MOTORING NOTES.

Otaki Mail, 22 August 1930, Page 1

MOTORING NOTES.

ACROSS AFRICA. FIRST OCEAN TO OCEAN TRIP BY MOTOR CAR COMPLETED. I The thrill of big-game hunting, the uncertainty of exploring where no white'man Hail ever been before, the dangers of tropical fevers and sleeping sickness as well as the indescribable ! monotony of the African desert tire an ! old story now to a little group of | friends who recently made the first ocean-to-ocean trip across Africa that has ever been accomplished by motor car. J Charles E. Bedaux, with four guests and a group of twenty native guides and servants, made the journey from Touraine, France, through Kenya Colony, through the Sudan, French Equatorial Africa, Nigeria, north through the Saraha Desert to Algiers and along the coast to Casablanca, Morocco, covering a distance of 9,501) miles in five months. The African trip itself took

three months and a week, and from the

sheltered harbour of Mombassa to Casablanca, Mr. Bedaux drove the lead

ear—a Buick Master 30 touring model —without once relinquishing the wheel, for no other reason than the satisfaction of proving that motor cars arc competent to cope with .any and ail conditions.

With a huge map of Africa spread precariously over the satin pillows of a luxurious couch, Mr. Bedaux in New York recently retraced his journey over the route he knows by heart. His description was so vivid that it dispelled.

ail sense of time and place and the conventional surroundings of a suito in

a hotel high above the city's roar of metropolitan activities melted before the magic spell of those adventures that befell that little party of friends who braved the really unknown wilds of Africa, just for the fun of the thing. Starting from his chateau in Tournine, France, Mr. Bedaux, his wife, Captain and Mrs. Keith Caldwell, of London, and Count Frederick Ledebur. of Austria, proceeded to Mombassa where the guides and hunters who make a profession of taking parties into the jungle, were waiting for them. These natives were very competent and loyal. Each knew his exact status as a member of the expedition and their duties ranged from head interpreter, who spoke something like seventeen languages, to the personal servants who were assigned to take care of each member of the party. The Buick touring car and six trucks, carrying provisions for the long trek, were shipped to an inland starting point from where the party made a three weeks' detour into the dense jungles of southern Kenya and northern Tanganyika. This part of the trip was ostonsibly a hunting expedition but in real- 1 ity it was to test the cars, for if they could stand the hazards of that wilderness, they were reasonably sure to be able to cope with anything they might encounter the rest of the way.

This section, incident,]}-, was the only part of the trip with which the native guides were familiar. Once out on the long trail, the only advantage they had over the white people, was their natural knowledge of the tropics. Indeed, on the latter part of the journey, positions were reversed and instead of .the natives taking care of the white people, the white people had to take care of the natives who were unable to stand a different climate from that to which they were accustomed. Intense heat or intense cold could throw them, at a moment's notice, into a palsy of fever in which they were top .frightened to do more than huddle together in . appealing apprehension, i After the hunting expedition on which the party got several lions and fine specimens of hippopotami, the real part of the journey began. Mr. Bedaux made a map of the entire route keeping tabulations of the average speed flier! were able to make in various sections. Starting from Nairobi at fifteen miles an hour, they were soon travelling com- | fortably along over good roads at fifty. That was not for long, however, and we see the story of difficulties reflected on the map in a speed on ten miles as the party nears the marsh lands of Central Africa. A short distance more and the red line, which indicates the cars going under their own power, is replaced bv the only blue line on the route, to indicate'a small section where

the cars hail to be transferred to barges. When one of the trucks was loaded on to a barge at midnight the barge protested against its unfamiliar pargo by slowly sinking. The next davit was refloated and continued its task of transporting the other cars. On into the heart pf the jungle the party pushed its vyay iiufu]tering. Thpy caine upon sections where po whit's man. let alone any motor ears, had ever gone before. The natives there re-act-ed strangely to the phenomenon of these queer beasts on wheels. Instead of displaying fright or curiosity, they 1 were s:o slow to make any sense of trie | situation that they would not even get J out of the way of the on-coming car. I Staring with uncomprehending eyes, it seemed as though they would have let the ear run pver them rather than step aside.

Much of the actual travelling was done by night because of the intense heat and in the day-time, tents were pitched and the party camped ami rested. One day they' had a bitter experience with a cloud of millions of wild bees which had been attracted to the food spread out for luncheon, tv” otit - ing happened until a lemon was cut, for the tea. Immediately the bees were on ■ them. Everyone fled' to the ears except If■ Bedaux and a native guide who remained to salvage what food he could. Mr. Bedaux was protected In- a mash and gloves but these did not prevent his being severely stung. The native guide was found unconscious from ytings-. His mask had slipped, allowing the insects to get to his faep. 3lr. Bedaux said the bees were attracted by the smell of lemon, which they can detect many miles awav.

Beaching Equatorial Africa, the route led through a section where sleeping sickness is so prevalent that travellers are warned to avoid the district. A detour would have meant a long delay and so the party, thoroughly dosed with quinine, took its chances with the malady and came through in good health..

