No raid, no record run, no adventure; just a drive to the Sahara for work

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This is Commander Boschmans with his Chevrolet van in Paris in March 1928. According to the caption, he had just returned from an 8,000-kilometre drive straight through the Sahara Desert and back. What was that all about? We found a clipping from the same month in La Presse Libre and will add a few quotations from it: “Mr Boschmans, who had been commissioned by the Belgian Government, set out from Algiers at the beginning of the year, accompanied by his young wife. They travelled in a standard Chevrolet van, specially equipped for the journey, and without an escort.”

Upon their arrival in Paris, a certain Mr Bugeya delivered a speech on behalf of the Société Industrielle Automobile, congratulating Mr and Mrs Boschmans on completing the journey. Mr Boschmans then intervened – or so the clipping tells us: “But,” Mr Boschmans explained in a very pleasant manner, “it was not really such a difficult or dangerous journey. In truth, it was an ordinary tourist journey, and even a very pleasant one, thanks to the robustness of the Chevrolet and the large size of its tyres. Our only regret was that we did not encounter more people along certain parts of the route.”

Mr Boschmans then explained the purpose of his journey: “Our Belgian colony in the Congo produces considerable quantities of cotton and other products, and its northern part is more closely connected with the Nile Valley and Egypt. Mail takes a month to reach Egypt by this route, and it would be beneficial if the journey could be shortened by several days. This gave the Belgian Government the idea of establishing an air link between Brussels and the Congo via the Sahara. Studies for this connection had recently been carried out, but it depended upon the creation of a regular motor route capable of ensuring reliable supplies.”

“It was to assess the possibilities of this route that we travelled from Brussels to Algiers and then, via Laghouat, Ghardaïa, Timimoun, Adrar and Reggane – where the workshops of the Trans-Saharan Company, which operates the regular service from Colomb-Béchar to Gao, are located – to the Ténéré and the Adrar des Ifoghas, as far as Tabankort. We had absolutely no intention of undertaking a raid. We were studying the terrain, and we never pushed our speed...”

Words: Jeroen Booij / La Presse Libre
Pictures: Bibliothèque nationale de France

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