{"id":5597,"date":"2026-07-21T14:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/1970-trans-african-hovercraft-expedition-world-about-us-bbc-archive\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:27:09","slug":"1970-trans-african-hovercraft-expedition-world-about-us-bbc-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/1970-trans-african-hovercraft-expedition-world-about-us-bbc-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"1970: Trans African Hovercraft Expedition | World About Us | BBC Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gUaas9Td1tI?autoplay=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>*This video reflects attitudes of its time and contains some information which is dated.*<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We shall attempt to navigate 7,000 miles of river and falls, lake and swamp, salt bed and desert, from the Atlantic Ocean to the heart of the African continent.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Ten tons of hovercraft arrive in the West African republic of Senegal, and the first stage of the expedition, the journey from St Louis to Bamako, begins.<\/p>\n<p>This edition begins in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, as the SRN6 hovercraft and its crew make their way along the coastal route to St Louis, where the expedition begins in earnest. <\/p>\n<p>00:00 Introduction<br \/>\n00:45 Dakar<br \/>\n02:31 Leaving for St Louis<br \/>\n03:36 The expedition route<br \/>\n04:35 Gor\u00e9e Island<br \/>\n06:23 St Louis<br \/>\n10:55 Richard Toll arrival<br \/>\n12:16 Scientific expedition aboard The African Queen<br \/>\n14:02 Richard Toll departure<br \/>\n15:24 Podor<br \/>\n18:38 Podor departure<br \/>\n20:25 Cascas<br \/>\n23:33 Cascas departure<br \/>\n25:10 Scientific expedition reaches a fishing village in Mauritania<br \/>\n25:48 City of Nouakchott<br \/>\n26:50 A photograph for the Chief<br \/>\n27:52 Nigel Hepper, biologist<br \/>\n28:23 Leaving the fishing village<br \/>\n29:46 Hovercraft struggles at Matam<br \/>\n32:42 Scientists debate on The African Queen<br \/>\n34:15 The end of the Senegal River<br \/>\n35:05 Kayes in Mali &#8211; mounting the hovercraft on a train<br \/>\n43:54 Leaving Kayes by train<br \/>\n46:44 End credits<br \/>\n48:00 Part 2 teaser<\/p>\n<p>Script by John Pilger, narrated by John Stockbridge.<\/p>\n<p>Clip taken from The World About Us, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 12 July, 1970.<\/p>\n<p>You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.<\/p>\n<p>Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive &#8211; https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/BBCArchive?sub_confirmation=1<\/p>\n<p>You can also dive into plenty more BBC Archive on our website &#8211; https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/archive<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gUaas9Td1tI\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*This video reflects attitudes of its time and contains some information which is dated.* &#8220;We shall attempt to navigate 7,000 miles of river and falls, lake and swamp, salt bed and desert, from the Atlantic Ocean to the heart of the African continent.&#8221; Ten tons of hovercraft arrive in the West African republic of Senegal, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":5598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11002,10993,10994,3227,10992,10998,11001,1023,1019,15,1022,1021,1020,6955,10996,10997,11005,1026,11000,6952,1025,11004,9552,1027,10999,11003,11007,1024,10995,1028,11006,11008],"class_list":["post-5597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-1970s-africa","tag-1970s-mali","tag-1970s-mauritania","tag-1970s-nostalgia","tag-1970s-senegal","tag-1970s-travelogue","tag-african-hovercraft-expedition","tag-archive","tag-archive-bbc","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-archive","tag-british-tv-nostalgia","tag-classic-tv","tag-dakar","tag-hovercraft","tag-hovercraft-journey","tag-kayes-mali","tag-legendary-television","tag-mali","tag-mauritania","tag-nostalgia","tag-nouakchott","tag-old-bbc-documentary","tag-retro-tv","tag-senegal","tag-st-louis-senegal","tag-st-louis-to-bamako","tag-the-bbc-archive","tag-trans-african-hovercraft-expedition","tag-vintage","tag-west-africa","tag-world-about-us-bbc","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/reel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}