Lang's Library Recollections

What a difference the half-tracks - the subject of this book- made. There is a photo of Andre Citroen and his missus arriving in Timbuctoo to welcome the boys after driving his standard Citroen car half-track special from Dakar in Morocco.

   

   

 

 

Tomorrow the next book where the Citroen Half-tracks really get into their stride!

Ariane Audouin-Dubreuil recently wrote a wonderful coffee table book about her father's early desert adventures using much of his very interesting diary and many never seen before photos. They did a nice documentary with her (she was the first female Mayor of Paris) about her father.

Also a better map out of her book of the first Kegresse expedition.

 

 

Great books so far. 

I'm more of a boatbuilding and sailing adventure types books collector.

My all time favourite is "500 days' (around the world in a 12ft boat).
Lang you might have seen his boat displayed in the QLD Maritime Museum.

Absolutely amazing what people do.

Rockwiz

I had a talk to him before the boat went into the museum long ago. As expected I found him a nice enough fellow but, how shall I put it - a little strange.

As I mentioned I have over 2,000 books. I have as much sailing and flying as I do vehicles. Just trying to keep the thread in order and on track with vehicles and not turn into everybody's favourite Mills and Boone story.

I have Joshua Slocum's first edition about his journey in the :"Spray" to be first solo around the world over 100 years ago

Just to keep you interested here are two paperbacks you might like (I also have first editions of both).

 

 

 

Ever since reading (the late) Evan Green's book a Bootful of Right Arms I've had a lusting to go to Timbuctou. No real reason but it still has my imagination captivated.

The Kegresse was a pretty cool device that apparently saw some war service. It was very capable.

Old Andre was no fool.

  I too always wanted to go to Timbuctoo (4 official ways to spell it). I managed to get hold of an original Citroen Kegresse brought to Australia as a demo in the 20's and last used as a pump near Gatton Qld with the track gear stored in a shed.

I got a Citroen mate in Darwin involved and restoration started to recreate the Sahara trip in the book above. Things turned to worms with hundreds kidnapped and murdered in Timbuctoo going on still today. End of trip. I had other things to do so Shayne carried on restoration and did a wonderful job. All finished except for the simple box body. The Kegresse can be seen at the car collection in the old QANTAS hangar in Darwin.





 

 

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And all before ratchet straps but not before Telstra rope, eh Lang.

I did have dogs and chains on the ute tray.

Well today the Citroen Kegresse crew really hit their straps.

After the successful Sahara crossing Andre Citroen went for broke and within a very short period had assembled a crew led by the same Sahara crossing pair of Audouin- Dubreuil and Haardt. Eight autocheniles (car caterpillars) left the Foreign Legion base of Colomb-Bechar in Algeria only 18 months after their 1922 Sahara crossing. Making an entirely new path across the Sahara they travelled thousands of trackless miles to Lake Victoria.

This was not just an adventure, they carried several scientists and the world's leading film maker. This was the first time a film documentary had been made in real time of an expedition. Prior to this, documentary films had been collections of shots, often by different people assembled and edited in a studio.

At Lake Victoria one group went East to Mombasa . South of the Lake another group broke off to continue to Mozambique while the third group went for gold and travelled all the way to Cape Town becoming the first vehicles to traverse Africa North to South. All groups then proceeded to Madagascar from whence they returned by ship to France.

There are many books written on this subject and very much worth the read. I struck it lucky a few years back when doing my usual second-hand bookshop browsing in Dijon, France. He was more a general seller of novels etc and had very few old books but there in a corner was the huge limited edition (only 800 printed) 1927 La Croisiere Noire in good condition for 40 Euro. Just out of interest I had a look yesterday on rare book sellers sites and found 2 in USA and one in Belgium. The cheapest one without a cover was $US1,350

 

 

 

 

 


 

And the Cherry on the cake for today is part of the the movie documentary made of the Black Crossing.

 

Here are some of the numerous Kegresse models built during the 20's and 30's. The American Army WW2 half-track had Kegresse suspension.



If you visit the museum at the Le Mans car race track you can see one of the original African Expedition vehicles.