2003 Velten, Chris Mar 2003, Bamako Mali

[PorchlightAfrica]

Chris Velten
Age at disappearance: 28

Chris Velten from Brighton, UK, last spoke to his family in March 2003. At that time he was travelling from Kita towards Bamako the capital Mali in West Africa.

Chris left London in February 2003 to make a documentary about Mungo Park, the acclaimed explorer who charted the route of the Niger River more than 200 years ago.

Chris last called at the end of March, from Kita in Mali. He was heading for the capital, Bamako, and shortly after planned to follow the Niger River, through Mali, Niger and finally Nigeria, to the mouth of the river. He was due home in July last year. We think he might still be in Mali.

Chris is white, 28, about 5'10'', has an athletic build with brown hair, brown eyes and might now have a beard. He was travelling alone, but may have had a local guide, with a backpack and may have been seen with a video camera and a push cart.

Chris is the type of person who stays in contact so his disappearance means he is in trouble. His family have started a search in the area and so if you have been travelling in Mali, particularly last year near the river, or if you have contacts with locals, NGOs or any companies with links to Mali, you or people you know may well help us find him.

If you have seen any of these missing people, please call 0500 700 700 or email us
http://nmph.underwired.com/seen.php?page=13#



Attached Image (Click thumbnail to expand)

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...showtopic=16453

http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightEuro...wtopic=727&st=0

[PorchlightAfrica]

Mother ‘still hopes son will return’ after vanishing on trip

By Emma Cowing
Published on Saturday 22 October 2011 19:35

THE MOTHER of a Scottish former student who vanished in Mali eight years ago has said she still holds on to the hope that he is alive.

Pauline Velten – whose son Christian, a zoology graduate, disappeared in the West African country in April 2003 while retracing the steps of the 18th-century Scottish explorer Mungo Park – said she clings to the possibility he will return.

Her comments came as BBC2 Scotland screens a documentary on Park, who visited Africa in 1795. She said: “It’s very distressing but you just hope one of these days a miracle will happen and he will turn up. You always have hope. You never give up.”

Velten said her son’s Edinburgh University friends held a party each year on his birthday to keep his memory alive.

She said: “His friends have been absolutely fantastic. Without them I don’t know how I could have coped. They usually have a party on his birthday, about 30 of them get together. They help you get through the whole thing.”

Her son was so enthralled by Park’s story that he decided to recreate his journey, and travelled to West Africa in early 2003. He planned to travel through Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and make a documentary and write a book about it.

He disappeared in early April in Mali, missing his flight home in July. None of his belongings has been found. That October, the Veltens sent a private detective to Mali, but no trace of the 28-year-old was found. A year later Sussex police travelled to the area but also made little progress.

Velten was last seen alive outside a café on the outskirts of the town of Bamako. He last spoke to his parents on 23 March, 2003, when he phoned to wish his mother a happy birthday.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/mother_still_..._trip_1_1925895

[PorchlightAfrica]

My gorgeous brother, Christian Velten. He disappeared in Mali, Africa over 8 years ago, while following in the foot steps of the Scottish explorer, Mungo Park. Last known position was Bamako, March/April 2003. If anyone sees him, give him a kick up the ar** and tell him to come home, please - thank you! Memories of Chris can be found by clicking on his picture...
http://watertrough.blogspot.com/2007/08/co...ting-cured.html

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/419...-in-Africa.html
Nightmare of red tape and silence for parents of son missing in Africa
By Caroline Davies

Image 1 of 2
Christian Velten

Image 1 of 2

12:01AM BST 29 Sep 2003

The last time Pauline Velten spoke to her son was on March 23 when he rang her from Kita in Mali, west Africa.

Christian Velten, who had spent a gap year in Australia after leaving Charterhouse, was a young man with a zest for adventure. He had begun a five-month solo expedition retracing the steps of his hero, Mungo Park, to the source of the Niger.

His aim was to make a documentary. Armed with a video camera, he was making his way on foot and by donkey and dug-out canoe from Gambia through Senegal, Mali and Niger to Nigeria.

