CONQUEST OF THE DESERT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19066, 11 January 1924, Page 7

CONQUEST OF THE DESERT

CROSSING THE SAHARAFRENCH MOTORISTS’ EXPERIENCE. P esa Associai on—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 9. The Sahara desert from the Mediterranean to the Niger, is now able to be traversed in a direct line by any wheeled vehicle of average power in five or six days. This, says The Times’s Paris correspondent, is the conclusion reached-'by the experience of a French mission which was organised in November last year with the object of discovering the shortest route across the desert. The mission, with four caterpillar cars, left Colomb Be char on November 9. travelled directly south of Adran Oualle, and thence to Teasalit and Burem, on. the Nicer. Thev returned -without difficulty through the valley of Saoura, and Beniahbes to Colomb, which was reached on December 22. The route followed is declared to he accessible not only to caterpillar cars, hut to all wheeled vehicles as far as Tessalit. From Tessalit to Burem the roads are more difficult. Regular motor_ services, therefore, are considered practicable from Algiers to the Niger. One. is contemplated which on the outward journey passes Biskra and Insalah, returning bv Adrar and Colomb. This trip would afford extensive view - of the great Sahara. —A. and N.Z. Cable.