancy places.

Barry Maughan 8:31

No, no, no. And I and I I alluded to that. I'm sorry, I I should have made that more clear. Before we even set off, we had purchased a uh 1969 uh Volkswagen combi bus uh from the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. So what we did was we had a whole bunch of duffel bags, filled them up with uh uh as much stuff as we could, uh, put them on board the steamer, got over to Antwerp, loaded them onto trains, and got to Wolfsburg, as there's a picture in my my latest book on this, Beneath the African Sun. There's my wife sitting in the back of the uh compi with all these duffel bags, and she's got to stuff all that stuff into the um Volkswagen Compi bus.

DanielaSm 9:17

I see.

Barry Maughan 9:17

So then we we took a merry trip around, you know, Switzerland, Austria, you know, the usual places, Britain, Norway, uh, France, had a great time. But then it started getting cold, and that's why we decided let's head south. First, maybe to um Spain or Portugal. That seemed a little too crowded, and then someone said, Morocco. Okay, well, let's not go by the Straits of Gibraltar, let's take a trip around and and uh get to Alexandria and then drive across. And then when we got there, we were we were stuck. The only way uh was to go south.

DanielaSm 9:51

So you were driving and sleeping in the van?

Barry Maughan 9:54

Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, that that was our home. Cool. It went up, the the roof went up. You know, that's why I say uh not many women would uh do what my my wife would do.

DanielaSm 10:05

How do you take showers and all these things?

Barry Maughan 10:07

Well, whenever you could. I mean, it was it was rough and ready, and that's where we ate our meals. This is 1969 without all the electronic tethers that you have today. You didn't have GPS or cell phones or whatever like that. You just uh you just did it. You just asked questions. And of course, in Africa, that was uh uh that was fraught with danger because um bless their heart. Uh many Africans they tell you what they think you want to know, uh you want to hear. And so if you say, is that the way south? Yes, Mr. That's the way south. It may be and maybe not. So my wife, who's very was a mathematician, uh she would most times just look up at the sun and say, yeah, we're we're heading south. Or rudimentary maps, the Michelin maps were good at the time, but then you try to figure out and how many how many kilometers or miles between this place and this place, and do we have enough diesel and and whatever? And uh

Life In The Combi And Rough Travel

Barry Maughan 11:15

you had to live by your wits.

DanielaSm 11:17

If they answer you the way they think that you want to be answered, what is the right way of asking a question then?

Barry Maughan 11:24

Whatever you say, they're going to agree with you. It doesn't matter if you say, is this the right way to Ma Sabbat or uh Mungano or whatever? Yes, mister, yes, mister. There's no way of of really getting out of them what they really know. And and you're a forengy and they want to be helpful, and they're not being mean to you. They're just trying to tell you what will make you happy. They want to make you happy. And so you always have to take that with a grain of salt. And you have to be very polite. Thank you very, very much. And then you look at each other and say, that doesn't seem to be, yeah. Let's let's let's just go down the road and figure this out. Because roads, no roads, these are tracks. Now you can go from Addis Ababa to uh Nairobi on a paved road. No paved roads then. It was if you're lucky, it was dry and it was boulder-strewn. If you're unlucky, it would be through something that was called Chica soil, which is black, thick, cloying soil that would just drag your vehicle down. You would be stuck, literally stuck, out of the villages from nowhere. Come these people, push, happy, ow, oh, boy, try to give them something. No, no, no, no, no. It was fun, probably helping these silly, stupid Ferengies do it. What are they doing here in this in this camper bus? It was many, many times, it was the generosity of these people who would not take a dime for what they did that got us through. And I say it's not about me, it's not so much about my wife, it's about all these people who helped us along the way. But this was 1969. I'm not saying that, oh, never seen this and never seen no. I mean, they they knew that the people like myself existed and and we would travel through. But as long as you met them with equanimity, with humbleness, with loving care, as humans, as equals, then you were fine. But it was the people we met along the way that didn't learn that lesson, and they never made it. I don't mean they died there, just means that they they got out of there somehow, but they didn't drive the length of the continent. I'm glad I clarified that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, and you know, you see so many of um That's funny as I that's what I understood, they didn't make it. These uh the movies and the depictions of people getting speared and otherwise killed. Once or twice I had a fear of my life, and that was not from the people. Once was from President Idi Amin of Uganda, who was in power then. And once crossing the Ugandan border, you had to be very, very careful around people like that, because uh as the movie depiction um was very, very accurate, uh, that man could look at you and not like you. And you harm could come to you. And uh, I have stories in my book about that. About uh um Uganda ambassador to Ethiopia, and he learned that he was going to be the uh the next foreign minister, and the last two foreign ministers ended up as crocodile bait in the Murchison Falls. And uh he said, Hey Barry, if this happens, uh will you and your friends get me uh get Sarah and the kids out of out of town? Because I'm flying to um London. I'm on the next plane out of here, away from this man. So, but that's official. This is not the rank and file uh African. If my book is aimed at one thing, it's to dispel all these gaudy, these gory myths about the continent. As long as you treat the continent with respect

