Tag:Libya
In today’s photo, a group of work colleagues approach the gate on the western wall of Tagrifet Fort. I previously posted a photo of the fort from the air as the pilot approached the fort. He visually identified a place to land, landed on the sandy plain to the east of the fort and we scrambled up the bluff from the south. I suspect the fort was abandoned in WWII. All that’s left now is the stonework and the barbed […]
Blowing in the wind: I can still hear the sound even though it was many years ago. This was a supply tent, slowly being torn apart by the howling winds, laden with sand, ferocious enough to pit glass. The lighter items had long since disappeared, never to be found. Such winds were relatively rare but we were constantly needing new tents yet always hesitant to deploy them in case the ‘big storm’ came and we ran out of replacements. It […]
This desert tree was in a shallow wadi in the Haruj area of Libya. 25-years later, I wonder if it’s still there. You can tell that even then limbs had been cut off, presumably for firewood. The shape of the tree was part of the reason for the photo, but most of the reason was because the tree existed at all. The green scrubby bushes show that moisture wasn’t far below the sandy surface here, but where did that moisture […]
So here’s a shot of us approaching Tagrifet, looking through a window in the same Twin Otter featured in yesterday’s post. Can’t say I really know much about Tagrifet other than it was at one time occupied by the Italians when they ruled this part of Libya before WWII. The fort is curious to me because of it’s triangular shape. Sitting at one end of a low mesa, other photos I’ll post in the future show the barbed wire defenses […]
I recently came across this image of our re-supply DeHavilland Twin Otter in a desert takeoff from our camp air strip in the Haruj area of Libya. The Haruj is a large volcanic field in central Libya and contains the remains of about 150 volcanoes. In most places the black basalt gravel covering overlays a fine yellow sand – even gypsum in some places. Breaking the surface of the basalt gravel would send up choking clouds of fine dust such […]
I look at images such as today’s photo of a breezy day taken in 1990 or 1991 with bitter sweet feelings. Breezy days, where the wind would pick up the sand and blot out the view, were few and far between thankfully. I wouldn’t refer to this as a sandstorm – those things really hurt if you got caught out in them. This was more an annoying, steady blow of sand that permeated everything. It’s such a shame what has […]