He was accustomed to unusual pursuits. After graduating from Edinburgh University, Park's alma mater, with a degree in zoology, he went to the West Indies for 18 months.

"He visited 27 islands studying the wildlife," his mother says. "He is such a gregarious, out-going person, I don't think he ever had to pay to spend a night anywhere. He would just talk to the villagers and they would put him up, often in the most primitive conditions."
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[what's this]

Communications were invariably bad. But he wrote regularly and, when he found a phone, he would call.

On March 23, when he phoned from Kita, it was to wish his mother and father, Tim, a retired farmer, happy birthday. The days fall just two days apart.

They had been able to track his journey from the letters that started arriving at their home in East Sussex, mostly from children he had met in The Gambia and Senegal. "Some were addressed to Christ Velten," his mother recalled.

Then the letters stopped, and there were no more phone calls. "He had said he wouldn't be in regular contact because of there being no communications. He was either going up river or was hiring a camel. So we didn't initially worry too much. But, after a couple of months, we realised he should have passed through Bamako in Mali, and then Timbuktu. Or Mopti."

Mungo Park was only 34 when he drowned in rapids in what is now Nigeria on his second expedition in 1805. Christian's parents began to worry that he might have met the same fate, or been kidnapped or robbed and left to die. On May 19 they contacted the Foreign Office. Four months later, no official search has yet been carried out. For the Veltens, it has been a dreadful period of bewilderment, frustration and fear. They feel that no proper strategy is in place to help people such as them.

Guided by the Veltens' initial belief that Christian might be in Niger, the Foreign Office contacted the French Embassy there. Over the next month, the British consular liaison network was informed in Nigeria, and then the French Embassy in Mali.

The British Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, was informed and is making inquiries, as is the liaison office in Bamako, Mali, which replaced the British Embassy when it was closed earlier this year. Posters were put up, border crossings checked. There has been no news.

Christian's expedition was due to end on July 6. He had a flight home booked for July 22 which he did not take. "Again, we were not sure whether to panic," says Mrs Velten. After weeks of gnawing doubts, the couple decided to look into whether he had deferred the flight, which they believed was with British Airways.

On Aug 16, Mrs Velten rang Sussex police. "The first thing they did was search the house, which was a total insult to our intelligence," she says. "They said it was because most missing persons are found in their own houses. Can you believe it? I mean, how bloody ridiculous." Several subsequent phone calls to the police went unreturned, Mrs Velten says. Two weeks later, Christian's flight details were found by a friend. He was booked with Virgin. Again, her calls to Sussex police went unreturned, she says. Eventually the Foreign Office, through a contact in Lagos, established that he had neither caught nor cancelled his flight.

By now the couple were desperate to launch a search. They agreed, with the Foreign Office, that it was best to start where he had last been heard of, in Kita. Unfortunately, they say, they did not realise that Christian's disappearance had not been officially logged with Interpol UK, part of NCIS (the National Criminal Intelligence Service), which is a requirement for authority to be given for a search by Malian police.

The couple had naively assumed that Interpol UK would have been alerted automatically, and the request passed to Mali Interpol. It was done last Friday, they say. Gregory Barker, Tory MP for Bexhill and Battle, the Veltens' constituency, is shocked by the case. "Until a formal request is entered the Interpol machine doesn't fire on all cylinders," he says. "That can only happen with a request from the police. So Sussex police delayed it being recorded by Interpol by more than a month."

Apparently unaware that Interpol had not been alerted, the Foreign Office began to organise the search.

On Aug 20 they informed the couple that they had to send £200 to the British Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, which covers Mali.

The money, they were informed, was to meet expenses for a five-day police search. They were told this would start on Saturday, Aug 30.

Six days later, the Veltens rang the Foreign Office to be told there was no news because of poor communications. They rang again the next day, and the next, and continued to ring.

On Sept 11, one week after the search should have finished, they discovered that no search had been conducted at all.

