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Egypt - new airfield from WWII Egypt - new airfield from WWII
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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #16  
Old 31 Dec 2013
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Smile
oops lost a 't'
It's a figure of 4 Trap- sorry can't type!
Dead fall- a stone is held up by one or more sticks- animal dislodges stick/s and gets whacked on the head etc by the stone usually meeting its maker!
Also known as the Paiute Trap
No artifacts? darn!
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  #17  
Old 1 Jan 2014
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Hi Ursula,

I mixed it up with a very similar one near DWM.

I think what you see on the back is some other unrelated animal figure, either over or under, but it is not very clear.
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  #18  
Old 2 Jan 2014
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What a fascinating thread. Thank you for posting.

Andy
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  #19  
Old 4 Jan 2014
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Sadly this is like most of the threads we used to have here, before the spring ...
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  #20  
Old 5 Oct 2014
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Egypt - Cleft Hill Airstrip Western Desert
Tarek showed us another landing ground in the Western Desert not far from Garth Hill

Cleft Hill on Google
http://up.picr.de/19719641tz.jpg

I was very surprised about the number of large single tracks, asking myself from
what kind of vehicle they could be.
Any idea?


Ursula
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  #21  
Old 5 Oct 2014
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Airport Cleft Hill Western Desert
to compare our small Toyota tracks from left to right


single large tracks
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  #22  
Old 7 Oct 2014
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Ursula, just guess. Maybe caravan tracks?

Thomas
Last edited by Whiskey; 8 Oct 2014 at 07:02.
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  #23  
Old 8 Oct 2014
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Cleft Hill Garth Hill airport Western Desert
Hi Thomas –
thats exactly what I was thinking too before I saw the straight dynamic
semicircular tracks on Google http://up.picr.de/19719641tz.jpg

usually camel tracks look more zigzaged – snaked - meandrered like
http://up.picr.de/19745494gp.jpg
http://up.picr.de/19745495jm.jpg
http://up.picr.de/19745496ss.jpg

or maybe from some speedy drunken camels full of aviation benzine ???
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  #24  
Old 8 Oct 2014
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Really bizarre, no idea.

We already had a lengthy discussion with Tarek on another forum re camel tracks, petrol and supplies for these emergency fields were flown in, there is zero evidence to suggest that camels would have been used for any logistics support.
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  #25  
Old 9 Oct 2014
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Could the single tracks be the nose or tail wheel of an aircraft? In a tight turn that single wheel might dig in more than the others.
Last edited by Richard Washington; 11 Oct 2014 at 14:30.
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  #26  
Old 9 Oct 2014
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Definitely not tailwheel (all aircraft in use at the time were tail-draggers), track much too wide. The only thing I can possibly think of is perhaps a shallow ditch excavated by prop-wash once the aircraft were taxiing, but the edges appear too abrupt for that, and there are stones on the ground which are much too heavy to de dislodged by prop-wash.
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  #27  
Old 11 Oct 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrasz View Post
Definitely not tailwheel (all aircraft in use at the time were tail-draggers), track much too wide.
A complication with identifying old tracks is that their form will change over decades. Once a track is introduced it changes the near-surface friction velocity by altering the roughness and that, in turn, changes the turbulence profile and deflation capability near the tracks. As a result the same background wind can become more erosive in the vicinity of the newly introduced track compared with the surronds and, as a result, fine sediment is more easily transported from the track and track edges. Track form therefore changes - possibly widening, possibly also creating deposition downwind of the tracks in the same way that nebkha dunes form near small vegetation features. Simply put, I doubt the tracks originally looked like they do now.
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  #28  
Old 12 Oct 2014
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Agreed, but on the photos larger stones are clearly pushed aside forming a low rim along the track edges (2nd photo, track at upper right). Cannot see any way wind can do that.

Also for aircraft of the times, most weight was on main wheels not on tail wheel, so plane tracks should be double or triple (tail wheel would have been just a few inches wide). The stones piled to the side argue against the prop-wash theory too.

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  #29  
Old 29 Jul 2019
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Smile Cleft Hill LRDG airstrip Egypt Western Desert
Looking at my old pics…

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  #30  
Old 29 Jul 2019
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Did anyone come up with a logical explanation of the origin of the elliptical tracks?
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