A great expedition

Crossing the Darien Gap in Central America. The commentary is a bit dated and over the top but the average punter can not understand what a fantastic feat crossing the Gap is. If you read between the lines, they just brush over half a mile or two miles a day but the constant drama and gut busting work to carry those Jeeps through this terrain was prodigious.

vimeo.com/35664626



And this one is the first vehicle crossing Capetown to Cairo by Stella Court-Treat and her husband in Crossley trucks. The date is 1924 despite the video title.


And this is the first African crossing in either direction coming from the north. The Citroens met up with the Court-Treats travelling north but both British and French chose to ignore the meeting in their respective reports. Sorry it is a French film with Italian commentary. The original was silent but dubbed later.

Amazing stuff Lang...There are (were?) some tough people out there.
Francis Birtles is another one worth having a look at. Obviously a complete nut, but wow.... And was it the fellow Aunger who drove north South across Australia way back when?
Cheers
Rich

If you are in Darwin this is my Kegresse the same as the Citroen African vehicles. I got it to recreate the first Sahara crossing (done the year before the great trans-Africa expedition). Found it in Brisbane in bits where it had been sent out to Australia in the 20''s as a sales demonstrator. Shane Harris from Darwin is a vintage Citroen enthusiast and we took on the project together.

Unfortunately Mali and Timbuktu have been out of control for 10 years with no hope of survival if you cross. So that was the end of the expedition.

Shane now owns the whole vehicle and has done a marvellous job. Just about finished ready for the lightweight expedition body. If you want to see it go to the old QANTAS hangar museum in Darwin.

They are a lot smaller than they look in the movie, only 10hp but lots of very innovative ways to use the low power with gearing and lockers. Citroen and his engineer Kegresse were certainly two of the most brilliant automotive pioneers in history.

Lang


Most people do not know that a baby Citroen was the first vehicle to drive around Australia in 1925. 17,000km. Here is a photo of "Bubsy" arriving at the finish


And the first vehicle ever to drive to Cape York 1927 was an Austin 7. The same blokes Hector McQuarrie and Dick Mathews then took the Austin 7 around the world. They have a very strong claim to be the first people to drive around the world. Unfortunately they were a pair of gay Kiwis and not Aussies.

This is the story by Bob Lamond of the first West East crossing of Australia from Perth to Sydney in 1912 in a Brush car. Ferguson was the owner and driver. Birtles was along for the ride and as "guide and reporter". Birtles is credited with this record by most people but he could not drive at this time and did not touch the wheel - Ferguson drove the whole way.

In the article Bob gets a bit excited about the ABC doco but just read past this to get to the good historic information.

brushownersregister.com/wp-content/uploa...ia-1912-B-Lamond.pdf

And long before Ferguson and Birtles, Dutton and Aunger created history in 1908 by driving from Adelaide to Darwin.
www.talbotownersclub.co.uk/history/landm...r-to-cross-australia

And in my opinion the best of Australia's motoring explorers (Nothing can beat Birtles England to Australia adventures) was Michael Terry.
dirtroaddiaries.com.au/historic-motoring...oring-michael-terry/

And this is the great story of two kids who were the first to ride a motorcycle around Australia in 1929
www.ozbike.com.au/around-australia-hard-way/

The great Gatti Expeditions with International.

This is one of the later ones post-war. I will find his earlier ones shortly.


And here is his 1939 famous Land Yacht Expedition. What luxury!


Here is an article and photos of his yachts
www.worldkustom.com/en/blogflash/the-lav...rnational-harvester/

And here is the little caravan bathroom.


And an Italian clip of the trucks

Here is the story of Westwood's first car journey around Australia.
www.classicrally.com.au/First%20Car%20Ar...tralia%20Feature.htm

The first vehicular crossing of the Gap was made by three Brazilians in two Ford Model Ts. They left Rio de Janeiro in 1928 and arrived in the United States in 1938. The expedition intended to claim attention for the Panamerican highway, after an International Conference in Chile, in 1923. The participants were Leonidas Borges de Oliveira, a lieutenant from Brazilian army, Francisco Lopez da Cruz from Brazilian air force, and Mário Fava, a young mechanic. They took what appears to be the last photo of Augusto Sandino, who received them in Nicaragua, and was received by Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt in the United States. Their story is available with photos from the book O Brasil através das três Américas written by Beto Braga. Another crossing was completed by the Land Rover La Cucaracha Cariñosa (The Affectionate Cockroach) and a Jeep of the Trans-Darién Expedition of 1959–60, crewed by Amado Araúz (Panama), his wife Reina Torres de Araúz, former Special Air Service man Richard E. Bevir (UK), and engineer Terence John Whitfield (Australia).[22] They left Chepo, Panama, on 2 February 1960 and reached Quibdó, Colombia, on 17 June 1960, averaging 201 m (220 yd) per hour over 136 days. They traveled a great deal of the distance up the vast Atrato River.[citation needed]


The Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, U.S.A., to Quellón, Chile, and Ushuaia, Argentina, with official and unofficial routes shown in Mexico and Central and South America. A few selected unofficial routes shown through the United States and Canada as they existed in the early 1960s. In 1966, the new U.S. Interstate highway system brought official status to most previously unofficial routes in the lower 48 states.
In December 1960, on a motorcycle trip from Alaska to Argentina, adventurer Danny Liska[23] attempted to transit the Darién Gap from Panama to Colombia.[24] Liska was forced to abandon his motorcycle and proceed across the Gap by boat and foot. In 1961, a team of three 1961 Chevrolet Corvairs and several support vehicles departed from Panama. The group was sponsored by Dick Doane Chevrolet (a Chicago Chevrolet dealer) and the Chevrolet division of General Motors. After 109 days they reached the Colombia Border with two Corvairs, the third having been abandoned in the jungle. It has been documented by a Jam Handy Productions film along with an article in Automobile Quarterly magazine (Volume 1 number 3, from the fall of 1962).[citation needed]


And in 1962 GM took 3 Corvairs through one is still there). the Darien Gap


Here is the lost sheep.

I tend to remember something called the Camel Cup which were a number of Land Rovers crossing South America through some of the roughest jungle. It was amazing how they approached all the obsticals they had to beat to make the journey. I think this was held a few times over the years.

wrote:

I tend to remember something called the Camel Cup which were a number of Land Rovers crossing South America through some of the roughest jungle. It was amazing how they approached all the obsticals they had to beat to make the journey. I think this was held a few times over the years.

Camel Trophy, Cobba.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_Trophy

Yep, the Camel Cup is in Marree next weekend.