They had to start all over again. This time they were told police in Mali had set up a two-man investigation team and the country's police chief had given official clearance for a search on Sept 20. But the search had to be delayed because of celebrations for Mali independence day.

Their hopes were dashed once more on Thursday, when they discovered clearance for a search had still not been given.

Mr and Mrs Velten are still waiting for news. Meanwhile they have been pursuing their own inquiries through a website and with the help of Christian's friends, Vicky Paterson and Sam Rice-Edwards.

On Tuesday the couple and their MP met with Foreign Office officials to discuss their frustrations. On Wednesday they met with Sussex police, who have now appointed a detective inspector to oversee the case. "Finally, they are taking us seriously", says Mrs Velten of the police response.

"I believe, with regard to the search, that the Foreign Office have been misled as much as we have," she adds. "But they should give some sort of lead and they certainly should give far more help and direction to people like us who don't know where to start. They have been reactive, rather than proactive.

"When something like this happens to you, the first thing everyone says is, 'Ring the Foreign Office'. So you do this, and they should immediately say, 'Right, your son's lost, this is what we do,' and they should set the ball in motion."

Her MP agrees: "There is a lack of grip and a lack of ownership. Its not the inadequacy of the Foreign Office but the total inadequacy of the system."

The Foreign Office says the family's concerns had been raised during the meeting this week. "We explained what we could do and what we have done and what we will try to do in the future," a spokesman says. "And if anything comes up which we think has been missed or we feel we can improve on, we will.

"It has taken a few months," he admits. "The problem is that people think we can do more than we are able to do. Sometimes expectations are raised to too high a level."

Sussex police said an internal review and investigation was under way about their actions when Christian was reported missing. On the issue of Interpol, a spokesman said: "The force shares the family's concern for Christian and has apologised for not contacting Interpol sooner than Sept 25. We regret this deeply and a separate internal investigation is under way."

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/af...rer-583005.html
Rescue mission launched for missing adventurer

By Paul Kelbie, Scotland Correspondent

Saturday, 11 October 2003


In the best traditions of British explorers, Christian Velten warned his friends and family that he might be gone for some time when he set out to cross west Africa by foot, donkey and a dugout canoe on the trail of an 18th-century adventurer.

In the best traditions of British explorers, Christian Velten warned his friends and family that he might be gone for some time when he set out to cross west Africa by foot, donkey and a dugout canoe on the trail of an 18th-century adventurer.

The 28-year-old zoology graduate from East Sussex had always yearned for excitement, travel and adventure in unexplored and exotic destinations. His fascination with the world and its creatures was matched only by his interest in the achievements of past explorers who opened up new frontiers.

In an attempt to emulate his heroes he decided on a five-month solo expedition following the route of the explorer Mungo Park to the source of the Niger, armed with £1,700 in euros, a still camera and video camcorder. He intended to make a documentary on how Africa has changed in the past 200 years through the eyes of a lone British traveller.

Now, seven months after he left London and six months since he was last heard from, a rescue operation, organised by friends and family, will today begin retracing his steps.

Mr Velten, a former Edinburgh University student, aimed to follow Park's route from Gambia through Mali, Niger and on to Nigeria.

Park, from Foulshiels, Selkirk, set off into the unknown in 1795 to become the first British explorer to venture into the interior of west Africa and extend the boundaries of African exploration.

During his epic journey Park was captured and imprisoned for four months by the Moors. He escaped, with nothing but a pocket compass, a horse and the clothes he stood in.

Park continued his quest to find the river, and drowned at the age of 34 in what is now Nigeria on a second expedition in 1805, aged 34.

Mr Velten's 2,500-mile journey was meant to take him across the Sahara desert, through scrubland and rainforest, staying at villages along the way. Anticipated encounters with ancient nomadic tribes, the rich diversity of animal life including crocodiles, hyenas and hippos, and the added danger from bandits made the trip even more attractive to the modern-day adventurer.

The former Charterhouse school pupil was regarded as the type of man who "gets a buzz surviving hardship". He spent a year in Australia before going to university and then, after graduation in 1998, spent two years exploring the islands of the eastern Caribbean and living with the islanders.

