Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1925-03-21
Thrilling Trip Made Through
Africa-Northern Rho
desia Traversed

uulleS COHHcCCeu Will pTlIIllClNe living
in the open, bark to the tale of a 1000
mile trip of Mr.. and Mrs. l.. Blake
Jolly in the Broken Hill country of
northern Rhodesia, Africa. Mr.. Jolly
is chief recruiting agent of the Rho
desia Broken Hill Development Com
pany, Ltd, North Rhodesia, Africa.
Even the worst roads you may have
encountered are veritable primrose
paths of down compared to the bush
country in the land of the tom-tom
and the teetse-fy. The Jollies en-
countered every type of annoyance and
adventure in their journey of more
than two months.
At the time of this trip, the middle
of last summer, the Chevrolet tour
ing car they used was the only one
in their country and the only car that
ever successfully left Broken Hill and
got safely through to Lake Tangany-
ky.
Food for two weeks had to be car
ried, beside complete cooking and
sleeping equipment, while gasoline
and extra food had to be sent on a.
head by 40 carriers. In addition to
the tremendous weight of equip
ment, four persons were carried in
the car through cracks cut through
the brush, full of pits and holes"
The first day out the only road was
native foot-path, at times hardly
visible and every few miles a dambo
(plain) was encountered, which is
very marshy ground with bog in the
middle and which becomes a veritable
river in the rainy season. Often ma
olive boy had to be sent ahead to re-
connoitre and then the car was pi-
loted through.
Though the diary of the trip con-
ta;ns more than 5000 words, only the
most interesting extracts will be
taken.
On July %, grass from six to sew
en- feet high, intermingled with BUSH
es, was encountered, to say nothing
of ant hills and holes which shook the
car to it's very limit. The sun was so
hot that the gasoline had to be COM
pletely covered by the equipment.
On the following day the car be-
came stuck in bog and it was nee
essary to send back for a dozen ma
tives to push it out. It never rains
but it pours, it is said, and next II
foot elephant grass was encountered
which filled the radiator with grass
seed, so that it was necessary to stop
every few miles and dislodge the
seeds to prevent the motor from boil
ing. Later this same day, the party
ran across a great bush fire-fames
from horizon-and only avoided dan
ger by hitting large patch of ground
where the grass had already been
burned.
The next day the only thing excit-
ing was meeting a jackal, wild cat
and python crossed their path and a
group of balloons which the super
stitious natives never kill for fear of
bringing bad luck.
"The next day." writes Mrs. Jolly,
'my husband went over the car which
had extraordinary little the matter
with it."
Mrs. Jolly explained in her diary
that they often encountered great
patches of burnt down timber land
The natives burn down miles of
trees to fertilize the ground-a lazy
way to prepare the ground instead of
hoeing it.
A raft made of old gasoline cans
ferried the Chevrolet across a river
the next day. Two days later another
river was encountered and the wheels
OF the car went through a bridge up
to the axle and it took two hours to
unpack the car and get across. About
six miles further the same day Sec
ond bridge was encountered, and the
same strenuous exercise was needed to
get the car out of the rotten timbers
The party camped under Mount
Sunza, the highest mountain in north
ern Rhodesia, after strenuous work
on the bridges. In the small settle
ment where they unpacked for the
night there were 40 Airedales that
were used to hunt lions
About two days later they struck
a bad belt of teetse-ay and it was all
they could do to keep the bites off the
dog-the bite of the teetse-fy being
fatal to dog.
The following day the party had to
cut down a number Of trees and build
200 foot stretch of corduroy road.
They shot some delicious pheasants
for lunch.
For Is miles the next day the car