Reading The Land And Finding Help

Barry Maughan 15:40

and awe, not just the people, but the conditions, another chapter. You gotta be entirely prepared, a little pun there. People don't take enough care in choosing their tires and their patch kits and taking extra tires. And we had a we had an extra box put up on top for all these supplies, because you got to be prepared.

DanielaSm 16:06

You did. So you were thinking ahead.

Barry Maughan 16:08

A lot of this I give to my um my then wife, uh Suzanne. She was um technically adroit and and very, very knowledgeable, and said, This is the kind of things, because if we do this, Barry, she said, uh, we got to do this properly, because I don't want to end up stranded somewhere. Many was the time we'd come across people who had started with bald tires and and not the proper equipment, and you'd stop and try to help them. They're literally stuffing grass into tires to try and get God knows where because you didn't know you your next stop could be hundreds of miles away. This is no, this is no game. This is no game. And you know, you're surrounded by these iconic acacia trees. What you don't see on those trees are the thorns. They are like needles, and they can be four or five inches long or they can be half an inch long. And their job, it seems, is to puncture the sidewalls of your tire. See, you can have the strongest tread on your tire, but if you don't have the sidewalls, the steel belted, you'll have blowouts all over them. So then you have to have even if you've got tubeless tires, you have tubes, you put the tubes in the tire. Then you can patch the tubes, you see. If you don't have tubes and it punctures the tire, you've got nothing. So I mean, this is just one little thing that you you've got to prepare for. This is not a lark. This was not a lark.

DanielaSm 17:48

And how long was this trip?

Barry Maughan 17:49

Well, it was broken up into two parts from Alexandria to Addis Ababa. It took about uh five months. I then the serendipities, driving into Addis, I heard a radio station, Radio Voice of the Gospel. Hey, I'm a train broadcaster. So I just stopped at the station, met the um news chief, a wonderful man may rest in peace, uh Kenneth Stewart, and he gave me a job. Serendipity, and that got me a job. So I was there for three years, covered the demise of uh Emperor Harris Elassi and uh Walla Drought and all that, and was able to save a little money. Kevin came along at one year old, well, was just born there, and then we decided um I had to leave to get a foreign contract. I was on a local contract with the foreign being better. And so along came Kevin from Addis Ababa to Cape Agullis, south of um uh Cape Town, South Africa. So we went from one tip to the other tip. We were determined to get to the southernmost tip of the continent, so we could see literally the African continent disappearing under the waves

Real Risks Versus Myths

Barry Maughan 19:10

and the confluence of, I've got to get this right, the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans. That's the tip of Africa. Cape of Good Hope, a lot of people think that's the southernmost tip, it's not, it's Cape of Gulas. So we accomplished, in all due humility, I say this, uh, something that very few people have have done. It's a it's a a small club, if you will. It's not anything, you know, written in stone, but it it's a club in your mind. Uh and then probably one of very, very few that did the second half of the journey with a one-year-old in terms of it.

DanielaSm 19:51

Oh, so you Oh my god.

Barry Maughan 19:52

Oh, he was an ambassador. And and there's so many stories in the book about how he broke the ground for us because he was a toe head, he was blonde. We had to keep him, of course, with the hat on all the time and the from getting burnt from the sun. And and he was fearless. He was a great little guy, always wandering around.

DanielaSm 20:12

Which country was he born?

Barry Maughan 20:13

He was born in Addis Ababa. And uh wow.

DanielaSm 20:17

So uh can you tell me the countries? Because I don't know the cities.