For more than six months he meticulously planned the trip, spending hours in the library of the Natural History Museum in London, studying the flora and fauna he expected to encounter.

However a few hundred kilometres and six weeks after he set off from Senegal, he vanished without trace.

He had phoned home on 23 March, and was last seen alive and well on 9 April in a village called Kati in Mali.

His friend Vicky Paterson, a co-ordinator of the rescue operation, said: "He can't have just disappeared. Somebody, somewhere must know what has happened to him. We have been working with the local police and the Foreign Office for weeks, but as yet we have had little to go on except for a short four-minute phone call that Chris made to us on 23 March from Kita, in the west of Mali.

"He is someone who could rely on himself. He's a well-balanced, level-headed bloke who knew what he was up against and had the mental strength to deal with it.

"He's not the type to panic and would take things in his stride, so we are hoping that if we can retrace his steps and talk to everybody who might be in a position to help us find him," said Ms Paterson, an editor at the Natural History Museum in London.

Since August the Foreign Office has been in touch with the governments of Mali, Niger and Nigeria, along with the British and French consulates and embassies in the region, while friends have been making contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross and aid organisations operating in the area. So far nobody has reported seeing a young white man with a camera.

Another of Mr Velten's friends, Sam Rice-Edwards, and a former soldier who prefers to remain anonymous arrived in Mali yesterday to begin a search, with little to go on except Mr Velten's route plan.

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegra...es-missing.html
Foreign Office goes missing

12:01AM BST 30 Sep 2003

CommentsComment

Christian Velten, a British subject, is missing in Africa. Four months ago, his parents asked the Foreign Office for help. Since then, to all intents and purposes, nothing has happened. This is not unusual. Many relatives who have to deal with the FCO come up against the same obstinacy. In 1850, Lord Palmerston promised Parliament that "a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong". Now, the eye is likely to look away, the arm to remain idle. If, while abroad, you are kidnapped by terrorists, or falsely accused of a crime, or disappear without trace, expect little help. Not only will our diplomatists fail to act: they will order your family to do nothing, telling them that publicity is counterproductive.

The real reason they say this, of course, is that they do not want to be put under pressure. Protecting British citizens abroad may be a distraction from building relations with the country in question. And, in any event, it will involve a great deal of extra work - something that is rarely popular in the public sector. Our diplomatic service cannot do everything, of course; but it ought at least to have a set of automatic procedures. It might, for example, decide to act if a Briton is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, but not if he is guilty, however severe the sentence. It might even feel that cases like Mr Velten's are beyond its capacity. But then it should say so. The worst thing possible is to accept responsibility in theory, and do nothing in practice.

[PorchlightAfrica]

Christmas without Christian
Libby Sutcliffe
BBC News Online

Christian Velten
Mr Velten hoped to trace a Scottish explorer's route to the River Niger
Christian Velten was attempting to re-trace the steps of 18th Century explorer Mungo Park when he disappeared in West Africa.

Now nine months since he last contacted home, his parents are still holding on to the hope he will be found alive and are facing Christmas not knowing what has happened to their son.

Mr Velten was copying the route of the Scottish explorer, who was the first Briton to enter the interior of West Africa in search of the River Niger in 1795.

He had left London in February after researching the route for six months and planned to make a documentary about his adventure.


It is just the not knowing which is the worse bit
Pauline Velten, mother

He last phoned home on 23 March from Kito in Mali, but a search party sent out to the country in October established sightings of him further up the River Niger in Bamako.

The new sightings meant Mr Velten, who went to university in Edinburgh, had most probably travelled through a hazardous stretch of his journey.

Despite the months going past and the lack of good news, Mrs Velten said she was still holding on to the hope that her son was still alive.

There have been numerous other reported sightings of the 28-year-old, but often they are confused.

Christian Velten's intended route in Africa

People tend to mistake other travellers of different nationalities for him; there is a German man who is also exploring along the river Niger who is sometimes thought to be Mr Velten.

