Overland From Singapore To England

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 11

Overland From Singapore To England

(Special Correspondent N.Z.PA.)

LONDON. T’HE discomforts of jungle, x desert and—in Yugoslavia—gaol were experienced by two New Zealanders, J. W. Lewis (Bay of Islands) and G. Cassidy (Waipukurau) when they drove a light truck from Singapore to England last year. They met many different people, were carefully observed by Russians through binoculars on the Russo-Turkish border, and were given a friendly welcome in Greece and Italy. Captain Cassidy, now back in New Zealand, is a captain in the Wellington East Coast Armoured Regiment, and spent a fortnight with the Queen's Hussars in Germany and another detachment on Salisbury Plain. Lewis has been studying for an economic degree and working with the New Zealand Wool Commission.

After making their way to Singapore, the two New Zealanders bought their vehicle there, and four mechanics of an oil company worked on it for a week at the Kalang depot, fitting it with an additional petrol tank holding 25 gallons and making useful adjustments for the long trek.

With a kiwi painted prominently on the truck they set off, driving through Malacca and Kuala Lumpur to Taiping, headquarters of the second battalion of the New Zealand Infantry Regiment, then engaged in sweeps in the jungle. The next leg was some 90 miles of jungle to Griq, on the Perak River, over a road with some 250 major bends where ten years ago an ambush at each cost at least one British soldier his life.

In this jungle area they stayed with a New Zealand detachment in the jungle, meeting friends and joining a patrol just south of the Thai border. They passed through a number of deserted villages and linked up with a Maori outpost, before returning to Taiping. From Taiping they drove to Penang, intending to cross into Burma, but because of terrorist activities, no traffic was allowed over the frontier. They contemplated crossing the Thai border and driving to Bangkok, but eventually for various reasons and the approach of the monsoon season, decided it would be better to return to Penang and ship their vehicle to Madras.

In Madras they had to unload the truck themselves while the thermometer stood at 120 degrees in the

shade; the dockers were on strike, some 2000 were in gaol and the Indian army was in control. They were not sorry to move on to Hyderabad through uninteresting country, the road littered with bullock carts. There was more interest after leaving Hyderabad for they met up with a jeepload of Indians off on a panther shoot round a village called Patloor, where they found themselves feted as knowledgeable hunters. They sat in at a village feast, observed the custom of eating rice only with the left hand—until they decided Western customs had advantages—and took part in a hunt from just before midnight until six next morning. From Kabul they set off on the thousand mile run to Persia. passing through Kandahar, Farah and Hearat. The roads were rough, but frequently they passed through lush green valleys stippled with poplar trees and occasionally they saw large mosaic columns believed to have been erected by Ghengis Khan. No Road There was no road crossing the Persian border, and the track threaded its way along a creek bed and they lost their way for half a day. All they saw of the border demarkation was two stone buildings in the middle of a salt desert. They went on to Meshed and were thankful to find an hotel with hot water and to meet up with the first of several Oxford University expeditions. From Teheran they set out for the Caspian Sea, over a 10,000 foot pass between mountains rearing to twice that height. They enjoyed the run down through green fields and “toadstool-like houses” to the Caspian, and there they camped by the shores, rested and swam and tried to shake off the dysentery which afflicted them in India and Afghanistan, after they had omitted to boil their drinking water. Both had lost weight, and the rest helped to restore them. From the Caspian they moved on to Astara, on the edge of the Russian border near the Baku oilfields. The Persians’ security was strict, and three times their vehicle was stopped at machine-gun posts. They were allowed on to Astara, but there they were promptly put into gaol and told they were to return to Teheran. Lewis discovered a man who could speak French, and made himself sufficiently clear to be taken before a ranking officer and received a police pass. The rest of the journey took the pair through Turkey, Greece, Jugoslavia, Italy, France, and finally across the channel to England. They estimated the trip cost them about £6OO each including the cost of the vehicle purchased in Singapore.