CYCLING OVERLANDERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10960, 1 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

CYCLING OVERLANDERS.

2500 MILES ON RACINU MACHINES,

Without warning — not even a foreword from scouts up country — two strange figures, mounted upon equally bedraggled cycles, dashed upon Adelaide from the north on Wednesday afternoon, April j 10th. Just as the Post Office clock advertised the time of day to be 1.30 p.m. the strangers dismounted and entered :lw telegraph office. . Their appearance and momentary disappearance, aroused the attention first of scores of small boys; and by the time the newcomers had inmounted and had begun a modestly intended search for the offices of the firm that made the cycle tyres which carried them they became the 'unwilling vanguard of an army of cyclists and pedestrians that— like a snowball— gathered weight arid size as it rolled onward. They were soon the centre of an admiring and talkative throng. OVERLAND FROM PERTH TO' , SYDNEY. The scribe cornered his men m the office of the manager pf the Dunlop Rubber Company, arid, asked 'what they meant by upsetting the even tenor of the city's luncheon hour, and several other questions. But the cyclists were not easily restrained from riding away to some secluded nook where they could evade the "madding crowd," nave a drink, a meal, a bath, a nap, and many other luxuries to men who have just come m from out back. -■'.■' "Well> we are Western Australians, at least by adoption. I— my name's Lenney — am a New Zealander, and my frigid A. Warren—is a New South Welshman. At one o'clock on Friday' afternoon, February 24th, we started for an overland trip from Perth to Sydney. No; n didn't make a fuss of it. If we succeeded it would be time enough. If we failed, no harm'" done;- ;i Werve got' on the right side of the worst part of the trip, and we're both looking pretty fit; 'aren't we?" QUAINT OVERLANDING OUTFIT. They certainly were. Their costumns save scope for an examination of their build and muscular development. Each wore a dark guernsey bearing the legend "Davieß-Franklin"— the make of lie machine* which they . ,rode. White (!) slouch bats surmounted the sun-burnt almost- swarthy .features; but then the dust of the last stage -lay .thick upon the young men's features. Racing trunits revealed more than theyuhid. of magnificently developed legs; and socks and light shoes equipped their peddling extremities. -. '.-. „"We.: « *e leaving our machines on the kerb outside. They can stand the scrutiny of your Adelaide crowds better tban we can. It gives us a quiver of the heart," said Leuney, placing his. band where his heart ia not. "We'd sooner face a long sandpatch than that sort of thing out there jbut these 'duds' brought it all on us, I suppose. We sent all our. heavy gear by train from Port: August!. ' WHAT BECAME; OF BIRTLES? "Have, you had -much experience of inland Australia and of cycling generally before yon took on this big trip?" — ''Rather. . We struck the west m the wild days and saw some inland work. We know the country, and we know Miat there's no getting through the up-coun-try fspinif ex stretches on fa bike. That was a lesson that Birtles found out to Mb cost." "By the way, what became of Birtles-? Did he start out before or after yon, arid did you see him en route?" — Yes, we saw him, and he came along part of the way with us. We two are both members of the Bonnie Vale Cycling Club, and I— Lenney— am racing steward of the Goldfields League of Wheelmen." . MACHINES WEIGH 221 b. "Wfcat Bprt of machine are you riding, and how are yori equipped?'' — "Well the machines are Ballarat made, and they have stood a. wonderful test. They, are both racing bikes— light scorching machines. One weighs 221 b and ihe other 2__lb. When , we f are loaded up they' carry a. burden of about 1251 b ea.'n. Moist of this Weight is accounted for £y our water tanks and feed boxes. The water tanks are an ingenious arid highly successful little idea of our own. The space within the frame of the machines —you kriow, above the pedals and between the' handlebars and the seats— we fitted up each with a large canvas bag. Three-parts of each bag was filled with a little narrow, galvanised iron tank, holding a gopd quantity of water, and above the tank j and still within the. bag, was plenty of storage space, for food and other details. -The tyres ure ordinary thick