Despite the mix-ups and the tendency for the local people to try to help by telling the search party what they want to hear, every lead is followed up.

Only about two weeks before Christmas a new sighting of Mr Velten was reported just past Timbuktu.

Mrs Velten said: "An Islamic relief lorry driver who had seen all the photos of Christian said he had seen this white male up near Ghourma-Rharous.

'Bandits near the border'

"He had noticed him up there for some months and he knows he goes into the nearest market town to buy tins of sardines and then acts strangely.

"If it is Christian, he has obviously lost his mind or he is ill. It is highly unlikely it is him, but it is something we have to follow up."

A local man, Samake, who aided the first search team would be going to find the man described by the driver as the lead had to be checked out, Mrs Velten said.

She said if it turned out to be her son and he was ill, a doctor would be on hand to help him.

Pauline Velten
Mrs Velten said the search would continue

The first search party, which consisted of Samake and a private detective as well as one of Mr Velten's friends, returned from Africa in November having had limited success.

Another party, headed by a former police detective superintendent, is preparing to go back to West Africa at the beginning of 2004.

Mrs Velten said although the search for her son had not been incredibly successful, it had not proved unsuccessful either. She said: "We have not had any bad news. We felt sure if he had an accident, if he had come to grief, somebody somewhere would know.

Detective work

"It seems to me he was probably robbed and murdered, but nobody has heard of anything.

"We have even interviewed the prisoners in the local prison, but nothing has so far turned up.

"There have been places where people have been abducted by people living up in the desert and there are bandits near the border of Niger - but none of his possessions had ever been found."

Mrs Velten said they would continue to search until they get a result.

But at a cost of £500 a day, she said it would probably end when resources ran out.

The new search team, headed by Michael Brooker, would be using detective work rather than the tracking method used before.

Christian Velten
There is a website about Mr Velten's disappearance

She said they hoped Mr Brooker would turn up some new information.

Until then, Mrs Velten is preparing to spend the first Christmas away from the family home in 22 years, choosing instead to travel to her daughter's in Cornwall.

Her own house near Burwash, East Sussex, is devoid of decorations and the phone is regularly in use with calls about the search.

Mrs Velten said "You are trying to come to terms with the situation which is all you can really do .

"You are always living in hope and it is never off your mind we cannot name here get on with our lives.

"It is just the not knowing which is the worse bit."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england...ies/3341475.stm

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://www.theargus.co.uk/archive/2004/02/..._video_message/
Archive - Thursday, 26 February 2004

*
Missing excplorer's last video message

Wide-eyed with excitement, Christian Velten rested a video camera on boxes before speaking about his forthcoming West African adventure.

The six-minute film - complete with a map of his destination - was to be included in a home-made documentary of his 4,000km solo trek.

The footage has now been released as two Sussex detectives prepare to fly to Mali in a bid to discover the fate of the 28-year-old graduate.

He phoned his family on March 23 last year from Kita in Mali. Since then, there has been no contact.

Christian, from Brighton, planned to spend five months following in the steps of 18th Century explorer Mungo Park on foot, by donkey, camel and dug-out canoe.

He hoped to film his trip and make a documentary on his return to show how the region has changed in the 200 years since Park's ill-fated journey. However, weeks after he made the tape, the Edinburgh University zoology graduate vanished.

In the tape, shown to reporters yesterday, he said: "There is no guarantee there will be no unrest. But this will be the journey of a lifetime. I can't wait to go."

On Monday, Detective Chief Inspector Reg Hooke and Detective Inspector Martin Sapwell will take their forensic, analytical and computer expertise to Africa in a bid to end the mystery.

Christian's retired parents Tim and Pauline, from Burwash, near Heathfield, have already spent a fortune hiring a private investigator to look for their son.

At a Press conference in Lewes, Mrs Velten said: "We've had no word to say anything has happened to Christian and we have to hang on to that. The best scenario is that he has met a nomadic tribe called the Fulani and is travelling with them."

Christian set off on February 7 last year.

