CARAVAN TOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 5

CARAVAN TOUR.

ROUND AUSTRALIA. MODERN ADVENTURERS. ARCHITECT AND WIFE. A vivid account of a caravan tour round Australia fe given by Mr. G. W. Allsop, who with his wife left Auckland on April 1, taking with them the caravan which Mr. Allsop, an architect, had designed.

The caravan is built on a truck chassis and has a combined living and bedroom, kitchenette and a bathroom. and is a masterpiece of compressed comfort, with a place for everything. It is double-walled to maintain an even temperature, and, of course, has a radio.

An idea of the care with which it was designed may be obtained from the arrangement of the driver's compart-j ment. This also forms part of the! living room and the front seat can bei used as either bed or settee. When; thus used, the windscreen and windows! on each side give the effect of a bay; window. Even an ironing board wasj incorporated in the design of thej caravan.

But let Mr. Allsop tell in his own words of the adventures of the first part of the trip. With Mrs. Allsop he is going on to Africa, America and Europe: — Well, here we are, actually in Perth, having completed our trip from Sydney up through Queensland, across the Xorthern Territory, to Darwin, into the Kimberley district of North-west Australia, on to Broome, the great pearl fishing town, and down to Perth.

Ten years ago we motored from Sydney to Adelaide and across the South Australian desert to Perth, so now we have completed a motor tour right around Australia, some 10,000 miles, and I believe we are the first -Vew Zealanders to make that motor trip, certainly for pleasure. Our present journey was some 6000 mil~s, of which about 1000 miles were formed road and the rest just tracks, with bo at f "Tint /

Crossing River Beds.

At times the way would be along a river bed, over stones, roots, gutters. We did many miles of that. We must have crossed hundreds of rivers and creeks, nearly all drv, but with very steep banks. Frequentlv the caravan would rock from side to side until it creaked all over.

There was a big risk of breaking springs. Practically everybody carried two spare springs with them. I had . none and came right through without breaking any; in fact, our only stoppage • was one flat tyre. But I drove carefully • - reduced speed to ten, seven and even hve miles an hour, just rolled into the holes and in low gear crept out again. Oh dear, how weary one becomes of it! There will be a run of a hundred miles, lou try 20 m.p.h. Everything in the caravan rattles, drawers to open, wardrobe doors fly open, crockerv shakes and your body is in a violent tremble. You can't speak clearly, "o slow down to 10 m.p.h. How wearisome that becomes, hour after hour, but ther* is nothing else for it.

1 I only shot to eat. I stopped on, kangaroo. We had a hind leg-had to leave the rest for the crows. I a i so shot gwo wild turkey.. They were wond er - J? th ro "« of fat inside and if n W 6 K r M t J ° n . e C °° ked 5n * P etr °' Itm. We boiled it for three hours and (then roasted it. Just fancy we two sit-ting-down to dine off a bijr turkey, but jwed.d. Tough, did you sav. Well vc eatable but somewhat tough. With the second one we simply cut the flesh off the breast. It made two bi<r steaks, much more than we could eat On another occasion I saw two lar«*e whit" parrots on a branch close together 1 obtained the two with one shot. ' We stewed them for two hours. They made a nice soup and were good eatin^

Petrol, 5/2 a Gallon. Petrol varied in price. T n the Northern Terr.tory and the Kimberley district where it was carried first by rail and then hundreds of miles by lorry, the higheM priee paid was 5/2 pe'r gallon I expect the average right around will* be ; S n reto'S: y ° f3/PergaHon ' andthat We saw a few emus. We hunted for their nests, but were not successful. W.> would like to have dined off one of their

Kangaroos were the most plentiful We saw many, from the big old man 'roo downwards. Their hearing is very keen: w e could see them hopping a long way ahead. Often instead of from us they would cross the track in" front. Then we had a good view of them, with front paws, held close in, the tail straight out acting e 8 a balance. Frequently they would clear the road m one leap of 10ft or more.

I We had a lot of govts' milk. In the northern portion of Australia they have ,t,in " i 6 much whit " and longer than cow's milk. Add onethird water and you have the consistency of cows' milk. We also had goat meat. It was very much like mutton, tender and very nice. Sand Worst Enemy.

Sand was our worst enemy. It is wonderful how it slows you down until the engine starts labouring-. Then you change down, and on hot days with no wind or with it behind you, she ooils Sometimes we would stop, raise the bonnet and have a cup of tee while the en-ine cooled down. I always carried plenty of water, so kept filling the radiator. °

A few times the sand was So deep that even „, low gear (and I have four r? r , ds) . the caravan stopped, and the hind dual wheels started digging in. Then out we got, and with a spade removed the sand from the front and -ides of all wheels, and then with an axe and saw cut down branches and packed them under the wheels and alonin front If there were no trees or shrubs (as was the case three or four times) we dug up grass roots and packed those m. Then, using low <*ear we usually crept out. Sometimes 0 we had to do that for several chains until the sand became firmer.

We enjoyed excellent health the whole trip. Every night we had a spon-e down and retired early. W e were up at daylight and driving away between 7.30 and 8 a.m. The roads in the north of West Australia are very corrugated; some of the waves were 12in apart. One either had to travel at 35 or 40 m.p.h. or slow down to 10. Sometimes we did the one, sometimes the other. There wm» no pleasure in either. ' On November fi we sail for Capetown 'and hope-to caravan into Keny* Ccloap*