Lang's Library Recollections

Lang wrote:

This one is very interesting. It is a rare book about an expedition which did not go to plan.

A group of 4 Frenchmen and a Pom set out in 1950 in an old Chrysler Airstream with a huge box built in the boot. Their aim was not to just travel to India but to find out as much as possible along the way.

Chrysler Airflow.


 

Sorry, Airstreams are caravans.

It's ok Lang, you were close. The standard body style was known as Airstream. My dear departed dad had a '36 Airstream up until the early '60s when he updated to a new family car. A '38 Royal. We thought we were flash then. I did most of my courting in the 38 during the 60s.

The GPA jeeps achieved amazing feats in the hands of intrepid civilians but the seeps had a horrible reputation in the services, they were deemed to be not a useful vehicle by the Australian Army. ( the Australian Army received 161 GPAs ) 

Years ago I had a phone conversation with this chap up at Deniliquin NSW. He said , just after the war he worked at a small engineering shop in town and his boss purchased a number of GPA amphib jeeps from the Bandiana Disposals sales. He told me he picked up and drove a number of the GPAs  from Bandiana to Deniliquin. Anyway, the guy who owned the business had a plan, the workshop chopped off the front section of the hulls and welded a flat sheet over the front. The converted GPAs were then sold to local farmers as utes . A few of these chopped GPAs have been found and restored back to original. 

Here's one in Sydney in 1946.

 

A chopped Deniliquin GPA. The device on the back is a post hole digger.

 

 

Newspaper reports dating from 1948 to 1955 in Melbourne.The Carlin's look younger in the 1948 pic,  before the gruelling Atlantic crossing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next one is dear to my heart. It was the first real book I ever bought with my own money when I was 13 years old. It has been my inspiration to do stuff ever since. I have since driven (not all in one bite) the entire route in later years.

Probably one of the most famous vehicle expedition books it tells the story of the first vehicles to actually drive from London to Singapore - no shipping or jumping sections as all before them had done. It is a great read and the book is readily available second hand. They turned around and drove all the way back to UK from Calcutta at the finish.

A few years back they made a documentary "The Last Overland' with 87 year old Tim Slessor, the original author, being driven over the route by his grandson in one of the original Land Rovers.

 

 

 

 

 







 

Here is the full later recreation trip documentary introduced by David Attenborough. Poor old Tim Slessor was not in the best of health and his grandson is a waste of oxygen but the others on the team made it an entertaining movie. He is the same age as his grandad was when he did the original expedition, are there no can-do kids left in the world!




 

 

I would expect that to overland that trip today would be a challenge, more for the poltical reasons and never ending fighting in some parts of the world

Pretty impressive undertaking back then and I feel even today it would be a good effort to travel that far

Another book I'm going to have to find

Paul

Looks like a Interesting book, nearly 300 pages.

 

 

 

 

 

One question Lang,

Did the Library notice all the books missing?