The star of one of the world's greatest treks lies behind the news of the arrival in Egypt of a number of South African convoys of mo-for transport, which travelled all the way from East Africa by road. They, journeyed 3.000 miles across desert amid heat and sand storms, driving from ten to 14 hours daily and covering 120 miles unless sand storms prevented them.
The only roads were camel tracks. They were so faint that th were hardly discernible, and the cony were forced to rely on thi of direction. Their worst haboub, or desert sand storm, which completely brought the cent toa standstill.
Airmen too dreaded haboubs, which often extended from 10.000 to 12,000 feet, and the only thing they could do was to get to the top and stay there for a few hours.
Mirages haboub often seemed to depend on the topography of the country, and troops had to overcome the terrible ordeal of thirst in great heat, being without water often from six to eight hours and unwashed for a week. The greatest joy was to reach a railway water pump, though frequently they saw mirages of beautiful large lakes of glorious blue water ahead.
Troops soon grew accustom ed to these mirages, however.
Another strange sight was numbers of dead camels alongside the track. They had failed to stand the journey from south to northern markets.
After this gruelling experience of following lava belts in bush countr the East African drivers are satisfied that they n stand up n yth
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.