BOY’S LONG RIDE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 18

BOY’S LONG RIDE

FOUR HUNDRED MILES BY BICYCLE VISIT TO SICK FATHER (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 7. Allan Heyne, 15, rode a bicycle 400 miles, almost non-stop, from Griffith to Sydney, to see his father in a miltary hospital here. The trip took 64 hours, during which the boy went without sleep. Allan Heyne, sen., a former member of the Light Horse, was sent to hospital nine months ago with a form of paralysis. Until this week he had not been visited by his son. Negotiations between the Returned Soldiers’ League and friends of Mr Heyne resulted in a decision by the league to pay the fares of Mrs Heyne and Allan Heyne, jun., to Sydney, as an Anzac gesture. When this decision was. conveyed to Mrs Heyne, at Griffith, Allan could not be found. Mrs Heyne left alone. Allan was found by police at a farm, where he was picking peas to raise his fare money. When told that his mother had left for Sydney, Allan mounted his bicycle “ and just kept riding.” “ I had 12 sh : llings and took some food rolled in a blanket,” he explained. “ It rained at night, and was cold. The roads were corrugated, and I could only go slowly. I had to buy three torch batteries. I once missed my way and rode into a creek. Otherwise I had no spills.” Tn the long ride of three days and two nights, the boy’s longest stop was of an hour. He arrived in Sydney mud-plastered and wet, but eager to see his father