THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1986.
THE
MAGIC CARPET-2
S
OMETHING like the Mar- gate sands at low tide, only more of it, an endless vista
of hard-baked sand, with the sun overhead and a cloud- less blue sky-that, a month ago, was my idea of a desert.
Aa soon na we left hospitable. but high-smelling. Ben Gardene, we found how wrong we were, The beauitful palm-treed oasis of our imagination turned out to be dreary dumps, supplying, if any- thing at all, only a little brackish water.
And it was the first day of the giblich, the hot soul wind that
blows sand a thousand miles across the desert.
It penetrates everywhere. Before we had driven an hour, with windows tightly closed, we were eating and clogged
sung.
Early morning tea in the wilderness.
by Thomas H.
Wisdom
prepared to spend the night in the car.
Tins were opened, A chicken was dovoured. The only tragedy thai befell three hungry folk was that nomo bread which we had pur- chased en route had turned out to Christmas bo a cross between pudding and ginger cakel
The backs of the front seats, were lowered, so that a bed could be made up inside the car-and soon three weary adventurers were asleep, only one being disturbed by the cries of the Jackals and an- other by the fact that the gear- lover interfered with a restful position for his feet!
STORM in the DESERT
It was everywhere. nose and cars.
The heat of the wind, to us who had contained of the cold but a week be
At the fore, scorched or lui.
giblick, an we were noun to find out. blows for ree, five or seven days on earl
All semblance of a road had dis
We were following, or en- appeared. deavouring to follow, a faintly dis-
the plain errnible track neros
which the only growing thing was odd patches of scrub. And every now and then we struck streiclica of soil sand,
There was only one way to get through them-charge “fai mit **`m low gear and hope to get over before the shifting and had mekeit te when to rest,
madly up
Sometimes, catering banks, crashing over bumps, with plas sengers jolted out of their seals, we
But soon w escaped this desert bog.
were suck, with the car down to its wheel hubs in the annef.
So, for an hour, we dug and then unravelled our bamboo-runged rope ladders which, placed beneath the wheels, a last kot s on to emer desert.
*
As we
MORE of it was to come. sighted Fort Elwat e Gomah, the desert out- post on the edge of the "no man's land that es between French Tunisia and Italian Tripolitania, we put on speed in a desperate en- deavour to surmount the sand- dunes from which the fort locked down.
Time and time again we etmarged :i
hull of sand, only to get stuck.
At last, when the car had dug
'C
hot nearly as big as flac. were sweating like navvies, n handful of frames obtained us the fire of the dozen or so Amb prisoners in the fort.
*Interrupted in their game of ha'penny nap, or the Arab they barefooted. equivalent.
the calmly
over stepped barbed wire which aurrounded the fort, and pushed the car ent of a hole.
Successful crossing of the Libyan desert; through two armed camps, Italian and London-Alexandria boat British; tho beaten by car; down the Nile to Cairo: crossing of the Sinoi desert; an armed guard for the "Magic Carpet" to Jeru- salem-theic adventures will be described in the next article in this series.
Eventually, Brlun Lexis got the Magic Carpet over the top. He said R was a harder task than any ruce in which he hng driven !
The next twenty miles took un four Three times we were well and hours. truly such.
* * ON counticas
4
We
necasions Just kept go!nr. How the car stood the haralt treat- ment 11 received, and was to re- ceive, still amazes me,
I was a slide nered that "no man's land" of shifting sond. But at last we reached Italian Customs, to be Kreled, to say the least of it, with reserve. From then on we fallowed a desert track-"autopiste" the "locals" call it but reasonably hard, though bompy, to Tripoll, capital of the pro- Viner am residence of Balbo, one-time rival of Alusential, who is now in exile here as Governor
Followtug morning, saw us early uni vir way, over part of the Tripoli Arand Prix coer, fastest road-rare
FRANCIS & DAY'S 60th, SONG & DANCE
ALBUM
CONTAINS,
Thanks A Million. Roll Along Prairie Moon.
I'm In the Mood for Love, Music Hath Charms. You Are My Lucky Star, A Little Bit Independent. I've Got 3 Feelin' You're Fooling. Lonely Villa. Sing Before Breakfast. Poor Little Romany. Sailin' With the Breeze, Headin' Home, When You're Only Seventeen, Every Night at Eight. The Duchess is Learning to Rumba. Star Gazing. The Missus & Me, Whenever I Think of You. Riding Up the River Road, With All My Heart. Stars Over Devon, Little Toys in the Corner. And The Great Big Saw Came Nearer & Nearer,
TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY. Marina House, 19 Queen's Road, Central.
-Tel. 24648.
The Snapshots You'll want TOMORROW You must take TODAY
Eat at-
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stripes. fail. Comes in yellow box with checkered',
Jimmy's Kitchen
Chies Bulldian. Phone No. B0120,- Kowloon Branch 29, Bankow load. Tel, 43926.
from 9 o'clock
+
To-night's Supper
Danish Ham Steak & Chips
Coffee
Ice Cream
$1
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VIRICHROME
track in the world-past the very pits where poor "Tim" Birkin burned his on the red-hot exhaust of bia car.
nt
a burn that led to his death.
