In Around the World on a Motorcycle, Zoltán Sulkowsky documents a daring voyage made by two Hungarian globe-trotters starting in 1928, one of the first successful and surprisingly little-known circumnavigation attempts on motorbike. Zoltán Sulkowsky and his friend Gyula Bartha, two motorized Magellans, spent years discovering for themselves, and for future readers, our world during the deceptive lull between the two World Wars. To celebrate their accomplishments we are sharing excerpts of their story with our readers over the next few weeks.

We had left yet another country behind, only to realize that we had traveled in the wrong order; Morocco was much more Arabian and interesting than theterritories we were to pass through afterwards, and it wasn’t until Tripoli that we would encounter real Africa again. Algeria was the oldest of French territories and had been in French hands since 1840.

When we traveled through, it was an official French colony ruled by a French governor. The old culture and established native customs were of course better preserved in countries that had not been under European rule for so long. Algeria had been divided into three provinces, each province bearing the name of its largest city: Oran, Algiers, and Constantine. Tunis was a fourth territory, conquered by the French in 1880, but its status was somewhat different. It was a protectorate ruled over by the  Bey of Tunis.

Morocco was a relatively recent French acquisition and also enjoyed the  status of protectorate. Though it had been conquered gradually by the French between 1908 and 1917, its status as a protectorate was established by 1911. In the roughly two decades from 1911 to the time of our travels through Morocco, numerous exciting developments had taken place. Morocco was a rich land, especially its northern half, which was clad in lush green vegetation and comprised mostly of fertile arable lands in contrast with the southern deserts. The land was rich both above and below ground; copper, iron ore, zinc, lead, phosphate, and salt mines contributed significantly to the flourishing economy. The land was further dotted with marble quarries and heavily forested.

Algeria and Morocco shared the common characteristic of an indistinct southern border. This was because the border had to be drawn through a desert, and deserts had never been of much interest to the European superpowers—at least up to that point. All roads, even the railroad, came to a sudden halt where the desert began. The military zone also ended where the desert began; the rest belonged to the Arabs.

We passed mostly wheat fields and almond orchards on the roads of Algeria, where local Arabs were, almost without exception, to be found on horseback. They often appeared unexpectedly, but we had no idea from where. A nearby village or oasis perhaps? The sight of the tall, stately, somewhat grim riders fascinated us. Their horses were equally splendid, equipped with intricately decorated, sizeable, comfortable saddles, harnesses in gold and silver and large, boxlike stirrups. I never knew whom to admire more, the rider orhis horse.

All Arabs wore guns at their sides. Guns were of the essence for these men, and not a single Arab could be seen without them. Arabian men were passionate about their weapons, and those who had none felt themselves to be outcasts, social pariahs. A popular Arabian proverb reflected this unusual love: “Guns first, horses second, women third.”

It was impossible not to grow to love these modest, unassuming people, who nevertheless possessed true inner nobility. We felt ourselves to be especially close to them in spirit. What a pity that they were so underdeveloped. Had they at least been on the level of their fellow Arabs in Egypt, they would not have been living in a protectorate for long. Protectorate was a strange, phony word! Arabs had both endurance and hope. Their souls turned to Morocco as the expected source of their liberation. They hated the French and Spanish with a passion, but showed a great deal of kindness and hospitality to other foreigners.

Millions and millions of Arabs lived in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean, yet such little land was actually in Arab hands. We had the feeling, and the hope, that this state of things would not be permanent. Woe to the colonists if these people ever unite against them...

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