ADVENTUROUS TRIP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22164, 18 January 1934, Page 13

ADVENTUROUS TRIP

•; 15,000 MILES ON BICYCLE JUNGLES AND DESERT SANDS.. A 15,000 miles’ trip by bicycle was recently completed by Mr K. D. Poulton. VVith Mr R.' he travelled the ■whole, way up 'Africa, through Palestine, Asia Minor, Turkey, the- Balkans, Austria, Germany and. France to England on a bicycle with a Thiniature petrol engine. The two men‘were travelling for four months through, every type of country and oyer every possible—and impossible —type of road. Their many adventures in uncivilised parts, the setbacks and the final rewards make a thrilling tale, says the Capetown correspondent of the Herald.

The two adventurers left Johannesburg on July 9, 19J2, for London, intending to do the whole journey by land, except where actually impossible. They had only their bicycles and the necessary scanty equipment, and no special arrangements made ahead. Neither had any experience of the route. They arrived at South Africa House, Trafalgar Square, London, on April 11 last, having done actually more than 15,000 miles by land.

The run through the Continent was largely a matter of riding from one official reception to another, on perfect roads, with a comfortable bed to sleep in every night. But before, the riders had travelled through hundreds of miles of bush country and jungles, over towering heights, through desert sands. Every kind of wild animal was encountered, locusts, mosquitoes and tsetse Hies added to the hardships. At no time could they carry more than the barest miuimum of stores, and sometimes even hunger added to their obstacles. Roads began to get bad for the light mounts in Rhodesia, where the cyclists had their first sight of lions. On the three nights they slept out on the way to Wankie they were fdreed to take it in turns to sit up. In Tanganyika they had to pay their record price for petrol —ss 6d a gallon. From Juba to Khartoum the travellers were compelled by the Government to take the water way. They tackled the Nubian Desert after haying been in hospital in Khartoum with malaria for 14 days, and rode into Cairo on Christmas Eve. One land speed record they set up was crossing the Sinai Desert into Palestine in 22 hours. And so onwards to Syria.,. On the Lebanon Mountains the first snowfalls were mantling the heights. Terrible Winter conditions had set in, blinding snowstorms alternating with torrential rain. Again and again the riders were stranded in the mud. alone and nearly frozen, with wolves lurking everywhere. The two cyclists battled their way through the trackless territories of the Balkans into Austria. From Bulgaria on the going was better —Sofia, Belgrade, Marburg to Vienna. And here, more or less, started the pleasure cruise. In Germany Poulton acquired the nickname of “ the cycling fool.” There was much excitement when the pair arrived at the works of Fichtcl and Lacks at Sehweiufurt, the home of the machines they wore using. Poulton was asked to inscribe his name in the “ Golden Book ” in Bavaria, the only other signatures being those of the King of Bavaria and two Ministers of State.