Along the journey they encountered lions and crocodiles and had to dig themselves out of sand more than a dozen times, and met Tuareg people.
[5] Joining the Department of External Affairs as a cadet in 1954,[6] his early assignments were to Germany, India, Sweden, New Zealand and Singapore.
[7] Whilst still a cadet, Lyon married Robin Marjorie Carne at St John the Baptist Church, Reid on 3 December 1955.
He was a key player negotiating the 1978 Torres Strait Treaty,[10] which defined the border between Papua New Guinea and Australia.
[14] Towards the end of his posting in South Africa, Lyon re-married, to Diana Cole, with whom he spent the rest of his life.