Thread: Simpson Desert in the mid sixties

To keep the thread going until John does another story I will add a few pics.
A mate and I were working our way around OZ and we had heard of the Leylands trip a year or so earlier and bought their book. We were poking around out there and saw remnants of what we thought may be their tracks so followed them west. We eventually found their halfway tree.
My late wife and I tried again in the 80,s in our old Forward Control but could not find it. Even if someone had cut down the tree one would think the pile of stones would still be there.

20230323_172615 Centre 1968 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Yes, you are right, they had some sort of wide aircraft tyres. These were the only sort of "sand" tyre that was available then, and exactly what we had, although by the end of the first year we had realised that radial tyres with very flexible sidewalls that enabled the footprint to lengthen rather than widen were better in sand, despite the vulnerability of the sidewalls. But radials were rare, and very expensive when available in those days, especially in truck sizes.

9.00x16 was a common size. I knew a RAME Major who bought ex-military Land Rovers and prepared them for beach ready sale, in the mid-70s. He fitted 9.00x16 aircraft tyres, also ex-mil IIRC.