HUNGRY MAN'S MEAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21792, 5 May 1934, Page 16

HUNGRY MAN'S MEAL

COMPELLED TO EAT SNAKE CYCLIST'S ADVENTURES [from our owx correspondent] SYDNEY, April 26 Since he left Melbourne on June 15, 1932, to tour Australia on a bicycle, Mr. H. Fuller Morganti, a Swiss journalist, has travelled 18,843 miles, worn out 11 sets of tyres, overcome many difficulties and suffered hardships. Mr. Morganti said the other day that on one occasion in Northern Australia when he was without food or water he had to kill and eat a snake. He said ho found it tasted better than roasted chicken. After a tour of Victoria he will go to Melbourne, where he 6ays: he intends to begin compilation of a book on his' Australian experiences.

Mr. Morganti, who .comes from Basle, Switzerland, 'was for five years foreign correspondent to a European newspaper association in Berlin, and while engaged bn that duty visited most of the countries' of the world except Australia. He carries all his belongings in two bags attached to the handles and frame of his bicycle. He went from Melbourne to Adelaide and on to Alice Springs. After having spent several weeks ther6 lie returned to Adelaide and pedalled his machine along the coast to Perth, and then on to Wyndham, Darwin, Camooweal, Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, and thence to Euston. The bicycle is the with which he started the journey.

On some of the sections Mr. Morganti says he travelled for hundreds of miles without meeting anybody, and through the 6andy stretches the task of pushing the machine was strenuous. On many occasions he had to keep 011 against tremendous odds, as he was without food and water.

AVhilq in the northern parts of Australia Mr. Morganti said he came into close toych. with the natives and found them generally hostile.