The first motorcyclists to ride from london to capetown
Theresa Wallach and Florence Blenkiron ride 13,500 miles in eight months across Africa
‘Sand storms, treacherous off-roading, tribes, lions, snakes, gorillas…’
⏢ While 1930s wives were told to stay in the kitchen, Theresa Wallach and Florence Blenkiron were battling through the Sahara Desert on their way to South Africa. After eight months and 13,500 miles, they became the first motorcyclists (male or female) to cross the Sahara and the first to make the journey from London to Cape Town.
They weren’t following in anyone’s footsteps and had no proper maps or back-up. It was just them, a 1935 Panther Model 100 600cc motorcycle, a Watsonian sidecar, and a trailer. They faced vicious sand storms, treacherous off-roading challenges, tribes, lions, snakes and gorillas, the French Foreign Legion and total engine failures, which they fixed themselves.
Theressa Wallach wasn’t only an intrepid explorer, she was a successful motorcycle racer and won the coveted British Motorcycle Racing Club Gold Star for lapping the classic Brooklands race circuit on a 350cc Norton at over 100mph. She was an engineer, motorcycle instructor and mechanic. When the Second World War broke out, Theresa became the first female despatch rider in the British Army. After the war she headed to America for a 32,000-mile, two-and-a-half-year motorcycle tour through the USA, Canada and Mexico. All unheard-of adventures for women at the time.
Theresa Wallach once said: ‘motorcycling is a tool with which you can accomplish something meaningful in your life. It is an art.’ All these adventure motorcycling pioneers, and the many more who braved the world on two wheels since, will no doubt agree.