THIRTY YEARS' TRAVEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22131, 10 June 1935, Page 12

THIRTY YEARS' TRAVEL

WOMAN'S EXPERIENCES WALKING IN MANY LANDS ARRIVAL AT AUCKLAND Probably one of the most travelled women of the present clay, Miss Gertrude Bonham, arrived in Auckland yesterday by tho Port Gisborne. Since commencing her wanderings over 30 years ago, Miss Benham has been round the world eight times and has visited almost every country, except Spain and Russia. She will remain on the Port Gisborne until it reaches Wellington and then proceed to the New Hebrides, where she will enlarge an already wide acquaintance with the South Sea Islands. Her travelling has been done through sheer lovo of getting off tho beaten track, and, although not a scientist, she has collected extensively, presenting the results of her work to various museums in England. Miss Benham, who was at school with Miss Gertrude Bell, the great authority on tho Irak Arabs, commenced her travels in 1904 and, with the exception of three years spent in England, has been on the move ever since. Her first experiences were in the South Island of Now Zealand, which she explored, carrying a pack and camping, or putting up at farms. "In those days," she said, " accommodation houses were few and far between, but everywhere I met with the most wonderful kindness and shared many a meal with miners, rabbiters and shepherds."

Climbing in the Rockies

j An'ardent mountaineer, Miss Benham | did a great deal of climbing in her | earlier years and made a number of pioneer ascents of well-known peaks in } the Canadian Rockies, including three of the familiar members of the "Ten Giants" overlooking Lake Louise. In recognition of her skill at a time when few women were climbing in the Rockies a mountain was named after her, her Christian name being used at her own request. Her more recent adventures have been in the Himalayas, where she has been wandering on the hinterland of j Kashmir and camping in remote valleys. Mr. F. S. Sinvthe, the leader of the Kamet expedition, describes in his book, "Kamet Conquered," coming across this lone Englishwoman when lie imagined he had left civilisation far behind. Miss Benham has done three extensive walking tours in Africa. The longest, which commenced in 1912, occupied almost a year, and was from Kamo in Nigeria to the mouth of the Zambesi. Her party consisted only of herself, seven porters and a cook, but throughout they received nothing but the most wonderful courtesy and hospitality from the natives. Most of the journey was along narrow tracks through the long grass or the jungle. Even in the Cameroons, where the German military roads had been overgrown, the native tracks still ran in their inevitable zig-zag course along the metal. Crossing Arabian Desert Referring to the language difficulty, Miss Benham said that she had a smattering of Swahili, but in Central Africa the traveller might spend years learning the language of one village to find it quite incomprehensible in the next. However the language of signs proved adequate throughout and no difficulties were experienced on that score. Her other journeys in Africa were perhaps less ambitious, but were in themselves large undertakings for a lonely woman. In one she travelled to the railhead from Capetown, and then on foot through German East Africa to Uganda and Mombasa. In the other she skirted Kenya, crossed the Belgian Congo and returned over the slopes of Ruwenzori to Nairobi. On all these journeys she was unarmed except for a stick and an umbrella, but was never molested either by natives or wild animals. A crossing of the Arabian desert by motor was another unusual experience described by Miss Benham. She had contemplated walking from Bagdad to Beirut via Aleppo, but was prevented by the authorities, owing to public security being almost non-existent. The trip was done in the rainy season and included in the party was the exiled Crown Prince of Persia. Six days were taken to complete a journey normally occupying two, and on one day only 50 kilometres were covered between 7 o'clock in the morning and 8 at night, the whole time being taken with the arduous task of digging heavy motors out of sloughs.

Damascus at that time was unsafe, owing to the Druse revolution, and Miss Benham visited it later to wander through streets full of barbed wire barricades and restless Arabs and anxious French troops. Costs of Travelling

"Most people to whom I relate my travels assume that I must spend at least £IOOO a year," Miss Benham said. "That is a false idea about travel. Actually I seldom spend moro than £250 a year on everything and that is more than it costs to live in England. I returned home last June after six years and six weeks abroad, during which time my total expenses were under £BOO. Naturally I have very inexpensive taste. I do not smoke nor drink cocktails and have been to a movie only once in my life. I make my own clothes and always try to live on native fare wherever I may be. By walking 1 get that wonderful contact with a country that is denied those who rush through it in a motor." Questioned as to her literary work, Miss Benham said that she would probably go down in history as the only woman who had really travelled extensively who had not written a book. She had found that sketching formed the best aid to memory and during her travels had made as many as three hundred geographic sketches of mountains in different parts of the world, an interesting collection that she intended to leave to a museum in England. She would, however, receive a certain amount of publicity shortly in a work being compiled on the part played by women in modern adventure, one chapter of which was being devoted to her travels.