At first we motored happily through great groves of pain trees, past Homa desulate Misurata-hen 11170
Jusi desert and our inted friend the viblich.
In terrific heat, theth we could not tee the sin for the flying gand, und at bues I was dufeult even to see the truck, se at anxious glances at ting compass end, she map were frequent, we went for 60 ml)es without seeing a Dying Thing.
Then we raw three gazelle in full Wight, and a whole series of mirages. How good that phantom water looked! Finally, we found Furt el Chaddia. onellest place imaginable, so we knew we were on the right course. Liore bre going over a dreadfully rough track, t 1 caffle to find, in Port el Burrta 11:11
Soon after that we had 30 miles of real genuine autostrada-part of the great road that wall, one day, stretch right across the Libyan desert. It has
For Junior Readers
been building a long time. but the shifting and a poor foundation for a rond. The Italianis mean to have their desert autostrada-but from what we saw it will be a long time yet before it is completed.
We lay Umt night in the Uny resthouse at Birte, Brian Lewin sharing a room with an unfriendly Italian and a tin of insecticide
WO were gettin
By now used to the frequent pass- port inspection-the Italians write down laboriously maklen naine of mother, father's name and other information not considered exnelly essential in alter civilized nations.
us following morning, more such after one affair-Lewis, as usual, had dim- culty in explaining why, if his name was Lewis, his father's was Essendon-we wasted an hour and It was a half obtaining petrol. Anally parted with as if it were Hould gold-and the price empha- aised that comparison.
That day was like the others-ilie glblich rull uperating, rough tracks, ierrific heat and hard going. At one time. led stray by a side-track, we found ourselves motoring with two wheels in the sea! The shouts of the passengers prevailed on the driver to relrace his tracks and find another one.
Finally, 1,100 miles from Tunis, with durkness falling and the track more Indistinct than ever. we stopped, and
BIRDS of the MARSHES
POWERFUL Strange & Eerie
drumming
sound DOUTS
out of the wide, cloud-patched sky.
Bird Cries
Folk we live near inarshlands know that sound.
It is the chestnut-
11
Far away they see a speck flashing with downwards and zig-zaggbig wonderful speed. brown snipe, strange whirr caused by the vibration of his wing and tail feathers is his "Erecting to his inte.
reply. She does not secrecy being her watch- word, while the alts tight in Luft of marsh gruKS wit four blotched, greenish olive eggs be neath her. But should she be startled, she darts awny with such swiftness keenest that only the eyes can tell where her next 15..
colour of faded reeds and which at night
sometimes &lows
Mrs. Wisdom made tea that inorning-how good it lasted!-and we washed in eau-de- cologne.
precious was our three gallons of water.
Но
That day we reached
Was Fort el Angelia, where passports were demanded and our reception distinctly freezing. Behind the fort we nailced a sort of triangle, ropes with loops for arms and legs evidently it is necessary to "discipline" the Arabs.
* in the THE Italians unfroze that the tiny evening, in shop that does duty for restaurant, We had tallar's shop, and bar. quito a merry international party. Information gained-an Arab may not drink alcohol, but makes up for it by having seven wives; aver- ago price of a wife-100 lire, or two date paima!
Nexi stage was to Bengasi, capital of Cirenaica, the last 150 miles over a good road. And here we met expreted troubic-between us and the Egyptian frontier was the Italinu fortified area, Permission to traverse that aren was diflent to obtain, and we were there. in the midst of unfriendly' Italian them, and soldiers thousands of others arriving every day by boat-for three days.
Loudspeakers blared out the latest war news and anti-British propaganda
Italian hul all day. How the
Mir. especially
Le
Eden!
Britis
and Every time we left the hotel, a police. only man followed un-ustially he wanted to see our passports, though wa could not oblige since the military Headquarters had them. Then we got our passports back, alter an Italian intelligence offleer hnd examined us, noted down our descriptions, and told us we could proceed.
KISS IN A MOSQUE
with phosphorescent | LOVER FACES DEATH
19 now particles. rately seen outside the Norfolk broads. Misguided cut rublectors have beef its ndolm. Thrilling, too, are the cur- Jew's slivery, mournful notes. Endowed with a long, probing beak, ideal for
The silver-calced curlew now dips for her dinner.
"Tu-ce. tu-ce," scream
redshanks, the
their white breasts gleaming in the sunshine above the
They, too, have swampy ground. secrets-clutches of pointed, speckled brown eggs tucked away among the grass. The female redshank is a grand inather to her fluffy chicks. Like the wild duck and plover, she will felgn n broken wing to entice threatening strangers away from her little ones.