•The red line through all this section shows a fairly uniform speed ranging from thirty-five to forty juries an hour, indicative of comparatively good roads, with occasional lapses tee ten -and fifteen miles an hour where no roads exist; fid. " ■; iff

By February Bth the expedition had, reached French territory, fa one sepr tiou the government had rushed work on a road so that it would be passable by the time the Bedaux party wanted To get'through. In oihbr sections where there were no roads they have to be made—crude improvisions of Teeds and brush—before the party could advance. Fashing through the resisting monotony of elephant grass, with no sew scenes to refresh the eye, the weary travellers saw day after day dawn just like its predecessor. They lest all

sense of time and season. One bright spot was encountered, however, in the form of 600 miles of marvelous road in northern Nigeria. Along this stretch of God-sent macadam r the cars whipped it up to sixty miles an hour. All too soon, their course led north and they approached the silent 1 .vastness of the great Sahara Desert. Their trip through the desert was epochal in that they were the largest party ever to attempt that sea of sand. Never before had standard cars made the journey. Such motor vehicles as liad traversed those treacherous miles before, were especially equipped with eaterpilJer wheels and travelled in relays. J . Fortified with 700 liters of water . against the arid wastes, and knowing full well that if anything uuforseeu ! happened there was not much hope of rescue, the., party entered the last long 1 stage of their trip. Guided by the sui\ i the cars had to keep close to each other j because the trackless sands wore so do- I ceiving that there was always great j danger of a car. getting off the trail.' In fact it happened once that Count ; Ledeburs' cur did get lost and several I hours were spent in a frenzied search i before lie was found driving peacefully j in a. course diametrically opposed ti'l 1 the one that would lead him to Algiers. Night driving in the desert, accord- I ing to Mr. Bedaux, is fraught with greater dangers than the mysteries of the jungle. For thirty-two hours at a stretch he remained at his wheel in a dogged fight against .sleep that Jtlrrcatto overpower, him. Tire/path of ing ,vividly with thef darkness produced (flic iCiTect .of snow against pinjri woods. . Contrary to generni impression;;, nights arc very cold in the .iesort' an! h (the (sensation of bankedi jfciow and pine woods was so realistic'that .Mr. Beilaux said h(J would often have to hit the top of the car to give himself assurance against this dangerous hallucination. On they went, at good speeds, day and night encountering nothing hut" sand and sky, and sin occasional skeleton, bleached and fearful looking— mute testimony that some unfortunate hud been conquered by the desert.

Finally Algiers was reached and with it the return to comparatively normnl travelling conditions. The trip from Algiers to Casablanca was easy and they covered it at an average speed of fifty-five miles an hour arriving at the seaport on April 15th. The first, enst-to-west ocean-to-oceau trip across Africa had been accomplished. Standard cars had successful/ weathered every conceivable type of road, jungle and climate. Except for a smashed fly-wheel housing which Mr. Bedaux repaired himself with a five gallon tin can, mechanical troubles had not delayed the Buick an instant. As though he had not done enough driving. Mr. Bedaux had one further curiosity to satisfy. He knew that his Buick had withstood the severe strains imposed upon it hut he wanted to try it out at top speed so. without having it couched, he drove at seventy.two miles an hour to Marrakesh and back. As a reward for its roeor.l-breakin-journey, the Buick was given a thorough washing after which it looked as well-groomed as ever and Mr. Bedaux expects to get many more miles of travel out of it.

OWNER CARE OF A CAR IS REDUCED TO MINIMUM. Owner-care of a motor car has been reduced to a' minimum in the past, decade atid the 1930 Buick, with its centralised group lubrication system ami other features of convenience, requires remarkably little effort, on the part o! its owner to keep the car in .smooth trouble-fret: operating condition. Occasional chassis lubrication and a change of oil in the crankcase, together with battery inspection at stated intervals is about all that is required today.

But twenty-six years ago, when Buick started to build motor-cars a 1! motorists were confronted with a bar I job to keep their cars in operating condition. For instance, one of the early instruction books in the days of the two-cylinder, chain drive models, ret forth instructions that demanded some real work on the part of the motorist.

“Remove chain from car frequently,” said one paragraph, “and soak in petrol to remove all traces of oi! and dirt, place in kettle of melted fallow in which ha- been mixed one of two tablespoon!'u!s of flake graphite. The chain while in the melted tallow should be moved around so as to allow too tallow to work "into the piris of the chain. After faking the chain out, aliqq- it to drain and replace on the ear.” fo ilay. the drive* shaft, which maov ycsirs ;igo replaced the chain drive, is completely covered on the modern Buiek and automatically lubricated, and is seldom touched during the entire long life of the car. Some of the statements contained in those early instruction manuals have long since acquired the flavour of quaint humour. The preface of one of these books says, in part: ‘‘There are'no hard and fast rules which can be laid down that will insure a person becoming a first-class operator* rfome people have the erroneous idea dipt only those who have received « first-class mechanical training can become good operators. .Some of the best drivers, and by “best drivers” „•>.* mean those who handle their ear- with due consideration and take pride in hating their cars properly cared for. are not mechanics in any sen&e of thz word. We have found bv experience, for instance, that a man who is a firsreJass horseman is generally a first-class driver of a motor ear.” To-day there is a smile in nearly cvery line of these early instruction books, but twenty or twenty-five yeir* ago they fulfilled'thg serious purpose «f iaytng the foundation on which this motor-njinded age is built.