- Joined
- Thursday September 26, 2013
- Location
- Halifax, Republic of Yorkshire
Thanks chaps. She's my little sweetheart. Proper sleeping away, there.
...terrific picture, the engine somehow makes the history real and so near, almost within touching distance...it has somehow reminded me, as if I needed reminding how all too brief life is...Mono no aware...View attachment 61614
Off road in Saudi Arabia - following the route of the former Hejaz railway. Sorry for the crap quality - sent to me yesterday - over limited satellite bandwidth - by my very close friend.
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Ooft - that is the middle of nowhere - if you didn't know what you were doing - you'd die. Proper navigational skills are essential - the supply of water - even more so - you can only carry so much in jerry cans - in the back of the truck. In this case - some sort of Toyota Land-cruiser - I would say from the tracks - with specialist sand tyres. The vehicle - has all sorts of equipment strapped on - sand plates - many shovels - sand anchors - whatever the fuck they may be. From what he tells me - never slow down - that is when your vehicle sinks.
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The point of the exercise - finding one of the relics of T.E Lawrence on the Hejaz railway - a locomotive derailed - by a tulip - if you don't get the tulip reference - go read - 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' - I'm not going to make it easy for you - shit doesn't rust in the desert. Granted - he worked with other British officers - Stewart Newcombe - principally - and with allied Indian and Egyptian troops - and not forgetting - most importantly - the locals allied to Sharif Hussein bin Ali - who had been having a pop at the railway since its inception. Their most successful tactic - was to refuse the supply of camels to the Ottomans - job done - how the fuck else are you going to deliver raw materials in the desert? At that time and place - modern transport - was a means of dominance. The Turks had to stop laying wooden sleepers - and go onto iron - with all the hassle that implies - because they - the locals - dug them up and used them as firewood - why wouldn't you - in the desert? Generally deserts are short of firewood. We should all pay attention to history. Unless - you take the approach of Churchill - History will be kind to me for I intend to write it - yours - I.
@Missoni @Scotshave
Please do - I would be fascinated to see them. I had an opportunity to go to Syria about the same length of time ago - which I couldn't take up - something I bitterly regret - it has been bombed to rat shit recently - obviously. You'd be lucky if you could find two bricks standing on top of each other these days. The Ottoman - German thing is interesting - in a trivial sense - that is why you can drink damn good lager in Istanbul - in a less trivial sense - have you ever read 'Greenmantle' by John Buchan - fiction - but largely based on facts. The attempt to stir up jihad in the East - as a new front - it is great - the Kaiser hoped that the flames would spread to India. Yours - I.I'll see if I can find some of the pictures.