Court Treatt expedition - The expedition

The Zambezi gorge below Victoria Falls was crossed by getting special permission to drive over the only bridge then existing which carried the railway and camp was set up close to the Falls. Because of the heavy rains the Falls were particularly spectacular that year. Errol Hinds, with his now mended arm, and in new clean clothes was waiting to join them and the opportunity was taken for a good rest, an overhaul of the vehicles, a general re-stocking and some sight seeing. Stella admired two small grey monkeys and was overjoyed when she was given two which she called Kima and Bibi; a cage was made for them and they would now accompany the expedition. Eventually, with everything ready, they set off again on Wednesday May 21st 1925.

Although the rain had stopped going was slow at first as the road was deep sand and on the first day only 17.9 miles was covered. The railway line was largely followed taking advantage of the cleared strip down the side through the bush but sometimes had to drive right on the side of the railway itself causing on one occasion a near miss with a passing train. Passing through Kafue, now a National Park, they found preparations being made for a visit by the Prince of Wales on his Southern Africa Royal tour, which also used a fleet of Crossley cars. Also in Kafue, they met part of the Citroen "Croisiere Noire" expedition which under Charles Brull had left the main party in Tabora, Tanzania and were heading for Cape Town which they reached on August 1st, 1925. The meeting is not mentioned in the book apart from a rather cryptic " We heard at the Kafue that the road to Broken Hill, a distance of about 220 miles, was better than the road we had come over". The Court Treatt party continued through Lusaka, which although now the capital of Zambia gets only a passing mention, and on to Broken Hill (now Kabwe) where they stopped for two days.

The meeting with the Citroen expedition

North of Broken Hill the road got worse and was quite rocky and 20 miles from Chiwefre on June 15th they broke a spring and had no spare. The nearest railway station was now nearly 150 miles away at Kishutu (location unclear) so the other car was driven there and an urgent telegram sent to Nyamandhlovu in Southern Rhodesia where there was a spare in the supply dump. A box containing the spare was on the next goods train and three days later it was at the camp waiting to be fitted and on June 19th they were off again covering 130 miles before being stopped again by failed bearings in the back axle which delayed them for a further day. Mpika was reached on June 21st at mid-day and they lunched with the District Commissioner and that night took special care in the camp as the area was troubled by man eating lions, thirteen people had been killed in the last eight days.

A brief mention is made in the book that on June 23rd they camped "near Gower Brown's place". This has to be a mistake for Sir Stewart Gore-Browne who had built a large estate and English style house at Shiwa Ngandu which still exists and was described by Christina Lamb in her 1999 book “Africa House”. He was usually welcoming of passing travellers so why they did not make contact is a mystery.

Crossing the Chambesi river

The road was in the process of being improved and several bridges had been built but the Chambesi (Chambeshi) river, known for its many crocodiles, had to be crossed by raft drawn across by rope. The cars were unloaded to reduce weight and, after adding oil drums for extra buoyancy, the pontoon raft would just carry the weight of one empty vehicle. The equipment and people crossed by canoe.

Kasama was reached on June 26th and from here there was a good road to Abercorn (Mbala) on the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika where they rested for three days.

Tanganyika (Tanzania)

The apparently obvious route north from Abercorn is to go up the east side of Lake Tanganyika but even today this is not an easy route so with the roads as they then were it would probably have been impassable so they headed almost due east along the Tanganyika/Rhodesia border towards the top end of Nyasaland (Malawi) and there link up with the main East African road system.

Leaving Abercorn on Wednesday 1st July the road was god for the first few miles but then they reached the first doubtful bridge. The bridges on the route, and there were lots of them, were made of tree trunks covered with earth and some were rather old and weak. They estimated that of the around one hundred and eighty that had to be crossed, around half needed to be rebuilt. On around 13th of the month a rest camp was made and the party set off on hunting expeditions for a few days.

The runaway car

Setting off on 24th July they started to encounter some severe gradients and on one of these the second car failed to get up and ran backwards fortunately hitting a tree before too much speed was built up. With the help of a block and tackle it was extracted from the tree and brought to the top where the damage was assessed. The rear axle was broken, the torque tube bent and the radiator punctured but with the spares they had and a bit of blacksmith work the car was patched up by the end of the next day.

Tukuyu, where the Government station surrounded by lawns and roses was most admired, was reached on August 4th. Although off the route a trip of about four hours was made was made heading south to see Lake Nyasa (Malawi) both for sightseeing and to visit one of the supply dumps at Mwaya Beach but reaching it, found only food and no spare parts which had either not been put on the lake steamer or not taken off when it called further north at the landing stage at Karonga. (note- the diversion to Mwaya Beach seems a long way off route unless names of places have changed drastically. The modern Mwaya Beach is about halfway down the lake near Mzuzu, a long way to go unless there was a special undisclosed reason such as visiting friends. Or, did they intend originally to cut across Northern Rhodesia further south and hit the lake further down and drive north up the lakeside road.)

After two days relaxing they turned round and headed back to Tukuyu and back over the very steep Igali Pass and on to the main road. A one month halt would be had in southern Tanganyika to allow Thomas Glover to film animals in the game parks and a site near the village of Maereres (modern location unknown) was selected.

Leaving their camp they headed along good roads through Iringa to Dodoma making good progress until up near the Kenya border they broke an axle and had no spare. Court Treatt (C.T.) and Errol headed off in the working car to Kondoa where there was a telegraph station and wired Nairobi for the spares but they could not be found and C.T. had to make the journey himself only to find the spares had never left Mombasa. The parts were put on the train to Nairobi and C.T. drove day and night to get them to the camp arriving on the 27th September.

They set off the next day continuing with good roads through Arusha where they were troubled by thick dust but the bridges were at least now in good condition.

Kenya and Uganda

Crossing into Kenya with Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro to their right, the road crossed the Athi plains, teeming with game, and into Nairobi with street lights, something they had not seen for many months. A short break was taken to service the cars, have some new clothes made and attend many social engagements including meeting the Governor Sir Edward Grigg and his wife Lady Grigg before it was off again on the 10th October driving still on good roads. Crossing into the Great Rift Valley they travelled through farming country passing Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru staying in rest huts and reached the equator. They passed through Uganda with no problems and reached the Sudan border

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