100 years of the Murray Cods: Murray Bridge rowers return from Paris

From the notes and diary of R.A. Cummings, lightly edited for clarity, courtesy of the State Library of South Australia and the Cummings family.

September 30, 1924

Arrived in Fremantle on Tuesday, September 30 at 6am.

 All passengers were examined by the doctor – clean ship.

We landed at about 10am and motored to Perth, a beautiful drive through nice scenery.

Did some shopping in Perth, met the Lalors and had lunch there.

It was like old times to be there and there is no place like Australia after all.

Received some letters and wire.

Went to Kings Park again, lovely views, and took some snaps.

We boarded the boat at 6pm but did not leave til midnight, we had tea at Fremantle Cafe and it was decent after the ship’s food, tasty and quite a treat.

We had great fun there.

September 29, 1924

I won a pillow fight on deck in the competitions concert tonight, September 29, with presentations, prizes and a dance.

There’s an old-time dance tomorrow after we leave Fremantle, it has been a great trip to date.

It was rather rough today.

We passed Cocos Island some way off today, and could see a nice beach and plenty of growth.

Plenty of amusement is being had now, and in nice ideal conditions for the weather is good enough.

September 21, 1924

We’re headed from Colombo to Fremantle.

We had rain and wind like the devil for the first two days, monsoonal weather conditions, and crossed the line on the 22nd at 11.30pm.

Games are still on deck.

We had a concert on deck for the second class the other night.

Played in jazz and cornet solo, very good concert.

Card games have begun.

There’s a fancy dress ball on Friday night and cricket matches on the boat deck today.

The gramophone is still doing good work in the evenings on deck after dinner.

September 20, 1924

We arrived in Colombo at 8am and depart for Fremantle at 10am on Sunday the 21st.

The boat did a record run between Aden and Colombo: 400 miles in the two days following and then 404 miles the next day, she goes along nicely.

We went ashore at 9.30am and seven cars of tourists left for a trip to Kandy, 72 miles inland from Colombo.

We motored through the streets of Colombo, but soon after starting the rain came and didn’t it rain?

It came right through the hood of our car and wet us almost through.

We arrived at Kandy at 1pm after passing on the way some very wonderful scenery, perhaps on a fine day the prettiest one could wish to see: tea plantations, coconut plantations, banana and cocoa plantations but most of all the rice fields, they are very wonderful.

Natives were working in the rice fields with their wild buffaloes.

Tea factories are numerous and we passed also a zoo; it was too wet to take snapshots.

There are wonderful high hills and waterfalls and thick green growth.

We saw two elephants working on roads and another coming up a river with a huge log in its trunk.

We nearly had a couple of accidents going to Kandy, arrived there at 1pm and had an excellent lunch, the best since we left London.

The meals on board are not too good.

Had a look around Kandy for a couple of hours but rain also spoilt this venture.

We were doing some shopping.

The streets were cleaner and healthier than Colombo in appearance.

We left Kandy at 4pm for Colombo, still raining, passing lots of small villages, but the rain and clouds spoilt the views from the high hills.

Passed hundred of natives’ carts with two small oxen laden with goods all the way to Colombo, and at one place were held up for half hour for them to pass, and just missed a nasty accident by a hair’s breadth between them.

Halfway home it grew perilously dark and we could not see a foot in front but the native driver seemed to see all right.

We were almost tired of travelling by this time and were looking for the lights of Colombo, which we reached at 7.30pm after three and a half hours to get home – that was seven hours in the car, too much, and the trip was spoilt by rain, but there is no doubt the Kandy tour is a very pretty one in good weather.

We arrived at the jetty at 7.35pm and boarded the lighter for the Mooltan.

I was tired and it was wet so I turned in early.

On Sunday we were still anchored.

A lot of people went ashore but I had seen enough of shopping at Colombo so stayed on board and it was fine for once.

About five ships came in the morning and the harbour was busy with shipping, about 11 ships in all.

Colombo is a pretty harbour.

We leave Colombo at 12pm for Fremantle.

September 15-20, 1924