AN EXPEDITION BY TRUCK AND CAR.
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A Strenuous Journey from End to End of Africa and Through Asia Minor to Europe, Occupying Seven-and-a-half Months.
expedition were Mr. Wilson, who, besides being an expert on Chevrolet mechanism, is a skilled wireless operator, Mr. Gordon Makepeace, a journalist eonfleeted with The Star of Johannesburg, and Mr. Williams, a cinemapho to graph e r. There was a fifth . member of the party, a black servant, who had been
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with Mr. Lacey for quite a number of years.
The expedition started from Cape Town on March 7th last and reached' London at the week-end, a total distance of 13,600 miles. Having struck the idea of making the journey to London in that way, the fact was accepted that the journey would have to be made during the worst time of the year, namely, the African wet season ; probably had a dry period been selected at least a month could have been knocked off the time which was occupied. Much of the film taken by Mr. Williams therefore records .-he experience2 of the expedition in fording rivers and getting through swamps. Mr. Lacey told us that, except where the water was ob
viously shallow and the river could be forded at moderate speed, his Practice was to remove the coils from the ignition system and to run by gravity down the bank into the water and to be towed across by native labour or by bullocks.
The Bahora Flats seems to be one of the greatest obstacles to a. road journey through Africa. When the expedition • arrived at Lake Tanganyika, the leader was informed that the Bats were unp assabl e, but rather than make a detour by steamer and train, the attempt was essayed and the 700 miles across the fiats of swampy country,
intersected by 'many rivers, was completed in
days, the cars being dragged through every river and crawling through continuous mud and bog. Whenever one of the vehicles dropped into a mud-hole or got stuck in swampy ground, ranch use was made of trees to act as levers and to form roadways.
A good deal of mud was experienced in Kenya, but in the northern part of Kenya and through Uganda some good roads were met, and only at one point where heavy rains had washed away four bridges was any trouble experienced, the cars having then to be dragged through the water.
And so the story of mud, mud, mud goes on all the *ay to Khartoum, but even after Khartoum there was DO diminution of the danger ; as a matter of fact the section between Khartoum and Cairo could be described as the
most dangerous part of the trip, because it involved crossing the Nubian Desert to Aswan. However, the confidence of a native guide that water would be found at Om Gherat well was fully justified and thereafter all was plain sailing to Cairo.
From Egypt a course was struck through Palestine, Syria, Turkey, through the Balkans to Switzerland, and thence to Paris and Calais, and
finally from Dover to London. The expedition remained in London for three or four days and then left for Stockholm, which is to be the terminus of the lengthy journey.
In talking with Mr. Lacey, he assured us that both the car and the truck have come through without the need for replacing any essential part. We understand that all these essential parts have been marked by the representative of
t ii e Automobile Club of . South Africa, and the markings will lie verified at the completion (If the journey. • Watchjog the film it Seemed to vs that not only wrre. the axles and springs strained to the utmost over some of the frightfully rough ground that .had to be traversed, but that, in prising the vehicles out of the boles into which they had dropped with dozens " of natives hanging on to tree trunks used as levers, the frame, axles and springs were being cruelly treated.
The vehicle had been assembled in Cape Town by General Motors (South. Africa), a cancern which employs 600 white men and has a very large output of Chevrolet products. The 8,000 miles between Cape Town and Cairo occupiad153 days.