Barry Maughan 20:20

Okay. Uh you go Egypt, then we go to uh Sudan, then we took a train from Wadi Halfa to um Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, then we took um a uh a freighter from that to Mesawa in um what was then northern Ethiopia, which is now Eritrea, another nation, and then down through Ethiopia to Addis Ababa. When we left Addis Ababa, then we went to Kenya, um Nairobi, of course, the um uh Kenyan coast, Molindi, the island of um uh Lamu, um and then back to Nairobi, over to Lake Nakuru with the um flamingos, into Uganda, uh a little bit into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then uh Rwanda, Burundi, uh Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, what was then Rhodesia now, Zimbabwe, South Africa, over to Swaziland, which is now Eswatini, uh Lesotho, uh, and then uh a little bit into Mozambique, and then uh back into South Africa, and then down to the tip of the continent um at uh Cape Gollis. So I think uh totting it all up, I think fifteen or sixteen countries. Uh huh. And so that was in five months. No, no, no. They that was that we we got to add us a in in five months. Then when we left Addis, that was about another uh six months. It was about 8,000 miles in all from Alexandria to Cape Gallas.

DanielaSm 22:12

And from New York to Alexander, that was also how many months?

Barry Maughan 22:17

Oh, that was uh well getting over to

Preparation, Tires, And Survival

Barry Maughan 22:20

Europe was um yeah about uh two weeks but then we spent uh five five months just touring around Europe visiting relatives my wife's relatives from Switzerland so we spent time there and then I have friends in England so you know we we just took our time there. A year and a half in total yeah about that yeah and total time of traveling but when you add another almost three years in Addis Ababa so it was yeah in the middle so it was actually a tale of two trips not to steal Dickens thunder but it was the tale of two trips but with that little bit in the middle where I I had to gain more money and my wife my wife was uh a teacher uh schoolmaster taught English so she was she was fabulous uh and we lived very humbly there very humbly well on our second tour our second child Angeline Kelly was was born so they're both born in Ethiopia you know this is another thing that um I'm so thankful for the trip my children both grew up as minority because all their friends were African or other nationalities this is this is fabulous. It gave them a sense of being part of the world and this is this is with them today my son opens businesses around the world and he can go like India and he took a team there and it took them three days to acclimatize to the sounds smells he was he was at home with it because because he had traveled the world because after Africa then we went to Sri Lanka India Thailand Singapore back to my native Australia and then to New Zealand where I worked as uh energy correspondent for a year before joining the Voice of America for the last 25 years in the English to Africa service. So that was that was a serendipity for for my for my children.

DanielaSm 24:25

Your kids were born in Ethiopia and then they were traveling for five years or for how long before you returned to U.S.

Barry Maughan 24:33

Well after my second tour at Asabus ended in 1975, then we traveled about uh six months through all those countries that I mentioned before and uh stopping in Australia where I was born and uh reacquainting myself with uh in-laws and outlaws. We all have them right and uh and then over to New Zealand and we uh lived there for a year while I was uh national energy correspondent before then heading back to the U.S. to work in Washington DC at the Voice of America uh and the English to Africa Service and uh I uh retired there in 2000. The last five years I'm proud to say that uh I was the uh chief of the service yeah what a wonderful exciting life you have adventurous yeah yes exciting and you got to embrace what's there in front of you and not not be afraid of of meeting people of making yourself maybe look vulnerable don't be the know it all ask for people's help uh be be humble and you make a lot of friends like that because you know what Danielle let me give you a story we're in the outback

