Motorcycle Explorer August 2015 Issue 7 | Page 142

Blast from the Past
Back
in
time
Theresa Wallach
Theresa Wallach was a female trailblazer in the motorcycling world. Born in 1909, London
England at this time women could not even vote! Not until 1928 did all women over the age of
21 get the right to vote, let alone be thought of as motorcycle trailblazers. But Theresa Wallach
became a racer, motorcycle adventurer, military dispatch rider, engineer, author, motorcycle
dealer, mechanic and riding school instructor. She was also the first vice president of WIMA
Wallach was heavily involved in the formation and running of the Women’s International
Motorcycle Association. Having never owned a car, Wallach continued riding until she was 88,
when vision problems forced her to give up her license. She died on her 90th birthday in 1999.
The Overlanding
In 1935, Wallach and her friend, Florence Blenkiron, or "Blenk," as Wallach called her, embarked
on one of the most ambitious motorcycle journeys of the era. Riding a 600cc single-cylinder
Panther complete with sidecar and trailer, the two rode from London to Cape Town, South Africa.
No roads, no back up, just straight across the Sahara through equatorial Africa, and South to the
Cape - in 1935, without even a compass! It was quite simply one of the most amazing motorcycle
journeys ever.
Wallach and Blenk took on all that Africa could throw at them in a world before internet and
mobile phones. It was a journey that would see them face challenges of breakdowns, even
having to build a whole engine from the ground up. It was made worse by the problems with the
French Foreign Legion trying to stop passage through the area as the ladies made it from oasis to
o