WHERE HIS CARAVAN HAS RESTED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

WHERE HIS CARAVAN HAS RESTED

Aucklander's Thrilling Holiday

IF you want to meet wild animals, a good place for them is Africa. An Auckland architect, Mr. G. W. Allsop, who is touring abroad with his wife in a motor caravan, has written an account of his experiences with monkeys, snakes, hippopotami and other creatures for the amusement of a little invalid girl in Parnell, and part of his letter is published here in the hope that it will entertain other young people. "Since leaving Auckland," Mr. Allsop writes, "we have visited Tasmania, have driven right around Australia, then shipped to Capetown and driven right up over the equator into the northern hemisphere to Lake Albert. In a Cage "In Australia we saw millions (no exaggeration) of ants' nests, built of earth, so high that the engineers havo to blow the tops off to prevent their damaging the telephone wires. There were kangaroos and emus, many hundreds of them, and parrots, many, many thousands of them. "At Capetown wo went to the top of Tablo Mountain, 3500 ft. high, in a small cage hung from a wire ropo. Wasn't Mrs. Allsop nervous of entering that cage! At the top she sat on the edge and looked down, and wondered whether life was worth living; she decided it was, so didn't fall over. "Then we drove up to the Zambezi River and saw the Victoria Falls, tho world's largest—a mile and a-quarter wide and 360 ft. high. There we camped under some trees, and twice troops of small monkeys paid us a visit, tho cheeky little beggars. Some came along the ground and jumped on to tho front mudguards, then on to the bonnet. Others came along the tree-tops, sprang from one tree to another, then dropped on to the roof of the caravan. Monkey Thieves "One climbed a tree close to the back window and tapped on the glass. I was inside, and waved my hands to him to go away. You won't believe it when I say that he made faces at mo, tho little wretch! I wasn't taking that lying down; I decided to wring his neck, and told him so. I went out to do it, but I hadn't a chance. He was up in the branches tho moment I was out of the door. "At last they went away, but the next day, when we were away, they came back, took the cap off the radiator and tho wiper off the windscreen, and ate two pineapples I had hanging up away from the ants. I eventually found the cap and the wiper, but not the pineapples. "Later we stopped for luncheon under a tall tree. When I started off again I felt something holding mo back. Then I saw a branch swinging down and

swaying, so J know it was entangled somewhere I made the engine pull hard, and presently something snapped and we were free. Then I looked back again and saw something hanging from the tree, wriggling. So I got out, and what a surprise! There was a big python snake, 20ft. long, hanging from the tree. It had coiled around the

bumper-bar, and I had pulled it in halves. From the half in tho tree several eggs fell. They were as big as turkeys' eggs, and when they hit the ground they broke. There was a snake in each, and as I approached they opened their mouths at me —the presumption of them! They must have been girl snakes."