HIGH ADVENTURE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 September 1932, Page 7

HIGH ADVENTURE

ROUND. THE WORLD GIRL'S ROMANTIC TRIP ON SEA AND LiAND. HER OWN STORY. This article tingles with the lively heartheat of youth. It cariies' to you the record of months of experi'enCe and eagerness oi- roaming, ■ which are an Ausfralian girl's testijnony to the eternity of "adventure. Miss Margaret Gilruth, vivacious, attractive daughter of Dr, J. A* Gilruth, 'of Melbourne (formerly Administrator of the Northern Terditory) has just returned from a most unbi'thodox world tour, in which she learned seamanship and. the true arfc of happy. hiking. H-ere she sets down her doings and her impressions in her own1 merry style. ' To-day the whole word worships speed. Giant. hotel-liners manoeuvre into Southampton's docks; "The Flying Scotsman" rumbles just a little faster over the ipiles hetween Edinburgh and London; and each week a great, silvery aeroplane drops out of the blue sky on to Karachi's desei't. Passengers emerge. "Just six days from England to India. Can you beat that?" one excitedly cries. 1 All this we have seen. It is most impressive, but somewhat uninspired .travel, I think. Eighteen months ago we left Australia on a Norwegian tramp ship. Speed was po ohject, so we meandered along at a steady seven knots. There were no deck games, no spotless flannels, no spacious lounges, extensive m'enus, or frivolity. And it was during my five months on hoard that insigriificant little freighter that I acquired this passion for slow. sure. and penetrating travel.

For tjhe first two months I was the only piece oi flotsam. and jetsam aboard. The chief engineer's wife looked after her husband and his cabin. In short, all had their own jobs to help the ship cleave her way across endl'ess miles of blue oeean. All this rankled. So I took a great interest in the technicalities of navigation, learned to ste.er, watched the steward dispensing provisions 'each morning, apd paia. several visits to the engine-room. A New Job. Then our steward, something of a .renegade, committed that shocking | and unf orgettable sin of getting drunk at sea. His services were summarily dispensed with in Italy. Now was my chance. And aftei' hxuch persuasion the captain agreed not to engage another steward. Thus began three months of appeasing 30 hearty and cosmopolitan appetities, and housekeeping for. our small portion of the ship. At 7.30 each morning our Italian chef, Francesco, appeared at the provision room doorway, together with salaams and receptacles to contain the yards of spaghetti, quarts of oil, pounds of fish and flour, dozens of eggs, and the major portion of a sheep. All th'ese we solemnly measured out in that stuffy store-room way below sea-level. After breakfast with the captain, chief 'engineer, and his wife, came the odd johs of the morning, the washing of white woodwork, the painting of ventillators, or the laundering of muslin curtains. Iln the afternoon I dealt with' the ship's accounts, Customs documents, anu bills of lading, before going up to the bridge for my watch at the wheel. At first this intrigu'ed me greatly, but after the first two weeks the novelty of- steering vanishes. So odd moments I occupied by learning the Morse code. So we steamed slowly in and out of Italian ports to Constantinople, through the glory of the Bosphorus to the Black Sea and South'ern Russia. There we stayed for a fortnigh+, watching with intent interest just one eorner of the world's greatest experiment.

What of Russxa? Everywhere from London to Singapore, eyes brighten and interest quiekens at that one word — "Russia." "What are your impressions?" ask men. "Oh, do tell us all- about Russia!" demand women. I oan tell about the misery and depection of a few Georgian villages, but that is quite definitely not Russia. So I say nothing. It is said that all true sailors abominate ports. I can weli believe this for a couple of days ash'ore sufficed us also. Everything is disorganised. Firemen come with cqts, mysteriously acquired, for bandaging, at most awk.ward hours. Enornxous stocks of provisions appeax*, requxring checking axxd weighing (for I trusted nobody). Pilots, super-cargoes, and -Customs oxncials are all delighted' to find wo: men on board a little. fr.eighter, and invariably arrive with unerring regularity for meals qnd aft.ernoon-tea, Then our stocks of home-made — or ship-made — cakes vanish, and we rush to the galley to bake further batches. The earliest tea-party I have ever . attended was in Suez, wh'ere we entertained two Jugo-Slavs, a dapper little French doctor, an Englishman, a Norwegian, and an Italian. The doctor was so complimentary about our cooking that we felt disposedj to present him with th-e remainder of the cake for his wife. That meant cooking in the ' Suez Canal — a strange s'ensation with hot, glaring desert almost within touching distance on either side. Distressing patches- of rough seas are th'e only part of that five months that I wish to forget. For then I could not collapse into coma and a deck chair to nurse a throhhing head and protesting interior. No. -The washing-up, the steering, the providoring, * all had" to continue -just -the same. ;Life was hard. "Home" at Last. | But after ihe. Bay' of' Biscay, Holland, and Germany came Scotland

