LONG JOURNEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23281, 25 February 1939, Page 10

LONG JOURNEY

21,000 MILES BY CAE AUCKLAND MOTORIST SIX MONTHS TO LONDON fFROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] LONDON, Feb. 2 After motoring 21,000 miles, Mr. David Strang, of Auckland, has reached London nearly six months after setting out from New Zealand. With Mr. R. W. Haddrell, also of Auckland, ho drove 5000 miles through New Zealand, 4000 miles in Australia, from Sydney to Fremantle, travelled on to Colombo bv liner and continued through Ceylon and the heart of India to Delhi. From Delhi their plan was to drive through Afghanistan to Herat, and from there cross into Persia and so through to Turkey. Arriving at Sabzawar, however, the New , Zealandere found that they had passed through a cholera district, and would have to remain in the Afghanistan village for 25 days. The alternative was to return to India. They retraced the 1500 miles to Delhi, and Mr. Haddrell was obliged to return to New Zealand. Engaging an Indian chauffeur, Mr. Strang again set off for London, this time making for Persia via Quetta, and then on by Tehran, Bagdad, Damascus, Beirut, Constantinople, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, Cologne, Ostend and Dover. He left Delhi on December 6 and arrived in London on January 27, having covered about 9000 miles. Sometimes he travelled on tarsealed roads, once on a straw road. Snow was 12 feet deep in Persia, and on several occasions roads merely muddy tracks. Plenty o! Hard Work "There was not much adventure about it," Mr. Strang said, when he reached London. "There was plenty of hard work. The trip was hard on me and hard cn the car." Mr. Strang said that he came to the straw road after crossing the Indus, on the way to Quetta. It ran for about eight miles, and a fairlv good speed could be averaged. Crossing the frontier, in tribal country, ht had to wait for an armed escort, carrying mail. This run, from Rakhni to Loralai, lasted about half a day. Quetta, he found, had been totallj ruined, commercially and physically, b\ earthquakes. He did not stay long, and crossing the border into Persia, drove north, skirting the Afghanistan border, to Meshed, an important Mohammedan "religious" city. From Meshed he struck west again, running south of the Russian border and the Caspian Sea. Persia had no "Eastern charm" for him. There was heavy snow and numbers of beggars. Persia Reached on Christmas Day The Persian-Turkish border at Khan akin was reached by way of Tehran and Hamadan. On Christmas Eve. Mr. Strang and his Indian servant drove all day from Hamadan to Kirmanshah, deciding to push on a further 60 miles to a village for the night. Arriving there, however, they could find no accommodation, and were obliged to travel on to the Persian border, which they reached at 3 a.m on Christmas morning. To their surprise, officials were on duty, and passed them over the frontier, at Khanakin One hundred miles further on wasBagdad, for which Mr. Strang set off after a few hours' sleep. The first 30 miles, on a tar-sealed road, were covered in about 40 minutes, but it was 10 hours later that they reached Bagdad, the remaining 70 miles of road being mostly mud tracks. There were deep ruts, some of which the car had difficulty in clearing, and progress was slow. Even atter the city was sighted, it took three hours to reach. Bagdad and Disappointment In spito of his uncomfortable journey, the New Zealander was anticipating Bagdad with some pleasure. He was bitterly disillusioned. "Bagdad is one of the most disappointing places in the world," was his comment. "A start has only just been made to develop it. Old Bagdad lies on one side of the river, and the beginnings of the new town on the other." There was one big compensation, however. Mr. Strang met Mr. Norman Nairn, one of the two New Zealand brothers who iiave been running the Damascus-Bagdad transport service for a number of years across 600 miles of the Syrian desert. Mr. Nairn delegated a driver to take- the car across this lonely strip, and the Indian chauffeur was farewelled and sent back to Delhi. Crossing the desert, Mr. Strang's anticipations were again unfulfilled Heavy falls of rain had left numbers of pools in the waste, and there was a sprinkling of green growth. There was no road, but a track, and the driver, who covered the route three times a week, appeared to know every bump, of which there were several. A steady 30 miles an hour, however, could be averaged, but the stretch was dreary and uninteresting. No Scenery Like New Zealand's Vienna resembled a city of the dead. At the largest hotel there was only one other guest. On the run through Austria Mr. Strang counted over a dozen broken-down derelict army trucks. Everybody regarded the political situation with gloom, and declared that there would be war in the spring. Germany, they firmly believed, was better prepared than Britain, and British prestige was not high. Crossing the German frontier to Belgium at Aachen, Mr Strang saw many Germans, evidently refugees, being searched for money He was allowed to cross without close investigation. The remaining miles to London ticked by uneventfully. "Nowhere in all the 21,000 miles was scenery to compare with, let alone surpass. Isew Zealand's." Mr. Strang said.