TWO YEARS’ CYCLE TRIP

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 17 January 1935, Page 7

TWO YEARS’ CYCLE TRIP

FROM LONDON TO AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALANDER’S INTENTIONS FOLLOWING AIR RACE ROUTE. From Our London Correspondent). (By Air Mail). LONDON, Dee. 29. Gilbert Simon, a 39-year-old New Zealander, leaves London next week on a bicycle bound for Melbourne. He is going to follow as closely as possible tlie. route of the England-Australia air race. But whereas Scott and Black Hew from London to Melbourne in just o\ei two-aml-a-half days, Simon expects to cover the route in two-and-a-half years. He arrived in England just before Christmas, having worked his passage from Lcbourne to Hull. Then he went to Birmingham, where he peisuaded one of the famous cycle manufacturers to give him a machine. Simon is already a cyclist of some prowess, having cycled round Australia. He was once a sailor, a qualification which will ho useful in working his passage over the various sea crossings on the route to Austmlia. “My bike and equipment weigh 90 lh.” said Simon in discussing his plans. “I’ve very little money, and rely on selling postcards and giving travel talks. My kifc wil consist oi the Bible, a passport, rucksack, a change or underclothing, a camera, and a diary. A Bible is a better help than a gun.” Simon regards the most ddlicult pait of his ride as being that from Basra to Peshawar, including the Khyber lip against it, and I shall expect to suffer privations, hut I’m going to have a good attempt to get to the Straits Settlements before I embark for Australia,” he said.