Photo montages from photos sent in by Peter Barnett from his time in Ethiopia & Somalia:-
"Noel, I was clearing out my digital photo archive and came across some images and having come across your website, thought you might be able to put names to some of the characters.
I was recruited by Mandrel Industries through Hayes office as a surveyor on the Vibroseis crew prospecting for Tenneco in the Ogaden district of Ethiopia. Base camp (Ray3) was in Kebri-Dehar with Mike Keene as Party Chief.
Arrived on site in June 1973 and started surveying existing traces. Later operating solo from mobile fly-camp supervising cutting of new lines, access roads and airstrips using both imported Cat bulldozers (commissioned on-site) and a local Fiat dozer. My other job when at base camp was to take the International tanker to get so-called fresh water.
I was on a two year contract paid in dollars working a six & two rota. with leave typically spent in Mombasa.
Three aircraft, a Cessna 185, Pilatus Porter and Dornier 17 supplied by Axum Air were used for personnel and light freight flights between campsites. Depending on the pilot, had the opportunities to fly the plane. Forget health and safety, we used the Pilatus to ferry drums of aviation fuel etc to the fly camps.
The principle airstrip for flights to/from Addis was Gode. Apparently there was a large store of dynamite used for earlier refraction surveys left close to the airstrip. Unfortunately the existence of the strip encourage settlement and instead of the explosives being in an isolated location, when I was there they were surrounded by huts. The other problem was that the dynamite had not been touched for a few years and well gravity had played a part.
There were four red Vibroseis trucks providing the signal source. Unfortunately despite searching the net, I have not been able to find an image of those particular hydraulically powered vehicles.
I remember that wherever we went, we had to be accompanied by soldiers whose role was to protect us from Somali Bandits. Unfortunately, they were only issued with five rounds of ammunition for their M1 rifles, and if they used or lost a round it cost them the equivalent of a US dollar deducted from their wages. I managed to buy two rounds from a sergeant, so that I could shoot some fresh meat for the pot. The soldiers then cooked up a huge pot of Wat which we all ate with Injera (a type of flatbread) washed down with some local beer."
Ethiopia c1973 - supplied by Peter Barnett.
Somalia c1974 - supplied by Peter Barnett.
