Disconcerting Incident with Bus Station Master Exorbitant Highway, Petrol and Ferry Charges By W.
I did not go to Tullfu after all, though there Is actually a motor road of sorts connecting it with Yunnanfu, Two British emeers from Hongkong, who from Hengyang in Hunan had eon just ahead of me, did go there, Dut their ear broke down en route, and on their return to Yunnanfu they reported that the road was very bad indeed—for two thirds of its length 'a'mere mud road, and furthermore that the famous Tall fair was not going on, It meant a four days extra Journey there and back, and-by thi time motoring was beginning to lose Hig charm asa form of amusement and was becoming in my eyes merely the quickest and easiest method of getting from place to place.
Besides, at this distance from the coast—what with freight and "ilkeg taxation—gasolene had become worth almost its weight in gold. 1 gave up the Idea, therefore, and prepared for: the journey to Chungking. "Ther is no direct road from Yun fu to the Yangtze, amd so it was necessary to Felurn first all the way to Kueiyang.
The weather having cleared up in Kueichow, in the meantime, the return trip was much pleasanter and easier than the outward journey, and but for the unavoidable crop of tyre troubles could have been done in two days. "One such accident being: typical, Twill cite it as a warning to other motorists, On' the steeper declivities there Is a constant fall of Jarge stones on 1o'the road, so that one Is forced either to steer round the stones, often with a precipice on one side of one, or to drive over them, with the risk of hitting the differential, I thought 1 had room to steer clear of one such stone, but ran full tht Into it and cut my tyre, After that, 1 invariably pulled -up and made "one of my men get, out and remove any such impediment, carriers bringing down huge loads of salt from Szechuen. We passed shrine under a huge tree that was festooned with straw sandals hung there by these men, as a protection against sore feet.
Aller Tsuny! we entered the mountains again, and late in the afternoon crossed a high pass of over 5,00 feet, the name of which T have forgotten, but it has a very evil reputation in these parts. Though not as high as some of the passes we had crossed in other parts of Kueichow, it was the most dimeult piece of driving had done up to then. The surface was very uneven with great slabs of stone protruding, the gradients ap~ Pallingly steep and the corners so Sharp. that it was dificult to get Found.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.