My main work was Astro fixes, with some photo annotation, compiling names sheets and altimeter heighting.
Northern Frontier District
turkana on the west side of lake rudolf
Journey from Nairobi to Lodwar (NFD)
– September 1958
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Night-stop on the equator between Nakuru and Eldoret |
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Sign on the equator |
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Road on the scarp slope from Kitale to the floor of the Rift Valley to the west of Lake Rudolf |
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Crossing the dry bed of the River Turkwell near Lodwar |
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Base camp at Lodwar: The future hospital building used by us for accomodation |
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Base camp at Lodwar: The cookhouse being built of wood and corrugated iron sheeting |
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Typical
‘camp’ for an astro fix point, just a tent
fly-sheet spread between two vehicles.
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| Bill in bush hat and with short-barelled bush rifle, used for protection and obtaining fresh meat |
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| Sand dunes and dom palms close to Ferguson’s Gulf on Lake Rudolf |
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| Road through the Lodapalinga Hills near Lokitaung on the north-west side of Lake Rudolf |
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| Road through the Lodapalinga Hills with baboons lining the top of the cliff face and throwing stones at us |
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| Turkana Tribal Policemen from the Kenya Police post at Todenyang near the north-west corner of Lake Rudolf where Jomo Kenyatta, the Mau Mau political leader and future first President of Kenya was imprisoned until 1959 |
Trip from Lodwar in Kenya
to Loelli in the Sudan
October 1958
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| ‘Bush bashing’ through thick thorn bushes |
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| A moment of relax |
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| Our vehicles at Loelli Police Post |
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| Sudanese kitchen boy at Loelli Sudan Police Post |
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| A Kenya Police plane lands at Loelli airstrip with a spare part needed for the Morris one-tonner |
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| Ostriches in the savannah flee from our vehicles |
Return journey
from
Loelli in the Sudan to Lodwar in Kenya
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| Into the wadi.
Often, travelling was much quicker and
pleasanter in the wadi bed, especially
where the plains were strewn with large
lava rocks. The Bedford RL fitted with a winch was desirable, sometimes essential, to safely negotiate the banks of the wadi. |
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| Out of the wadi |
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| Puncture problems.
We suffered three punctures in less than
two hours. During the repair of the
third one, the vibrations of the engine,
started up to inflate the inner tube,
made the Morris come off the jack. We had to dig a big hole, then gradually jack up the lorry and pack wood under the axle to get the wheel back on. This was followed by a well-earned brew-up. |
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| The state of the
canvas covering on our return to Lodwar
after bush-bashing.
It was new when we left Lodwar three weeks earlier |
HIGH RIDGE CAMP, NAIROBI
Home of 89 F.S.S
| Three photos of High
Ridge Camp, situated in a very pleasant residential area of the Nairobi suburbs. Small but with plenty of trees and greenery, it was certainly the pleasantest army camp in which I lived during my eleven years in the Service, perhaps closely followed by Fernhurst (13 Field Survey Squadron).
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| Below: a curious signpost at RAF Eastleigh airport in Nairobi, giving the direction and distance to many cities throughout the world. |
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Nairobi - Kenya 1958 - 1959
| Bill Powell at High Ridge Camp in uniform - 1958 |
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| Bill Powell at High Ridge Camp in civvies - 1958 |
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Playing darts in the Sergeants Mess, 1959 |
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| Bill Powell with the Bedford RL in which he had just passed his driving test. 20/02/1959 |
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| Three ‘very exciting’ views of Nairobi. |
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Kenya
Malindi r&R camp on the indian ocean
Malindi is about 110km to the NE of Mombassa
Rest & recuperation!
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| The camp from the beach with the NAAFI facility in the centre |
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| Bill outside his bungalow |
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| Bill partaking of the refreshing milk of an unripe coconut |
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| The Malindi beach and the ocean |
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| The Indian Ocean port of Mombassa with the famous tusks stradling the main road |
THE TELLUROMETER
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The Tellurometer distance-measuring instrument. (EDM)
The instrument consisted of a Master unit and a Remote unit (like the one sitting on the concrete pillar), a carrying case for each unit, two wooden telescopic tripods, two 12V battery packs and two accessory cases containing the radio handsets etc.
In the first version only the Master unit could carry out the distance readings whilst the Remote unit served as a ‘mirror’ to redirect the radio wave back to the Master.
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In later versions, each unit could be switched between Master and Remote, so enabling measurements to be taken both ways.
The one in the photos, taken in Kenya in 1959, is of the latter type, whilst the one used in the Seychelles was the first model.
In the Seychelles early in 1958, Mick Dyall and
Trevor ‘Bill’ Powell on detachment from 13 FSS
made the first measurement ‘in anger’ from Bird
Island to Silhouette, unbelievable for that period in time.
A real survey revolution.
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My main work was Astro fixes, with some photo annotation, compiling names sheets and altimeter heighting.
Northern Frontier District
Garissa – Wajir – Lamu
KENYA 1959
Out in the bush in the Garissa – Wajir area
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| A good-class road in the bush – no need for speed cameras here! (Perhaps!) |
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A family of giraffe on the run |
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A herd of wild camels |
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A curious ostrich observing the intruders on his privacy – us! |
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| The outskirts of an African tribal village |
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| As the searing heat of the day … |
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| … gives way to the balmy warmth of the tropical night … |
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| A typical Astro Fix crew
consisted of three surveyors, three drivers (one
of which would be a mechanic if possible) and
three vehicles (a Land Rover, a Morris one-tonner
carrying compo rations and a Bedford RL three-tonner
carrying drinking water and petrol in 4½- gallon
jerry cans and perhaps 44-gallon drums.
An Astro Fix (determination of latitude and longitude at the point where the observations to the stars were made), would last on average from three to four days, with observations over two or three nights of about 5 to 6 hours a night. The computations were carried out during the day. (Now, someone who knows nothing about surveying, let alone astronomy, armed with a GPS costing a few hundred pounds, can achieve a far more accurate result in a few minutes.) The crew would stay in the bush for anything from a week to three weeks before returning to base camp for rest and replenishment. |
Field trip to Garissa, Wajir and Lamu
May to June 1959
| Two photos of Fort Wajir, a
Kenya Police Post not far from the border with
Somalia.
It reminded me of the 1940’s Gary Cooper film ‘Beau Geste’ about the French Foreign Legion and I was told that more than one film-maker had used Wajir Fort as a ready-made film set. |
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Additional photographs
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