MERCEDES BENZ IN THE ALGIERS TO CAPE TOWN RALLY

e [Music] Once Upon a Time two sport-loving German tourists Carl King and rhina gunler went over the sea to algers and took with them a Mercedes 190 diesel car this strange city with a midsummer temperature already in January was to be the starting point of one of the world's largest long-distance car races The algers Cape Town rally whose route runs right across Africa the harbor had nothing typically African to offer like all Harbors it gave the effect rather of an underwater Goods [Music] station how peaceful the city appears seen from here this however is [Music] unusual the first site worth remarking is the famous Church notam D no that's not it nevertheless it pays to keep one's eyes [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] her attempt to take part themselves however when they arrived at the car control post they had another idea instead of driving behind and watching they would drive in front and win and so they signed themselves in as late entrance for the race their car is examined as the rules specify most [Music] thoroughly a short study of the map then away almost 9,000 miles along a route that was mostly unfamiliar at the beginning through the Atlas Mountains on quite Fair roads as you see the project stood under a good star from the [Music] outset the regulation that 3 and A2 gallons of drinking water per head must be carried seemed to our two friends at first to be completely Superfluous for even the Sahara with itselt Road gave the impression of being completely normal in the beginning [Music] an impression which however with the increasing miles was soon stifled in Sand and Stone and when the last Telegraph pole was passed the Sahara as we all imagine it began guarder and the end of the first lap of 500 Miles the French military and the club Sahar have organized the rally down to the smallest detail the times are entered into the record book and countersigned several times for confirmation while Carl cing visit himself with the car rer gunler took a stroll through the town film camera at hand for rer had taken it into his head not only to serve as a relief for cling at the wheel but to film their motorized Adventure as well [Music] here too a typical Bazaar a medlay of officers coffee houses workshops and promenading although it would be much cooler inside the houses the people here prefer to spend most of their time on the streets [Music] [Music] even the children learn here to count every penny and no wonder with the examples they see around them for the older people bargain and haggle in a way that leaves The Stranger open-mouthed in astonishment on the marketplace a vitable mountain of outrageously colorful socks obviously to prevent losing one's own feet in [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] s yes this is indeed a genuine unspoiled desert town but for now farewell guarder as yet the number of competitors is still the same and no sand has got into the works the glance of the map is enough to assure us that it will be some time before any danger of driving into a tree occurs to try and hold to course drivers have to use compasses and field glasses in the manner of good seamen [Music] stop so far [Music] oh [Music] e [Music] there goes another member of the rally driving from the middle of nowhere to the end of nowhere judging from the Whirl and confusion of tracks the ignition magnet seems to have moved many a compass needle off its course the cars had been started at intervals of 5 minutes and thus no one was in sight from whom one might ask for directions cling Spurs on the good old diesel for he who drives slowly in This Land Is Lost the ground underneath is as though Bewitched [Music] the r commission knows why it has walkie-talkie sets and aeroplanes on hand someone stuck but help has already been radioed form it's quite impossible to extricate oneself alone that's it first scrape yourself out [Music] and then to the roof by contrast to the regulations governing other car races here outside help is expressly prescribed as if sand itself were not capricious enough its full mischievousness is brought out when the wind joins for with it when the sun darkens over and the motor begins to stutter when one's teeth begin to Crunch with no obvious reason and one can make sand pies inside the car despite closed windows then the practice Sahara driver talks simply of a sandstorm [Music] despite the width of the road we are suddenly reminded of the necessity to watch out for collisions ah good morning is he driving in the wrong direction or are [Music] we clear sun again at [Music] last and there the first trees and oun the end of the Sahara that means that 2,800 mil have been covered already well done [Music] diesel a strange Tower in agades and not an advertisement for two things watch out don't pull it in for there's danger of it falling down aha agus is apparently a Harbor Town a Harbor Town for the ship of the desert the [Music] camp the camels seem to express everything from benevolent disdain to pity as they look down on their Rivals rolling by [Music] one lady rally commissioner has already adapted the color of her skin to that of her surroundings [Music] what a shame that cing and gunler could not wait for the carpet that was here being woven they would so much have liked to take it with them but their presence was awaited at the Sheik's dinner table all the they had to do was follow the smell of [Music] muton The Honorable Town counselors were of course also [Music] present out of the desert and into the V with no decreased speed the road becomes less and less R it is like corrugated iron but the diesel car takes everything in its [Music] strip how' you do sir little top heavy what here too the competitors were greeted from above and the rarer the signposts the more dangerous the pedestrians oh no my friend overtaking is only allowed on the road and in any case all rhinos were disqualified immediately for bearing a dangerous ornamental projection stop we can't drive there that is the giant River Shari in French equatorial Africa here feries are the only possibility here the small amount of traffic does not make the bridges pay again a time check our average is now 48 mph [Music] like fabulous water lies the nostrils and ears of hippopotami emerge from the water [Music] on the other side cing rolls carefully on to land and there's someone else rolling himself this time but then after all he's a two and a half tunner obviously in the animal kingdom the safest place for man is on the roof [Music] step out of the blankets and step into the steps today unusually enough the field of competitors lies close on our heels even though sometimes not a single car had been seen for days how the lowb built Porche there ever manag to get ahead is a [Music] [Music] mystery one of the many thousand native Villages here Huts there bungalows and many