and a discharge certiixcate. "Hame" at last, and Journey's End. A cold, raw winter in England, and Australia calied. Merely a prosaic P. and 0. or Orient passage to- sunshine? Certainly not. An English girl and I arranged to travel out together. She wanted to see something of .'the exotic-East, I. longed to explqre Central Europe. We did not compromise. We did hoth, ineredibly cheaply. • With rucksacks. as our, sole luggage we set forth from London one rainy April day to cross Holland, Germany, Auptria, Hungapy, and" Italy , partly on foot, partly 6n fhe 'boards' of thirdclass trairi carriages. » ■ • As Economy Was our watchword, we bought a little German cooker, a.nd thereafter. ate. all; opr. m,eals, .breakfast included, eitfier by the peacefqlMpselle iRiver, fipyijng throagji its. famou^ vipeyards to join the Rhine, under the great, towcring pines of the. Black Forest, or in the mouritainous heax-t of, the Austrian forest. At night we ' frequented tiny xnns, unpretentious and- dingy enough, judging by exteriox*s, but upstairs scrupulously clean. We had excellent seryice, great canqpied beds with huge German mattresses. and eiderdowns, and a friepdiy landlady, all for the sum of. 2s a night at. the present rate of, exchange. Each night bed claimed t: us at 8, o'clock, for we were on the road by' 6.30 in the morning. • |j One of ttie most interesting stops we made was at Oberammagau, the famous "Passion Plqy" village, where we stayed at the "pepsion" or boards I ing-house, kept by Anton Lang, the I venerable player of the sacred role of The Saviour in that great drama. "We covered roughly three-quarters of our daily 'mileage in the mornings. The afternoons were spent in rummaging about little villages, proeuring provisions for our little cooker, and talk- I ing to peasants. Our l'.ecord walk was 29 miles, ip Central Austria. j

Interesting Contacts. ' You will agree that we saw more of tlxe country and more of the lives of the people than would be possible from any motox*-car or hurtling express train yet invented. Everybody everywhere talked to us; everybody was intensely interested in our nationality, our travels, and adven- ! tures. This same interest lost us many hours of sleep. Very often we trayelled by njght on the boards of, thirdclass carriages. On one journey down the Adriatic coast of Italy from 6 p.m. to' 8 a.m., so great was the curios'xty of our italian fellow-passengers throdghout the length of the train, first-class included, that we -aid not have more than half an hour of sleep. Always there came a continuous and steady string of passngeers to our carriqge, taxing our poor Italian to the uttermost. Yet never once, in , Italy or elsewhere, did we experience j any moment that was anything but pleasant. Curiosity was always min1 gled with politeness. This "hiking" which is becoming so popular in Australia, has provided happy, healthy, strenuous week-ends for. Young Gdrmany ever since the war. They have no money for more expensive relaxations. Everywhere you see bands of men and girls striding along roads, laughing apd singing well-known folk-songs to the accompaniment of - a guitar. Always they th'ought we were Germans, and were more than surprised on hearing us speak English. For the traveliing Britisher is nievitably connected in their minds with wealth, and that we should trouble to explore Central Eux'ope on foot with empty pockets was quite beyond their comprehension. With Hungary came a grey-green Danube, gypsy music, and a lovely city — Budapest. Hungary, without exception was the most h.ospitable, j country we encountered, and Hun- | garians charming people. In varjahle questions from reporters and others, "Which town did you like best?" "Where are the smartest women?" Invariable replies, "London" and "Vienna."

Not Expexxsive. Are you interested in statistic ? Our nine weeks' travel across five European countries, including board and lodging, cost but £28, at the present rate of sxchange. It was an intensely interesting and enjoyable. tijne we had experienced, nevertheless an Italian cargo, ship in Brindisi saw two rather weary, rather jaded girls walk up the gangway, bound for SingaporeCame a month of quiet, sailing down the Red Sea, to Karachi, Bombay, and Coiombo, and then Singapore, with a few days in each' port. Then a passenger ship, the Marella, for tfie first time in my: life. For two days I felt quite out of- place in this lap of luxury, Deck ganxes, good food, Chinese boys at our disposal— not the seafhring life !I had known, but certainly very good for a while.