Living in Mali without sophisticated communications, his parents did not worry too much initially when the letters and phone calls dried up. However, as the weeks passed without a word, their worry grew. When he did not make his flight home on July 22, their fears grew.

Mungo Park was 34 when he drowned in what is now Nigeria on his second expedition in 1805. Christian's parents began to worry he might have met the same fate or been kidnapped or robbed and left to die.

In May, they contacted the Foreign Office yet four months passed and still no official search had been launched.

Yesterday, his parents criticised the authorities' initial lack of interest but praised Sussex Police for their work now.

The private investigator they hired found there had been sightings of a lone white man travelling in the Mali capital Bamoka and on the Niger between Bamoka and Timbuktu, where part of next week's mission will focus.

Mr Hooke said, with hindsight, he would have liked inquiries to start sooner.

But he added: "We are wholly dependent on the Foreign Office and Interpol setting up effective communications in what is a problematic part of the world."

Christian's parents revealed they had been aided in their search by businessman and adventurer Sir Richard Branson.

He read an article about Christian's disappearance and offered to lend the family a satellite telephone, later used by the private investigator.

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-107946644.html
Whatever happens, I have to find my son; (1) Life&Style (2) Christian Velten, 28, was following in the footsteps of an 18th century African explorer, but has been missing for six months. His mother, Pauline, describes the agony of not knowing whether he is still alive.

September 19, 2003

Byline: EMINE SANER

I ALWAYS told my son that he had nine lives. Christian is a bit of a daredevil. Once, he did a parachute jump and the cords got tangled as he was hurtling towards the ground. He managed to get them free but only just in time.

When he disappeared, he was following in the footsteps of Mungo Park, the first British explorer to venture into the depths of west Africa, who set out in 1795 to discover the source of the river Niger.

Christian left our home in East Sussex in February and the 4,000km trip was due to last five months, on foot, donkey and dugout canoe. Park drowned aged 34 and I'm terrified Christian might have suffered the same fate.

The last time I spoke to my son was on 23 March. He was in Kita in Mali, west Africa, and had found a hut with a phone. He sounded so happy, so full of enthusiasm, and said he'd had an incredible trip so far. He was planning to travel, on foot, 200km east to Bamako, the capital, which he thought he would reach in 10 to 14 days, then continue his trek to the mouth of the river Niger. We haven't heard anything since.

I can't really believe this is happening to our family; the thought of never seeing him again is horrendous. I cry every time I talk about him. My husband, a retired farmer, and my daughter Hannah, who is a year older than Christian, are desperately worried.

Christian's friends from university have been so supportive, especially Sam and Vicky, helping us contact the Foreign Office, posting his picture on the internet, emailing everyone they know.

Christian has always had lots of friends, and tons of girlfriends, but when he left for Africa there was no one special.

travelling. As soon as he left Charterhouse school, Surrey, he spent a year in Australia.

Then after reading zoology at Edinburgh University, he spent 18 months in the West Indies, where he went travelling on his own, looking into setting up an eco-tourism company.

Instead, he became fascinated with the animals there. When he returned, he wrote a book about them, supporting himself working in a bar. It was around this time that he discovered a book on Mungo Park.

His idea was to make a documentary showing how west Africa has changed over the past 200 years, and he managed to convince a production company to lend him a video camera. He spent six months researching the trip. He planned to start in Gambia, then go through Senegal, and on to Mali, from where he planned to follow the Niger to the coast. He was due to fly home on 22 July.

He told me not to worry before he left, saying he knew what he was up against. Of course I did worry, but my husband and I have brought our children up to be adventurous. He was concerned about going through Nigeria because there had been reports of bandit attacks. But he liked travelling on his own, so took the risk, and I think he gets a buzz surviving hardship.

We knew it might be hard for him to find a phone but in May, when we hadn't heard from him for two months, I knew something was wrong. The production company hadn't had any contact with him either so I called the Foreign Office.

It contacted the embassies of the countries he was travelling through but there was no news.