many children [Music] truly a free indeed an almost completely free left gunler allowed himself the freedom of filming the free the hunched back there with the foot is a baby hello black play booy away the old lady there observing an old right has grown a painted plate into her upper lip a somewhat impractical beautification don't you think ginsa really has his hands full map Reading calculating speed averages and filming [Music] filming the roads become more and more unfathomable and the pedestrians more and more dangerous [Music] [Music] driving spiring perspiring driving ah now for a bathe or perhaps we' better not who knows what might be swimming about in the Bali Falls what are these expensive handbags sharp teeth called now no drive on friend we haven't even covered half the route yet close on our heels are the Contessa palotti and Sergio bja [Music] uphill next forward to the Belgian Congo we sometimes climbed as much at 7,000 ft [Music] another 700 miles are behind us and a luxuriously tiled bath awaits the driver here in bangui the city is highly civilized and they are formal very formal here top hats at midday let us look at what the cultured African lady wears in the afternoon colorful at all events very colorful and everything completely individual the show displays everything from a kitchen curtain via sofa cover two plush curtains and here something completely different a man and a sax stle dress to go with a fashionable bow legs and over there a turban made of bandages [Music] next an original cocktail dress was B to match [Music] and a discussion about the latest fashion news and social gossip is enough to make anyone thirsty [Music] according to the map there are absolutely no more RS oh well the elephants right away must be strictly observed they have a preference for sitting down on the cooler [Music] quick away our two friends tell each other and they in turn set the gazel to [Music] flight watch this The Southern Star has obviously not escaped the Curiosity of the natives unscathed or has it melted already the heat is most bearable with the speed at Full Throttle [Music] now we've got over the halfway [Music] point Stanleyville the radio receivers of the rally commission the whole contest was brilliantly [Music] organized let's have a look at how our honorable competitors are fairing just arriving is a car with the Unlucky number 13 driven by last year's winner bushma no windscreen and the windscreen wipers on the instrument panel he probably forgot to observe the elephant's right of way all competitors carried ladders and Spades As Weapons against the Caprices of sand and mud except for our tourists cing and gunler who accomplished everything smoothly and elegantly [Music] [Applause] [Music] on with the rid have a banana they grow on both sides of the road as plentiful as daisies but only a few hundred yards deep behind are thousands of miles of unexplored [Music] jungle the mountains in the far distance are so inviting that one looks around spontaneously expecting to see a watchtower or a hotel the mountains too are covered by the impenetrable masses of the Jungle hello what's that ringing oh a missionary Post in the heart of pyy land [Music] good morning Miz we've got an extra shirt for you we'll pick it up on our way through next year the ages of the little men there add up to 350 years cling thought he had seen bigger WS you [Music] [Applause] [Music] heard all at once the car comes to a stop oh dear the Land Rover is overtaking us something the matter no we're at the equator and Rally or no rally that must be filmed filming and winning actually two quite different things but our competitor is soon overtaken again [Music] [Music] even with a temperature at 100° in the shade it makes no difference to the diesel is that a barrier a frontier perhaps there it can't be we're in the middle of the Belgian Congo and the drums oh I see it's a oneway street well let's drive on what a wonderful almost safe feeling to be driving along a oneway Street for the few cars one meets in this part of the world are mostly without braks and are driven on the wrong side of the road by a driver who's half asleep [Music] the signal man at the other end of the oneway stretch is sending his colleague the message Dear Sir in reply to your respected drumming of today we would inform you that mass clling and gunler have arrived a competitor with a 265 horsepower on a narrow roadway and behind him number 13 with a new windscreen a service station in the middle of the Jungle our diesel car takes its 5,000 m inspection cing orders his Petrol in good Pub style straight from the [Music] barrel ORS meanwhile tests the undercarriage on Route the roof had been temporarily underneath could happen to anyone of [Music] [Music] course in this Willis Overland is the only Moroccan team father and son watch out dangerous curves [Music] ahead Elizabeth at last Asel under the wheels again rally commissioner Pierre Bon offers his congratulations on achieving the fastest daily [Music] average no thank you we're non-smokers the next day was a day of rest and so we had time to Monkey around for a bit [Music] thus after a good sleep we went out to the zambesi river taking our film camera along of course here one has as yet no idea that the spray hides behind it one of the most imposing waterfalls of the world the Victoria Falls which Roar down vertically from a height of 350 ft at the top 1 and A2 mil wide and at the bottom forming a basin 210 ft in diameter [Music] this Wonder of nature can only be fully appreciated when seen from the air the trip was of course somewhat bumpy for our small airplane [Music] no expenses were spared even a rainbow was supplied [Music] on again with a descent to the cape this is British rodia and with it real roads once small endless straight stretches a relief for both driver and car and a dream for every minister of Transport but not only for him [Music] in the distance the rising mountains announc the approaching cape and soon the 31st and final lamp is completed at last the sea so much long for since the departure from [Music] Al and the Cape the southern tip of this Mighty continent where the Atlantic and Indian oceans [Music] meet Cape Town and Carl cling and rhina gunler have 8,800 miles behind them 8,800 M across desert velt and jungle with a new record average of 50.1 m per hour with victory in one's pocket there's no need to hurry quite as much over the last few miles forgotten are all the discomforts the changes of temperature and of altitude the tropical damp [Music] beaming with the light our friends shake hands all around [Music] their Chief vote of Thanks goes of course to the diesel that never let them down so ends the tale of two tourists who took out to get acquainted with the route and who finished up winning one of the world's longest and toughest rallies [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]