Addis Ababa And A Broadcasting Turn

Barry Maughan 25:45

of Ethiopia I just happened to have a translator with me because I was on assignment and we got to meet this family in their very small little tuchel a round thatched hut this was their whole life we got to um sit and talk with them they offered us a meal and we gratefully accepted and I started asking questions like you know well what do you want in life? They wanted three meals square meals on the table each day they wanted a better life for their children they wanted as little government intrusion in their life as possible and they didn't want their son going off to fight in some foreign war and possibly dying. Hello that's what we want our religion culture ethnicity financial circumstances may be different but under the skin we're the same. You see? Their wants they they may not have what we want or they may seem different to us. I always say if people would just talk to each other travel and learn various cultures and different then we'd have far less problems in this world because a lot of the problems are born out of ignorance. This is the heart of it it's in the chapter called The Oneness of Love and I am very passionate about this. Yes we're all the same we had stopped for lunch we put the top up there was Kevin and the jerry pack on the back of Suzanne and she's preparing a little lunch we were not adverse to being alone we realized we were traveling through other people's country and their territory therefore we're in Africa never alone and suddenly we had thought we were alone but suddenly we looked up and there around us were about thirty people respectfully just looking no harm just looking curious huh what are these Pharynges doing here in this crazy looking vehicle whatever and they were from the uh the Dinka ethnic group aquiline uh very dark fine featured when mother had a baby the same age as Kevin who was about one at the time her reticent was overcome by this fascination with not with us so much but with Kevin blonde hair blue eyes and she just slowly came closer and closer and reached out her hand slowly touched oh Kevin was not afraid. See intuitively they knew there's nothing to be afraid of here my wife was not afraid I was and they exchanged paint and people always say well why didn't you take a picture? Well this is back in the era of SLRs, you know, uh F-stops and all this you it wasn't you could get out your cell phone go I didn't want to break the moment. I didn't want to spoil that moment. It was something that was over in just a few seconds but it will be with us for the rest of our life. That epitomizes her love for her baby was the same as Suzanne's love for Kevin. She would never do anything to harm our baby. Suzanne would never do anything to harm her baby. If we could just get back to the the oneness of of what we have in this world it's simple but it's so powerful. That's what I want the world to get from my book. Yes beautiful no matter where you go if you if you meet the people at their needs and where they are and you're open to them and you don't play the big muckety muck just because of where you come from or other different then you're going to make friends. I've got friends around the world and I can call them say I'm flying in tomorrow even though a lot of them are unfortunately

Route Through East And Southern Africa

Barry Maughan 29:10

as we say in Australia fly falling off the perch because now I'll be 84 the end of the year. Their home is my home as my home is their home no matter where in the world. Barry tell me more about your book how did you come up to think about writing it yeah well things start very very humbly I knew that we had done something uh special to our minds but I wanted uh my forebears and Suzanne's forebears um to be able to reflect on what we did um the children grandchildren and there on and so I decided well okay back in the era typewriter I'll type out a few pages and then I'll just send it to uh I'll take it to um uh Kinkos or Staples and I'll have a few copies run off drive a staple through it and distribute it to friends and close friends and family and then someone said whoo hey yeah maybe this more people need to be able to read about that. Okay, okay. I I had written a couple of books previously so I knew the hard slog that was ahead of me if you're going to do this correctly. And I didn't want this to be a a piece of slapdash slog in a slop. So I started a laborious journey with um good folks at um my word publishing and uh my assistant ho ho Amanda Miller is she fantastic because I I was the word person she was the technical person nowadays it's the transmission of your thoughts. It's like when you're a a guest on uh podcast like yours I gotta learn I gotta get a microphone I gotta get this I gotta get that even though I'm a broadcaster it's new to me. Four years later her snickety every little detail was was taken care of and I'm really really proud of the book because uh you can have the best book in the world but if it it's not attractive and it doesn't seem good at people's eyes no one's gonna read it. And so it's now on Amazon it's called Beneath the African Sun it contains 39 photos covers a multitude of uh subjects 300 and something pages long and I couldn't be uh prouder of um of the work and is dedicated to my then wife uh Suzanne and our one year old son Kevin who is now 55 can you believe it and this daughter's 53 so um yeah but I'm I'm I'm very happy it's on Amazon and Goodreads and a lot of other uh outlets and it's got good reviews and I'm very humbled by that I've got uh maybe one more book left in me and Suzanne and I had Wonderlust uh we uh proved that by um in uh later years um after the Africa trip we uh circumnavigated my native uh Australia in a motor home again about 4,000 uh miles written all the chapters and now I just have to find the time to um put it all all together again.

DanielaSm 32:18

So this one will be under the under the sun of Australia?

