36 hours of flights and connections isn’t too long in my books. If it took them up to a week in 1961 no big deal. Hell, I waited 2 days in a layover in 2001 for a jet to be fixed in Italy, and stayed in the airport while I waited.
That sucks, when compared to my dumb flight from Palm Beach to Philadelphia. For some reason, I was routed to JFK, had a four hour layover and took a pond hopper over to La Guardia.
If I was sane, at the time, I should have took a train back home or rented a car, one way.
Would have been much faster.
A 36 hour trip be a big deal to me, but then I’m not much of a traveler. The real question would be whether that information helps figure out the possibility of the Kenya trip or not.