He was due to finish his journey on 6 July, the day before his 28th birthday. When he didn't catch his flight home we really panicked but then we grasped at the thought he might have deferred it. Perhaps he made friends and delayed his return. We are still receiving letters from people, especially children, he'd met on his journey and swapped addresses with.

But the Foreign Office discovered that Christian had not changed his flight. Shortly after, our local police station contacted Interpol; you'd think that the Foreign Office would have done that months before. By then it was 18 August.

THE police in Mali said they would begin a search on 30 August. I was in a dreadful state - I didn't know if my son was alive or dead and nobody could give me any information. Communication between us, the Foreign Office and the police in Mali was terrible. More than a week later they told me the two policemen who had been allocated to us were still searching. We considered this good news because it meant at least they hadn't found a body.

But a few days later the Foreign Office told me the search had never begun; we had been misled. I was so upset, I just collapsed in tears. I was so angry at how ineffectual the entire dealings at the Foreign Office had been. Then the Mali authorities said I had to answer lots of questions before they would start the search, such as, did he suffer from depression or take drugs?

I still don't know what's happening. My first reaction was to get on the first plane out there and look for Christian myself, but you need local people who know the country and can speak all the dialects.

I realised I could do more good if I stayed at home on the phone, speaking to anyone who might be able to help.

Through several contacts we made we managed to speak directly to the chief of police in Bamako. Interpol is finally taking this case seriously. As I understand it, there will be a search, but I don't know when. If they can't carry it on, we will have to do it privately.

I've been in touch with the team of detectives recommended by Scotland Yard - experts at tracking down missing people in foreign countries. Of course the costs will run into thousands of pounds.

I have to believe my son is still alive, or I wouldn't be able to carry on. The not knowing is torturous - is he sick with malaria or typhus but alive in a village somewhere being looked after?

Has he drowned, or has he been kidnapped? There are crocodiles, lions and hyenas; as he was on his own in a tent in the wilderness, anything could have happened. Every night in bed I go over and over all the possibilities.

During the day I'm on the phone, trying to make things happen. Whatever happens, we have to find him, even if what we find is what we are dreading the most.

* If you would like to contribute to the search fund for Christian, email search@technicola.com or visit www.technicola.com/chris

[PorchlightAfrica]

Yearlong mystery of Briton who vanished in the desert following the path of his hero.
Daily Mail (London)
Daily Mail (London)

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February 26, 2004

Byline: SUZANNE FINNEY

HE set out into the wilds of West Africa carrying only a camera, a rucksack and [pounds sterling]1,700.

Former public schoolboy Christian Velten wanted to retrace the steps of his hero, Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who led an ill-fated expedition in 1805 to follow the course of the River Niger.

But after arriving in Mali, 28-year- old Mr Velten mysteriously disappeared.

His family last heard from him in March 2003, when he rang his mother from a mud hut to wish her a happy birthday.

When he failed to return home in July as planned, Mr Velten's anxious parents launched an investigation to find him which has so far cost them thousands of pounds.

But now the hunt for the ex-Charterhouse pupil has widened, with British police poised to fly to Africa to help authorities there.

Mr Velten's parents, Tim and Pauline, from Burwash, East Sussex, still cling to the hope that their son will be found safe and well, despite fears that he may have been kidnapped or murdered.

They believe he may be living with a nomadic tribe called the Fulani, unaware of mounting fears for his safety.

Mrs Velten said: 'The best scenario is that he has met the Fulani and is travelling with them.

'They leave the river and do not return for a year. Christian may even have had an accident and the Fulani might be looking after him.

'The tribe could be about to return to the river near the capital Bamako.

Hopefully, they will be around when the British police go out there.' Mrs Velten and her husband criticised the Foreign Office and police for failing to act sooner in the search for their son.

She said: 'We have spent a great deal of money hiring a private detective because nothing was done by the authorities initially.

We have had to prove that some possible harm might have come to Christian before the authorities were willing to act officially.

'But finally the police are taking us seriously.' Detective Chief Inspector Reg Hooke and Detective Inspector Martin Sapwell, of Sussex Police, will travel to Mali on Monday for a weeklong visit to try to discover what has happened to Mr Velten.