On rare occasions the strangest
of all bird cries may be heard-the .boom the bittern, a deep in.
of tense sound. Alas, that this far bird, whose plumage is almost the exact
Million. To 'One'
Accident
faling worms from the mud, the" whit- terick," as this bird is sometimes called. leads a will-o'-the-wisp existence.
Not if she can help it will anyone see those greenish-dun eggs, half- covered with sedges in a scrape of turf. In contrast, the,swan, skiing an a great mass of rushes, scortis secrecy.
But beware of approaching too close to her nesli When she starts hissing, It is time to be off. A blow from ont of those slout white wings may mean o broken leg
BY STONING
Calcutta, May 31.
A kiss caused a riot at the famous Baloachanwali niosque, says a message from Ferozepore, lovers A small boy saw two
in a kissing embracing and sequestered corner of the mosque In violation of the Moslem”com- mandment, "Thou shalt not make love in a mosque.".
AUSTRALIA'S
FINEST INGREDIENTS
APPETISING AND HEALTH-GIVING
BISCUITS
Ay
ARNOTT'S
THE IDEAL PICNIC BISCUITS.
OVEN-FRESH because of the new scientific packing.
OUR BRITISH CROSSWORDS
12
14
16
16
1日
18
202
21:23
20
20
· ACROSS
R
1 No, this is not Mrs. Leo Ilunter's quarry-rather a werd, in fact.
5 Suit na invalid would"like"tu 8 This bird can't fly.
10 Would this chair suit a Regius
Profesor?
11 Used to make a chicken run.
The incident became known in the bazaars, and a crowd of in-12 Metal with candy centre. furiated Moslems rushed to the
mosque.
13 Two half-pints, please.
10 This bird is not a boiler, though now and again a boiler does. The Spanish
The lovers fled with the crowd 17 You'll still find In pursuit.
apirit in this Scottish town. 18 1000,999,99 act like an ape. They wrecked the young 20 The cultivation that determines man's home, and condemned! him to death by stoning.
Moslem loaders arrived hot foot and prevented the crowd from carrying out the punishment.
The girl has fled from thie village with her parents.
Spent Honeymoon
It was stated that Tonzel slip-Alone, Is Divorced
Д
ped down a ladder in the stock-
Mrs. Emilio Arsianian, aged room of a shop where he was
was granted assistant, twenty-seven, Another employed. Chance
aged fifteen, stood there holding divorce at Newark, New Jersey. "Such an accident would not hap- a sharply pointed bacon-boning when she testified that her hus- pen once in a million times," said knife. The knife entered Touzel's band, an Oriental rug dealer, aged The other assistant at fifty-three, left on a trip to Europe, the coroner at a Croydon Inquest heart. recently on Frank Touzel, aged the time did not know that Touzel on their marriage day six years fifteen,
come in contact with the age, but refused to take her on the of Windermere-road, had
"honeymoon." knife. Croydon.
SALESMAN SAM
YA MUST BE SNAPPIN' OUTA YER SICKNESS, CABOOSE! YA SURE GOT AN APPETITE!
YOU'RE LOOKIN! GOOD HOW
NA BEEN?
Appropriate Food
the duration of youth.
22 This month Westminster will
display it.
23 Comes down outside now Inside. 24 Syrian seaport."
28 Bar with a catch in it. 29 This animal is not indigenous to Hampshire, but there is one b List.
30 With knobs.
31 Glad to he light-hearted.
DOWN
WOT? YER FEEDIN' (MYEAH! BUT DON'T WORRY
CHESTNUTS FER
DESSERT ?
BOSS-THEY'RE MADE. TO ORDER FER HIM!
1 Garden rubbish should never be
carried in this.
2 No, no, it's all set for ideas 3. Poem.
4 Present ut present, yet not in
any place.
5 This may be a ring, a straight strip, a number of men, or inaku music. The
a fabric of Limehouse oration?-
G
7 Engine wheels go round on this.
without revolving.
20
|སྐ
9.One letter less than bathed. arranged to spell how the trump vlewed a bath. -14-Soothes with charitable offer-
inra.
15 Spry.
10 Not a good game to start, but You get on all right at the finish.
18 A fine actor turns out hot stult
among the nud,
19 Struggle with a definite end in
view. 20 No bookle will accept a bet on
this horso.
21 About a considerable number
all very old.
26 Made more comfortable.
20 English seaside transaction. 27 Police beat thin,
Saturday's Bolution MASTI CA TENDEMIC, BEIHLNO BROACH DRAGGARTEAIA DE E HOGENSMAAVERT S SATRATLODEWIT DESI BAL ORIGIN LEDGREN YE BORANU INSISTS NECKLET MOEN ENGAGERERS PHLEGMEAGREES
ETASKS RENTAL
N I CENENTS ON SEFE GAIN TERUNVEILED LUSTREFRESCHO
YMY REPLANTED
By Small
THESE ARE HORSE CHESTNUTS |
©1936 BY MEA BERVICE, ING. YO