FROM LONDON TO AUSTRALIA BY AEROPLANE 



311 



A FAMILY GROUP ON THE VERANDA OF A BATTAK HOUSE NEAR MEDAN, SUMATRA 



The aviators ''bumped across" the Equator off the eastern coast of Sumatra shortly after 



leaving Singapore. 



utes' flying the cliffs narrowed in, and, 

 fearing I might be trapped in a tapering 

 dead end, I turned the Vimy about. 

 There was just sufficient room in which 

 to effect the maneuver. 



After a consultation with my brother, 

 we agreed that our safest course was 

 to climb above the cloud-mass or at 

 least to an altitude sufficiently high to 

 clear the mountain tops, and barge our 

 way through the mist. At 9,000 feet we 

 emerged above the first layer ; but east- 

 ward the clouds appeared to terrace up 

 gradually, and in the distance there ex- 



tended still another great wall, towering 

 several thousand feet higher. 



our machine reaches its 

 11,000 feet 



CEILING 



Before starting off over this sea of 

 clouds, my brother took observations 

 with the drift indicator, and we found 

 to our dismay that we would have to 

 light into a twenty-mile-an-hour head 

 wind. He gave me the compass bearing 

 to fly on, and away we went once more, 

 with the world lost to view beneath us. 

 It reminded me of our first day over 



