The Great Rift Valley revisited...

[petermcleland]

Most people here will have seen my earlier scans of these transparencies but with my recent scanning practice I decided to redo them and hope for some improvement...I have also tried a few Crops of areas of interest.

All these eight pictures were taken on a single sortie in a Venom FB4...I just sat the camera on the gunsight to steady it and press the shutter release when I thought the picture would be worthwhile. I was low flying at about 250 knots at the time so there was no question of looking through the viewfinder. The shots are presented in the order taken and the route was after take-off from Eastleigh, Nairobi to cross the Ngong Hills and drop down into the Rift Valley heading for Lake Magadi then turn North to cross back up the lake and continue up the Rift. I only took the eight pictures as an experiment and I wish I had taken more:-


This first one shows part of the Gunsight and the windscreen framing pillar on the right...Not too good a picture so I didn't try a crop.


This is better heading towards that conicle hill with some habitation at bottom left.


Here is a crop of that area and I think those small dark numerous verticle things are Masai.


This one is nice and sharp and you can see several red patches on the ground with Termites nests.


Here is a crop of some of those patches and you can clearly see the mounds.


I'm in a turn to port here and the gyro gunsight graticle has drifted into the camera's view. The bright central "Pipper" is what you place and track on the cockpit of the enemy aircraft and the ring of six diamonds (only three visible here) are what you close in on the enemy's wingtips, after first setting the targets aircraft type wingspan.


Here is a crop from that image showing a well used track on the ground.


Another sharp one and you can see a circular Masai boma left of centre.


A crop of that area showing the circle of dwellings and the nearby track. Also some termite mounds.


A typical Rift Valley elongated conical hill and...


...a crop of same.


I'm heading back to cross the length of Lake Magadi here. Those bright white areas on the lake are solid soda.


A crop of the dried up lake bed to the left.


And another of the water with solid soda in the creek...Flamingoes like to visit here on their way South to breed on Lake Natron.


Here is the last one as I cross the soda lake. You can see that the gunsight glass tints the soda...It is really white as on the right. You can also see the gyro graticule again here...


...and again here in the crop from that picture.

Thanks for looking at these pictures...I think they may well be unique :flying:

[forthbridge]

:o

Amazing images Peter. Thank goodness you had the forethought to record such stuff for posterity :flying:

[sketchy74]

Fantastic images Peter.

I often think of how many great images there are sat in photo albums or boxes of slides that people like yourself have taken over the years. We are lucky that you share yours with us.

Best,

Fraser.

[Hot_Charlie]

It's shots like these (combined with reading Fg Off Anthony Haig-Thomas' rather amusing autobiography* at the mo) that makes me think I may have joined the RAF 50 odd years too late.

Cracking Peter, considering the camera platform!


*if you click the link, I was baffled by the title too, but all is revealed in about chapter 4! Also if anyone is interested, buy it here, as then all the royalties will certainly go to the collection.

[Kevin Farnell]

Incredible photos, Peter.

Many thanks for sharing.

Regards

Kevin

[petermcleland]

*if you click the link, I was baffled by the title too, but all is revealed in about chapter 4! Also if anyone is interested, buy it here, as then all the royalties will certainly go to the collection.

Splendid Charlie...I knew Tony Haigh-Thomas in Aden when he was on 8 Squadron and I think again later when I was stranded at Riyan, having crashed a Venom..I've a feeling that he was posted for a while as adjutant at Riyan as a penance for some misdemeanor... Riyan only had three officers and about fifteen airmen. Anyway, I'm sure that all will be revealed when I read the book (just ordered it from your link). :flying:

[Hot_Charlie]

*if you click the link, I was baffled by the title too, but all is revealed in about chapter 4! Also if anyone is interested, buy it here, as then all the royalties will certainly go to the collection.

Splendid Charlie...I knew Tony Haigh-Thomas in Aden when he was on 8 Squadron and I think again later when I was stranded at Riyan, having crashed a Venom..I've a feeling that he was posted for a while as adjutant at Riyan as a penance for some misdemeanor... Riyan only had three officers and about fifteen airmen. Anyway, I'm sure that all will be revealed when I read the book (just ordered it from your link). :flying:

He was. I've just got to that bit of the book.

[petermcleland]

A long way further South now for something rather different:-


This is the famous hill called Isandlwana, scene of the resounding defeat of Lord Chelmsford's British army in 1879. I took this picture in 1979, 100 years after the battle. To the right of centre, you can see a large white cairn on a rocky ledge...This is where Younghusband and his troop made their last stand and their remains and those of some Zulus are buried under that cairn. You did not see this hill in the film "Zulu Dawn", for reasons that will become apparent in the next picture.


Here I have climbed up to Younghusband's cairn and am looking back just South of East, down the hill towards the main British camp...It is the square full of cairns just left of picture centre. As you can see, the plain is dotted with stone cairns covering the remains of soldiers...The string of cairns off to the pictures right edge, West and beyond showing the route the "Fugitives" took when fleeing the battle. The cairns all cover fallen soldiers all the way to "Fugitives Drift" where survivors struggled to cross the raging river torrent. Melvill and Coghill got across but the Colours on their standard and the case were lost in the crossing. Melvill and Coghill were both killed shortly after struggling up the bank on the far side of the river. When the film "Zulu Dawn" was made, they obviously could not use this site, so a similar shaped hill was found some considerable distance away. However, the hill was very much larger than the real one and it would have been difficult to reconstruct Younghusband's part in the action, because the scale of the false hill pushed the cameras so far away from it. They solved the problem by just leaving Younghusband out of the whole story.


This is the site of the successfull defensive action at Rorkes Drift...This picture 100 years after the battle does not show the original houses but the white building was built on the site of the original dwelling house which was converted into a hospital...The one that in the film "Zulu" was set fire to and the hospital occupants led by Hook dug through the walls from room to room till they got out (the house was built with 11 rooms and a veranda but like many of its time, some of the rooms had doors opening outside but no interior communication with the rest of the house). The building to its right was built on the site of the original commissariat store. I think we are looking down along the path of the First Zulu attack...The Second Zulu attack came towards us in the opposite direction across the road and the Third Zulu attack came from our right as we look at the picture.


This is a glass cased model of the action and you can see the black arrows on the left of the picture showing the first attack and also the arrow at the bottom showing the third attack. At top left corner of the picture is another arrow showing the second attack positioning. The roof of the hospital has been removed to show the action inside.

Well I'm afraid this is all a bit before aeroplanes but I hope you found this little presentation interesting

[auster]

Peter,

Absolutely super pictures of the Rift Valley. You show that you had amazing foresight in recording this information for posterity - whilst busy handling a jet fighter!

Regarding Isandlwhala, terrific presentation. Informative, historically unique and a whole new world for us jokers that get most of our history from films, although I do have a separate interest in military history. I really cannot describe just how interesting this detailed information is. Many, many thanks.

Ralph

[jonesey2k]

Indeed. Very interesting indeed!