Truck Across Africa 1959

This is a nicely done video of a trip through Africa by three young blokes in a WW2 Bedford truck in 1959.



Lang

This one is fantastic. Exact opposite to the Poms with money no object. With GMC's and Buick.

www.travelfilmarchive.com/item.php?id=12955

And an even more fantastic one with Internationals.

www.travelfilmarchive.com/item.php?id=13144&keywords=expedition

Lang

There was another little known trip where an Australian drove an amphibious jeep from Oz to England ,doing a lot of the water crossings as well, just after WW2...I believe a home movie type film was made ,but was lost after being shown on telly in the 70s.

John

That was Ben Carlin from Perth.

He actually went right around the world, starting in USA across the Atlantic, drove to Australia then across the Pacific back to his starting point.

The vehicle (A 1942 Ford Amphibious Jeep) can now be seen at Guildford Grammar School in Perth.

His famous book "Half Safe" was a big seller about the Atlantic trip and The Second Half of Half Safe" about the rest of the circumnavigation was published by his daughter and the School about 10 years ago.

A new book about the trips and Ben Carlin has just come out. It is very interesting.
www.booktopia.com.au/the-last-great-aust...sEAQYASABEgJ6__D_BwE

The original film is still available but here is a clip from the ABC.



Lang

The Collyn of the first vid is no doubt Collyn Rivers, guru of all things RV, especially electrics and solar. Adventurous bugger !

There is another special one of more recent times.

Julian and Ali drove there Canter for about 3 years from Brisbane (shipped to Malaysia) and then to Scotland via China and Russia. Through Africa, back to the Continent and home via base camp, India etc.

The blog is a great read; 2 or 3 lines per day with some photos.

Well worth a look.

www.epicycles.com/

I remember seeing a pomy feature film were a family bought a blitz and "overlanded" as they called it in the movie
It was many years ago and black and white and the crook of the film smuggled diamonds in the ice block trays of a kero fridge (think it would have been to early for a gas fridge

Paul

This is the Court-Treatt expedition. The first vehicles to drive from Cape Town to Cairo 1924-26.

Crossley Trucks. The roof canopies were designed so two could be joined to make a barge to cross rivers. They were so heavy and damaged the mounting points that they were dumped very early.

Stella Court Treatt was a very good looking girl only 5 foot tall but a real goer. She wrote a wonderful book "Cape to Cairo" about the trip. Her husband was a very competent fellow. They were in no great hurry and spent months camped filming birds and animals. Unlike the American expeditions they were not super endowed with money or equipment but they did have "contacts".
Lang

This is Stella and her 16 year old brother who went along on the trip.










By an amazing co-incidence they met in the middle of nowhere the French Citroen Kegresse half track team on their way south to become the first vehicles to ever cross Africa. They were going from North to South. The Court Treatts got the first South to North.

Here is a good film of a couple of the Citroen expeditions in the 20"s. Across Africa "La Croisier Noir" - The Black Crossing and from Lebanon to China" La Croisiere Jaune" - The Yellow Crossing.

This is the movie in five episodes below.



This is the little 10hp Citroen Kegresse that did the first Sahara Crossing and the first trip right across Africa to Cape Town.









This is the bigger 6 cylinder one they drove right across the world from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.

That 1930's video shows how tough it was, imagine today, a bloke would be standing at the river crossing with a big road closed sign chanting "If its flooded, forget it!!"

Thanks Lang, these are great old films