Breadcrumbs

On into Niger

 

Tam to the border

Algeria 20 Feb 1979 to 9 Mar 1979

9 Mar 1979

We left Tamanrasset and headed south. No more near solitude.  We are now on the main North South road through the middle of Africa, now referred to as the Trans Saharan Highway, the N1. A Transcontinental road according to the Michelin Map of the time. That said, it is still not a motorway or anything like it. We traveled the same route as even larger trucks than ours, and even artics. It was not a simple case of following a blacktop road, in a long convoy. It was an earth track according to the Michelin Map. 

Hoggar Mountains

 

Not the prisoner of Assekrem more the hermitage of Charles de Foucauld

Algeria 20 Feb 1979 to 9 Mar 1979

2 to 6 March 1979 

After the splendid Djanet and the prehistoric rock art we set off back to Bordj El Haouas skirting the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park. Retracing our steps for 140 km before turning again towards Tamanrasset. From one set of superlatives to another.

Sunset over the Sahara
Sunset over the Sahara

Camping in the desert

 

Camping in the desert is special

February - March 1979

Driving through the wilderness of the desert, and the day is coming to an end. Time to start looking out for somewhere to camp for the night. There is no one to ask permission of and no field to drive to the corner of. Select a spot off the track, but close enough and firm enough so that you can easily get back to it in the morning. Sand mants after breakfast is not ideal. World wide advise, not in a dry river bed. People have drowned crossing dry river beds with flash floods washing the vehicle away. Imagine the catastrophe if camped in a river bed subject to a flash flood.

The road the truck and the stack
The road the truck and the stack

Tassili N'Ajjer National Park

 

Is Tassili N'Ajjer National Park on this planet?

Algeria 20 Feb 1979 to 9 Mar 1979

25 - 28 February 1979

Apparently yes. It may have spacemen on the walls but it is still here, in the Sahara. 

We joined the channel of a glacial meltwater stream, which had grown to a river and eroded the bedrock. Numerous channels incise the bedrock and whilst once filled with flowing gurgling water, are now full of sand. The literal English translation of Tassili n'Ajjer is 'Plateau of the rivers'.

We slowly climbed to 1500m, about 5000 ft, on the high plateau. To put that into some form of context, Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles, located in Scotland, and has an elevation of 1,345 metres. The plateau floor eventually reaches 800ft above Ben Nevis with the columns and stacks above that.

Cliques
Cliques

Cliques during expeditions

 

Cliques during expeditions and trips

1979

Before the start of an expedition there will be a mix of people, some single travellers, some couples, and some groups. Even the couples can vary, unmarried, recently married, even honeymoon, and long term married. Consider these as mini cliques. I found this 'what is a clique' site with the above header image, and although it is for schools, I think it is still relevant. If the group still looks like this at the end, there is probably a problem.

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News Flash

Change of host Sept 2023

 

Change of host Sept 2023

 

In the begining of August 2023 I transfered my ivanhurst.me.uk sites, including this one from 123-reg to IONOS. It was meant to be a simple task. However, that was to to be the case. The reason for the move was primarily the hugh increase in price that 123-reg was applying regarding email boxes. Previously, the upto 500 of the boxes were included in the various hosting packages I had. Now they were going to charge for each mailbox based on size, and as far as I could make out, this was going to cost me nearly £2,000. This was not acceptable, and I did not get satisfactory answers from support. So I turned of all the auto renews and stated to move sites and domains accross to IONOS.

Travel data problems

 

Travel data problems

This is where it starts to get a little technical.

The site is built on a content management system, CMS, using Joomla. Joomla is moving forward and version 3.10.?? is being discontinued. Future developments are for version 4.??

Similarly, PHP 7 is being replaced with PHP 8.

Part of the migration is relatively simple, I have already changed to a new template which works on the new platforms.

However, some of the helper applications, which work within Joomla are not yet ready.

Fabrik is one of those applications, if fact a significant 'Joomla Custom Website Application Builder'.

Refresh 2021

 

Site refresh Easter 2021

I decided to give the site a bit of a refresh over Easter 2021 and install a new template and some additional functions. One of the things I didn't like about the old site was the delay in text appearing which probably meant some people left before the content appeared. This has been corrected now.