IN SAHARA PERIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12530, 16 April 1935, Page 6

IN SAHARA PERIL

MOTOR-CYCLING IN SAND. TWO GIRLS ON TRAIL OF DEATH. Many adventures—some alarming, some amusing—have befallen the two young .London women, Miss Florence M. C. Benkiron and Miss Theresa E. Wallach, who are journeying by mot-or-cycle and side-car to Capo Town. From In Salah, an oasis nearly halfway across the Sahara, Miss Blenkiron writes: “In a vast wilderness, a hundred miles from the nearest human being, on the Tademait Plateau, a iside-car lug broke. We spent nearly the whole night filing another lug and holt to enable us to continue, in case our food supplies would not last out to the next post. We arrived with a few oranges, some water and potted meat. “Many Arabs collected when we stopped near an oasis, which arc few and far between, and we wondered whether they were friends or foes. But a salute and a smile and they let us pass. ‘‘Once in the dead of night, as we were riding to make up for lost time on a. repair a rug fell off the trailer. While ‘Wal’ was trying to find it I ivas suddenly surrounded by a band of Arabs, about 30 strong. “I naturally felt rather alarmed, but they appeared only to want -sugar and food. I managed to make them understand by signs that we had none to spare, and they disappea red into the darkness. “It is utter desolation from horizon to horizon. At times one seems to be ever climbing up and up and up, pushing and pulling out of deep sand, with merely a cairn here and there to guide our steps. “We sire told that there are many camels lying dead*in the desert from thirst, want of food, and the attacks of a deadly insect. So we have worse to come. We are just leaving en route for Tamanrasset.” After crossing the Sahara Miss Blenkifon and Miss Wallacli will pass through hundreds of miles of inhospitable equatorial country infested witli wild animals and fever flies. One of the most perilous parts of their journey will be thi-ougb Rhodesia, which they reach in the rainy season, when rivers rise 1-5 to 20 feet in an hour or so. They are travelling 27,000 miles in their double journey to Capo Town and back, and expect to he away n year.