IT was Pettigrew's Road that brought home to me, 

 and to others, the wisdom of the old transport riders' 

 maxim : * Take no risks.' We all knew that there 

 were ' fly ' belts on the old main road but we rushed 

 these at night, for we knew enough of the tsetse fly 

 to avoid it ; however the discovery of the new road 

 to Barberton, a short cut with plenty of water and 

 grass, which offered the chance of working an extra 

 trip into the short Delagoa season, tempted me, 

 among others, to take a risk. We had seen no ' fly ' 

 when riding through to spy out the land, and again 

 on the trip down with empty waggons all had 

 seemed to be well ; but I had good reason afterwards 

 to recall that hurried trip down and the night spent 

 at Low's Creek. It was a lovely moonlight night, 

 cool and still, and the grass was splendid ; after many 

 weeks of poor feeding and drought the cattle revelled 

 in the land of plenty. We had timed our treks so as 

 to get through the suspected parts of the road at night, 

 believing that the fly did not trouble after dark, and 

 thus we were that night outspanned in the worst spot 

 411 