Mr Hooke said: 'Since the Veltens reported Christian missing last year, the force has been working with the Malian authorities, through the Foreign Office and Interpol, to establish what happened to him.

'The reality is that British police have no authority outside the UK.

We have had to be invited to Mali by the authorities there. It is their inquiry.' A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The problem is that people think we can do more than we can. Sometimes expectations are too high.' Mr Velten was travelling on foot, by donkey and by canoe. There have been several reported sightingsof a lone white man in Timbuktu and Segou, in Mali.

However, despite an extensive search of his intended route, no clues to the whereabouts of the former Edinburgh University zoology student have been found.

Meanwhile, an international appeal is to be launched so tourists to the region will be aware of Mr Velten's disappearance.

According to his parents, he had an 'almost obsessive interest' in Mungo Park, who was born near Selkirk in 1771 and was only 24 when he first set out to explore the Niger. In a home movie he made before he left for Africa, Mr Velten said: 'This is a country that I knew so little about.

'When I discovered the Mungo Park stories I was immediately attracted to them. They provided a link to the countries that fascinated me.

'Mungo set out to trail the Niger and I plan to do the same. It will be the journey of a lifetime.'

KITA, MALI: Velten phoned home on March 23 - the last known contact

February 72003: Velten started his walk in The Gambia

BAMAKO: Last sighting outside the Mali capital

Intended route: Retracing the steps of explorer Mungo Park
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-113655808.html

[PorchlightAfrica]

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-107307646.html
African adventurer goes missing just like his hero.
Daily Mail (London)
Daily Mail (London)

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September 3, 2003

Byline: GAVIN MADELEY

AS a child, Christian Velten dreamed only of becoming an explorer.

By the age of 28, his long cherished plans had crystallised into a burning desire to retrace the steps of Scotland's first great African adventurer, Mungo Park.

Mr Velten was gripped by the legendary 19th- century figure's accounts of his travels, after graduating in zoology from Park's own alma mater, Edinburgh University.

And in February he set off across western Africa along the route of Park's epic, but ill-fated, journey to discover the source of the river Niger.

Five months ago, however, the former Charterhouse public schoolboy vanished - just like his hero.

Despite an extensive search of his route, not a single clue to his whereabouts has been found.

Mr Velten's desperate mother yesterday described the 'nightmare' she has endured since he disappeared without trace.

Pauline Velten has maintained a daily vigil beside the phone, praying her son will ring to say he is safe.

The last time she heard his voice was when he called the family's manor house home in Burwash, East Sussex, on March 23 from a mud hut in Kita, a small town in west Mali, to wish her a happy birthday. Mrs Velten said: 'That was the last we heard of him.

' He t o l d us he wouldn' t b e in contact for some time because of the difficulty in communications in some of the remote places he was going.

'But he was due to finish his trip on July 6, the day before his birthday, and he had a flight back to Britain provisionally booked for July 22.

'This whole experience has been a nightmare for us, though we live in hope that we will see him again.' Mrs Velten and her husband Tim have enlisted the help of government officials, university and school friends, and aid agencies in Africa in an increasingly urgent attempt to find their son.

Mungo Park was born in Selkirk and embarked on an expedition to track the source of the Niger in 1805, accompanied by an armed guard of 36 soldiers.

By contrast, Mr Velten was travelling largely alone, save for a guide and a donkey.

Despite his preparations, Park's expedition proved a total disaster.

Within days, some men died from fever and dysentery, while others were flogged by hostile tribesmen.

Park was one of the last to die.

Fleeing angry natives, the expedition's canoes were caught in rapids near Bussa, in what is now Nigeria.

As their boats sank, Park and the soldiers jumped into the swirling water.

His body was never recovered.

Mr Velten was armed with only a rucksack, a camera and [pounds sterling]1,700. But Mrs Velten insisted her son was 'well prepared', adding: 'He wasn't gungho in any way. He was well aware of the situation and the position he was putting himself in.'