EXCURSION

29th : the Voice of the 29th Battalion, Volume 1, Issue 10, 4 August 1943, Page 7

EXCURSION

4 b ' ABTHOpCrH mention of a tropic isle to * road ox's ox romantic fiction conjux’es up > visions of glamorous nights and glutton* | eus 'days, wo Enz adders in No cal are loss » likely to bo so misled* Wo wore many ; months here before vzo saw ’aids vcllees j luxuriates " ox* ’’’les fruits dolicieux 09 of | which tho French maps boasted* Such exags geration sec-mad merely to confirm our im- | pression of the French as a romantic race. i Fight o’clock one sunny Saturday two J' of us sot out oA a mission to secure a j supply of mandarines o Wo wore perhaps a i tattle sceptical of any success, for we •’ had staggered gyrour for. months .and miles i without seeing anything more than spidorb i woks' hanging from /the trees « niaouli / > trees,, .

g But orders wore' orders & the day was , | fine, wo missed e. parade and wo wox*o our I own bosses for a few hours. It nattered J little to us if mandarines proved to he < . { : .’plentiful as pork in Jerusalem. On. the outskirts of a straggling vil—- ' lege we left the corrugated' road, and j sought out the house of the French farmer I whose fruit wo wore going to buy* Wo wore - greeted by o young men in his twenties, who, in the absence of tho owner, offered to take us down to the plantation. Wo wont with him through a grove of slender dark’•leaved trees that thwarted tho sun c . Tho small of dank earth and rotting , foliage assailed our nostrils* Mingled s with tho toll trees were sturdy rodj berried coffee trees - and thon ? through c gap in the undergrowth, wo caught a glimpse of paradise. » Hundreds of golden fruit wore lying on the brown soil ahead of us. We flung caution- .to the' wind© ——

j •' t f jdT- nou know how mandarines Bill atp, i but nine h.'.c. disappeared to my account | before I realised that u grilled, bare* ! footed, toothless French labourer was ; 1 ting an exp,!,''nation,?. Hastily 1 gulped ; ano broke into my rusty French. j Metiers wore speedily clarified and wo • j resumed- cui- attack, deterred neither by • tno le '-'o bonne's that surrounded us, ; r-v ay the hordes' of mosquitoes that kept ; the frenchman -perpetually fanning' his face . oiha ms .usna, and exclaiming all the ■while" ! ■■'esu- ; Los -ic'ustiqu.es - sent mau- ; •; wises ■-*- t-ou jours’ 100 moustiquos..« .

IVo arranged to collect our fruit' at three o’clock and somewhat reluctantly set our for tho village. Our guide, by this time our friend ? accompanied us, and wo dined at tho restaurant (that served also, ho informed us, .ns maternity homo) on grilled steak, beans and lettuce, accomponied by plenty of brood end butters . After lunch Robert insisted that we should go to his homo. A greying Now Oalidonian native climbed up c. tree and lopped-* off several bunches of coconuts for us* Again, wo ate and drank, while cats, dogs and fowls rushed a.round us to share in iho fees • Tine passed all too quickly as wo compared rifles, chatted about the war and explained tho virtues of our Ford truck to an interested audience of four. Trophies of the chase wore brought out and an invitntion given to us to return for a hunting and fishing trip. , ,

Wo collected tho not tho owner bock at his house. Again hospitality was extended to us, this time in tho fora of a lamon drink enjoyed as wo talked on a I breeze swept verandah Our host, a typical French colonial ruddy featured, white-headed portly man "of | sixty or so, spoke well of tho ’’Kiwis’? end ’ expressed.tho wish that friendly trade re- j lotions night be established between Now ’ Zealand and Now Cmidonicio His diughikr sought our help on- the problems of English ■ ■ grammar. But the sun was sinking; wo had. far io I go. With mutual expressions of good will wo took our leave. Tho beck of the truck was overflowing with mandarines and for ”our ;swn private needs” we wore given a kerosine case full.of them, with a. sugar bag full of lemons. .h were still tossing mandarine pool* • ings eway .a our', truck swung into camp c ■