Dunlorw. :My mhchine . is fitted wit_a those narrow red rubber tubes and covers, and our pals m the west— especially the old 'hands'— -told me I was mad . to attempt to; cross country on those flimsy looking tyres. But we both pulled through. magnificently." TO TREAT "THREE-CORNERED JACKS." - .:,-V "Absolutely nothing went wrong with the machines. Not even a spoke went back on us. The only casualties were threftpunctures apiece, and yet {we crossed country where 'double G's, you call them 'three-cornered jacks' ,were aB thick as flies. The track was, sometimes covered yards wide and inches deep m places. But we picked our way, and by the use. of a hanging chain attached - to each wheel we were able to laugh at those deadly puncture makers. . You know how to fix a small chain on your wheel to rub off the 'jacks' when you pick them up with one revolution of the wheel and before they can get pressed into your tube. Just let a little- piece of chain hang across the tyres between the forks, the same as they have on motor cars, and the chain will pull out (he 'jacks' before they can do much damage." - ' THE ACTUAL ROUTE. "To get back' to your trip. Which way did you strike? To go inland cr follow around the Bight?"— "We left Perth by the old Southern Cross liiid that was used before the , goldfields wore discovered! ' From Southern Cross we followed along the pipe-track, to CooL gardie. From Coolgardie we struck one m a south-easterly direction to Widgemooltha. Bad luck gave us a high old time on" that early stage of the trip. We dropped the track, arid went about 120 miles but of our way. Well, we continued to hang a bit towards , tie coastline till we reached the Fra*_r Ranges. Then we hit out. about due east, and were mighty pleased to strike Bell&doriia, the overland telegraph station. Then we picked up Francis Birtles. He Had been having a bad time further out m the spiriifex country. It's no use; he should not have tried to get through that trackless, dry scrubland. Oh yes; he started not long before us— Boxing Day, m fact. He came along with us as far as Eucla, When we pushed on : for Port Augusta. Wo arrived at the top of the gulf last Thursday, and lounged about the town for a day s rest. After packing our kit on : the train we rode down south over bad roads un_ 1 we"- got "to Laura,, arid through all that rainy spell, too ! Now we shall stay m Adelaide for a day or two, to find out what's m front of us and to do some business. We are hopeful of getting through to the east coast of the continent. So far my cyclometer readß about 2500 miles ; but, then we have been along out-of-the-way tracks and have had' some tedious falsa trails and detours." HARDSHIPS. "What has the country, been like, generally speaking?" — "It has been like just about everything you neyer saw. Some. of it was fine. Most of it was awful; terribly bad. Wo felt pretty down m the mouth sometimes, especially when we ran out of water, as we did once or twice. Then again, it wasn't exactly encouraging to see those endless sandy wastes stretching out along the length of the Bight We had to push our way miles and miles, for it wasn't much relief to let down our tyres and ride on the rims through the soft sand. Besides, we weren't taking too many risks with oui machines before we struck settled country. There was a heavy rain spell which stuck us up for days on the west side of the border. Several days we did not attempt tb push on a yard." - ADVENTURES. "Any adventures?" "Yes, scores of little incidents notable enough m ordinary life, but you forget them when you have to face big things. We killed a huge snake one day. I aB near as a touch ran over the beggar when he was sunning himself. We nave kept m magnificent health and strength all through, except just at the tail end of the South Australian journey, when we felt a bit off color with the change from/, heated desert to wintry, muddy roads." "Were you able to replenish your stores frequently enough on the -way over?" — "Yes. Whenever we came across human beings we had splendid treatment. The only difficulty about the out-batik settlers and station' people was that we could scarcely get away from them. They were tlie very heart of hospitality. Yes. we neither of us despair of some day passing over ■■ that country m a train. Then we shall have aome vivid recollections and comparisons tb make with- the journey overland on bicycles."— Adelaide Register.