ACROSS AFRICA BY MOTOR.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9461, 2 June 1909, Page 7

ACROSS AFRICA BY MOTOR.

PETROL AS A BEVERAGE. One of the most , extraordinary motor car journeys on record is ap broaching completion. -Lieutenant ■Graetz, who left Dar-ea-Salaam, m German East Africa, in August, .1907, has reached German BoothWest Africa after more than 19 months’ persistent toil through the idle art of the Dark Continent. H>is -now is iu sights o t his goal the P cr Swakopnsund—after a series or amazing adventures. the * asfe which, the crossing of the Kalahari iDasert, he describes below., - We have taken 62 days to cross ( ‘the Kalahari Desert from Palapye Road, Beobnanaland. The first 300 miles were covered ,jfairly easily, despite bottomless morasses and knee-deep sand. Then the sand became so heavy that our cat could only advance by going j 'backwards —we had to run bdck on ,onr tracks to. gather impetus for every foot forward. Twice the steering-gear broke. An the primeval Pottetle Forest we 'Set up a smithy and welded the broken pillar while lions and hippopotami infested oar camp i Sand beset ns the Pottetle. Ten times we tried to rush the drifting mass, but ont differencial pinion broke. Fortunately, we had a spare one. t These delays brought us to straits for food. Our rate through the sand was at most thre miles an hour on the first speed, at a cost of six litres of petrol | a mile. It was nerve-racking' toil •from sunrise to nightfall. ■ In spite of my care in sending petrol supplies ahead, gnawing anxiety lest they should fail beset me. Return .was impossible. It mnst be on 'into the -.unknown. Two of my depots were discovered buried deep by the stakes that marked the spot with their metal placards. The Arums were fall. Bat I had not enough. With 70 litres of petrol in the tank I the third depot at the, Pottletle River. The drums were empty. My die was oast. The bellowing of cattle sounded ;in my ears. I traced the sound to a camp of natives and overawing them secured sis osen, not yet completely broken in, to pall my o ar */ Right and day we advanced, alternately trekking two hoars and resting two hours, and making two miles an hour. . On February 13th I reached Toting Ngatni Lake. The,- drama again were empty. c The guide, the Cape boy, and the cattle boy refused to move stap farther.. Oar food was finished. Only by working on their superstitious fears could I prevail on the boys to go on. No water was to be seen on the south side of the lake, only a mass of reeds on a bottom of bog stretching out to the horizon. We had to turn straight into the bush, and then we lost our way. DRINKING PETROL, Though he knew the lake was near car Oape boy was lost for a day and a night hunting for drinking water. In his agony of thirst Gould, the chauffeur, sucked up what petrol he could find. A violent fever attacked him, and for four days he lay between life and death* When the crisis was over, he was placed in the car as weak as a babe. At length we reached our petrol depots at Ohansi. The drums were fall. We sent back the oxen. We had long ago oaten the last of onr floor, and four . days that we -stopped to replace a broken valve we lived on bitter melons that gave ns agonising stomach cramp. - When we started again we drove night and day-, taking tarns in sleeping. Suddenly one night we found one of the water pipes leaking and the magneto under water. Jnst at that moment a dog barked. We found a - Boer farm where we got milk, bread and butter—indescribable luxuries.

With a store of provisions we straggled on next day, the magneto weaker and weaker till it was uselses. But we had attained onr first goal. The German flag fluttered before our eyes from, the tower of the fort of North Rietfontein on March 13th. German horsemen rode out to greet us. The first crossing of the Kalahari Desert ,„by motor oar was accomplished.

A camel rider sped on to Gobabia, where ha telegraphed to the German military headquarters for a fresh magneto, and a’oourier brought it bacK within seventeen days. And so we made for Gobabis.