A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



East Coast route from Beira. At that time the only 

 passenger service along this coast was that of the 

 D.O.A. Line, which runs a service of excellent 

 mail-boats every three weeks. We found boats left 

 Beira on the igth December and on the i4th 

 January; and all things considered, the former date 

 appeared to be the best. 



To get from Broken Hill to Beira allowing for 

 two days at the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi and 

 a night or so at Salisbury or Buluwayo would take 

 at least ten days; and as trains leave Broken Hill 

 for the south every Wednesday, the 9th December 

 was settled upon as a suitable day for our departure 

 from there. It was now the igth October; there- 

 fore seven weeks were at our disposal. 



We might return to Nyasaland for a fortnight's 

 shoot and look for eland and elephant in the high- 

 lands near Fort Manning, and then proceed by the 

 shortest route to Broken Hill. That we did not 

 decide on this course was because the prospect of a 

 three weeks' trek through such a hot, waterless, and 

 gameless country as that between Fort Jameson 

 and Broken Hill was uninviting. 



Instead, we chose a circular route via Mpika, 

 being encouraged by the hope of meeting game in 

 the Luangwa valley and the Muchinga range. 1 As 

 matters turned out, perhaps we should have done 

 better if we had chosen the first route, for we should 

 have been saved the full Rhodesian licence of ^25, 



1 Muchinga range must not be confused with the 

 Mchinji hills, forming- the boundary line between Nyasa- 

 land and North-East Rhodesia. 



130 