Barry Maughan 32:20

No, no no I have to come up with with something Aussie dinky die or you gotta have some Aussie expression in there. But you know when you've got someone of like mind with you willing to undergo all the privations involved you can't lose. Let me just give you an example because I really have to I have to really praise and uh say good things about my then wife Suzanne. Yes please we had we had been in Wadi Halfa which is um this um well let's look in the the northernmost town in Sudan it's now the main the old town is inundated by Lake Nasser because when they built the uh the Aswan Dam then uh the uh the Blue Nile and which uh had then floated to the uh the Nile they had they could not continue to nourish the Nile Delta the way they did see because the dam was blocking it well all

Children As Bridges Across Cultures

Barry Maughan 33:20

now all the beautiful Lois that the soil that made the Nile Delta so fertile was stuck behind the dam. So it started building up and also the uh the river started to form a huge lake which backed up and inundated the ancient town of Wadihalfa. So when we got to Wadihalfa on the Aswan Queen who just a couple of scows lashed together we had stayed there for a couple weeks without showers a couple weeks and finally we had uh contracted to get a um flat car to take combi bus on top and we could sit in the combi bus and be transported to Hort Sudan on the border on the on the Red Sea coast of uh Sudan anyway we're we're uh there and it's dusty and we're dirty and we're filthy we're out in the desert so it's dry. Okay so we get on there and um travel to Atbara near Hatum and then we start heading towards the coast of the Red Sea and the humidity where all this dust and grime of two weeks started to turn to mud literally just running down and there's no you're you're sitting in your combi bus there's no showers a revolting I I my skin crawls when I think about it. But anyway we get to Port Sudan and we're thinking no what happened was because we were in the caboose and we were not part of the passengers then we got shunted into uh and we arrived on a Friday so the Muslim holidays and all that um we had to stay there until Monday morning. Oh no well lo and behold here we are stuck armed guards we couldn't get out of this place to take a shower and we're just awful but up in my goodie box I had this um five gallon uh plastic container that you could fill with water okay well we had to be very very careful because first you had to find water it doesn't matter if it's potable or not if we found a tap we found water but then the guards would come around every now often and rather they don't want to see you bathing but that's not a good anyway we filled it up which would then weigh 40 pounds so we dragged that over and on the side of the caboose we set it up it's got a spigot on it heads down okay I say to Suzanne I'm going first she would sit up there and turn the the tap on I would go down there in the buff because you only had five gallons okay that's all right for a guy you're in a Muslim country now what does Suzanne do? Huh? She's just as dirty as me so we drag the thing back again to get fill it up again do that. How does she do it? You got the guards walking around you got the lights that come on at a certain time of of the night she says

The Oneness Of Love

Barry Maughan 36:40

calmness I've got a bathing suit that covers sh shall get underneath there and I'll just wash inside of that and she did. And we had to be watching out for the guards coming around because if they saw that I don't care if she had a and this was not a bikini or anything this was a full old fashioned bathing suit she had on would still yeah yeah in the Muslim country no no no no you don't do that a problem solver the whole trip I could not have done it without her and to a lesser extent our little boy who opened a lot of doors for us.

DanielaSm 37:17

And how many years were you together?

Barry Maughan 37:19

50 and then things happen uh the book is dedicated to her in all due deference.

DanielaSm 37:25

She was with you so both of you did there. You didn't you were there too yes yes yes yeah I did I did I did my part it was a joint effort to I don't think the people that go traveling like that don't have similar personalities to be able to deal with the unexpected and a lot of uncertainty.

Barry Maughan 37:43

We love seeing other personalities nationalities other people at different ways of life we love rubbing shoulders with them and we always came away gratified even my dear friend Ibrahim al-Tahwi even after the journey and I had gone on to the Voice of American when my assignments led me to Cairo I was always a guest at his house and we'd fight about who had the better football team and and just family and and all that I can tell you it's hard uh when he passed I lost a dear dear friend not just because he helped us in so many ways which are noted in the book we could not have got on started on this trip without Ibrahim El Tahawi.

DanielaSm 38:27

That's beautiful you're very fortunate to have met all these interesting people and the experience that you decided to have.

