Home From Gold Coast.

Franklin Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 31, 14 March 1938, Page 7

Home From Gold Coast.

IN A LIGHT CAR. The few motorists who drive from the Gold Coast of Africa to England usually go by the Sahara Desert through Algiers—a fairly straightforward route. But Lieutenant Dobson, of the Royal Signals, decided to he different. He chose to travel east to Khartoum, across the French Sudan, Northern Nigeria, French Equatorial Africa, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and the Nubian Desert, thence along the Nile Valley to Alexandria, and from Athens across six European countries to England. The Sudan Government expressed consternation at the idea, considering that as large foreign cars had constantly. come to grief an eight horsepower car could hardly be expected to traverse such country. Nevertheless, Lieutenant Dobson, who had complete faith in the car and in himself, set out from Kumasi, a Gold Coast town, with a companion and gear, for Tenkodogo, a small frontier town on the Ivory Coast. From there Hie travellers drove by a narrow, rough route through burnt-up bush country, arriving 800 miles from the start at the Niger River, which was crossed by ferry.

In Nigeria narrow sandy tracks necessitated low-gear work for hours on end, the radiator boiling merrily with no ill-effect. Continuing past Lake Chad, the adventurers reached French Equatorial Africa over a route so unfrequented that petrol for 860 miles had to be carried. The frontier proved to be river. An attempt to drive the car across ended in three feet of water, with bedding and other impedimenta floating about. Willing helpers from a neighbouring native village soon had the car again on dry ground. A touch of the starter, and off it went, spraying the road like a water-cart. Followed thousands of miles of arduous motoring over tracks of baked mud, soft sand, and rocky terrain. The 500 miles stretch from El Geneina to El Fasher was, it was stated, impos-

sible for a car; so it was arranged that a lorry should follow. The car quickly outstripped its consort, arriving at El Fasher without mishap, although several times high rocks on the road struck the petrol tank. When, the lorry did not arrive the car was driven back, finding its erstwhile protector incapacitated with a broken propeller shaft. The last 400 miles run to El Obeid was a nightmare, the route consisting entirely of soft sand and taking three days. On this route many brokendown vehicles were encountered. Finally, after a journey of 4000 miles, the light car arrived at Khartoum. From there to Alexandria the trip comparatively uneventful, though sand stoi’ms and boulders made . the going difficult at times. From Alexandria the car was shipped to Athens, and from there the road ran through. Greece, Jugoslavia, Hungary, AuS-= tria, Switzerland, and France, surfaces generally being good, though iu parts little better than African Hacks. The car arrived back in England with its stock of spare parts untouched, except for three springleaves which had been used on the route.