Barry Maughan 38:33

Yes um and I must say that uh my mom said it best when I was young she said Barry you talk to a post if it would stand still I got out and I met people that was not Suzanne Strong she was a little more introverted. Yes and and that's the balance right nonetheless important but there was the balance I could go out and I could meet people and I could show up and I mean when I walked into Ibrahim el-Tahwi's office Young Men's Muslim Association I very soon found out he was the right hand man to Abdulgamul Nasser. He was the number two guy in the in the whole country and I walked in oh hi oh I'd like you to meet some friends of mine here's Mahmoud Fouse Minister of War oh here's so and so minister of health half the Egyptian cabinet just sitting around but just having drinks and have snacks having a great what what do you ever wanted to see in Cairo in Egypt? Oh well the Sphinx the Pyramids uh the national museum Cairo Museum Lieutenant Bazary would you come in please okay for the next 10 days he's gonna pick you up at 8 a.m and he's going to take you anywhere you want we saw it all never paid a dime wonderful we saw a beautiful opera it's wonderful the experiences and the food all because of one man we walking up and saying hi how you doing my name is Barry he wanted nothing from me but my friendship which I gladly gave then and until he passed excellent I really don't think we could have made it to Addis Ababa without him. Wow what an experience for sure your book is out the next one you're thinking that it's gonna be oh I don't know I mean look my philosophy on life is I've got in my pocket here a daytimer and every day is filled with all kinds of stuff i've I've always tried to balance that part of my life with words of encouragement to my four grandchildren my now wife Karen who's been fantastic she's the one that gave me the time to spend daily writing the book and all the things that go into it her four grandchildren so I've tried to maintain a balance and with my children as well to

Writing Beneath The African Sun

Barry Maughan 41:00

meet them at their needs. Family is everything and this is another thing that traveling in Africa and elsewhere has taught me. If you don't have strong family you have nothing and we can all get caught up in our careers and we can all get caught up in you know the glamour and whatever that might come with it. Because I broadcast to Africa five days a week and I did a sports program and I must say I had millions of listeners. But I always told the staffers that I work with not work for me work with me at the English to Africa Service. You are a government employee never forget that and don't get too big ahead. Remain humble that's how you connect with people and people understand that. When I would do my uh sports program I'd always joke about my bald head and my haunch and the whole thing and I had contests about my mama's chicken soup and oh it wasn't so much six one two nothing. Anyone can do that it's connecting with people in a way that they understand. You know my mama always said to me no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. That's the key and you can't fake it it it's got to come from your heart. And so I want I want my family to know that there's been some missteps along the way yes but I love them dearly they are the center of my world and all this other stuff is great. You know it doesn't matter how much how much money you make my mom the cliche lady said oh son don't worry about the money because you're not going to be able to take it with you because they don't make pockets and shrouds you know there's no way you can take that money with you. So you enjoy it. Spend spend rationally on those you love to bring joy and happiness into their life as they brought joy and happiness into yours.

DanielaSm 43:04

Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

Barry Maughan 43:08

Yeah. All right that's it look we're here in the blink of an eye I mean 80 84 years it's seems like I was just graduating high school in 1960 nine years before you were even born huh? But it it goes in the twinkling of an eye. Yes I heard that and I know it is and you have to savor every day enjoy where you are and enjoy your family and be good to other people even if it's a smile or a pat on the shoulder.

DanielaSm 43:43

Yes that's true.

Barry Maughan 43:44

Someone said to me in Lagos Nigeria when I went into a little house and I saw like one corner of it was almost a shrine to the voice of America not just to me voice of America and the little radio in the whole and he said Mr. Barry, when I listen to you, sometimes that's the only time I have reason to smile during the day. What greater gift can you give people?

DanielaSm 44:09

What what greater gift? Wonderful. Thank you, Barry, for this beautiful, insightful story and all the beautiful words that you have given me and giving us to feel more encouraged and inspired to continue being better humans. Thank you.

Barry Maughan 44:28

Well, thank you, Danielle, and I'd like to uh give props to you. Um, we had a few false starts because of me and ineptitude. Um but but you persevered, and that says a lot about I feel the passion that you bring to your podcast, and I can only wish you the very, very best uh in the future. And if you ever need me back on to pontificate on something else, I'm I'm I'm here. You know how to reach me. If anyone wants a good read on the real Africa and Africans, then Beneath the African Sun, published on May 1st of this year, you won't be disappointed. And it's also an ebook, so you can get it that way. Thank you for having me on, Danielle. It's been it's been a pleasure. I wish you nothing but the very best in the future.

DanielaSm 45:21

Thank you. And we will put that all the information in the show notes. So thank you very much, Barry. You're welcome. Barry's story reminds us that the world is often kinder than we are told, and that the greatest journeys are not measuring miles, but in how they change us. If something from this conversation stays with you, share it with someone who might need a reminder that adventure, connections, and purpose are still out there waiting. Leave us a review to help more listeners discover stories that expand how we see the world. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening. Hasta pronto.