timmus
A2OC Donor
Hello good people of A2OC.
At the end of December, I posted this thread - https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/logging-off-for-a-month.34352/ - declaring that I’d be off grid for a month or so. Outside of my work on A2s, I work as an audio systems engineer and had been asked to work on a recording studio in Libreville, on the Atlantic coast of Gabon. Whilst the job itself only took eight days, I spent the rest of the time exploring. I had intended on posting a load of photos immediately upon my return, but various other commitments meant that has been delayed until now.
I travelled with Martin, a life-long friend of mine who is French-speaking Belgian. My French is patchy at best and Gabon, where the audio systems job was, is a former French colony. As such, Martin took leave from his usual job and worked as my translator for a while before we resumed our regular relationship of travel companions.
Understanding Ultras
Ultra-prominent peaks, known simply as ‘Ultras’, are mountains that have topographic prominence of 1500m or more. Altitude is a simple measure of how much vertical height there is between the surface of the ocean and the summit of a mountain. Prominence, on the other hand, is a measure of how much a mountain protrudes above what’s around it.
For example, the city of Lhasa in Tibet is approximately 3600m above sea level simply because all of Tibet is at high altitude. As such, even minor bumps outside the city are of much greater altitude than almost the entirety of Europe, but their prominence is very small because they don't rise far above the surrounding landscape. By climbing one such bump, you might be at high altitude, but you don’t get a sense that you’re towering above all you survey.
If you could run your fingertip over a scaled-down model of our planet, the Ultras are the mountains you’d feel pricking your finger. There are approximately 1500 Ultras and they can be found in almost every corner of Earth, from the Sahara to Antarctica. There are no Ultras in the UK; the closest are in France's Massif Central and in Norway’s Jotunheimen region.
The Cameroon Line
The Gulf of Guinea, or ‘Africa’s Armpit’, is home to a chain of volcanoes called The Cameroon Line. Starting in mainland Cameroon, the chain of volcanoes continues far out into the South Atlantic Ocean. Five Ultras can be found here: two in Cameroon, two on the island of Bioko (which is part of Equatorial Guinea) and one on the island nation of São Tomé. Beyond the island of Annobón, the Cameroon Line only pops its head above water once more, 1300 miles further out into the ocean, where it forms the British island of St Helena (where, after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled until his death).
Pico de São Tomé
São Tomé is a shield volcano that rises 5000m from seafloor to summit. It was first discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century and was, until then, completely uninhabited. The island became a Portuguese colony and was used as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as for crop cultivation. Its location on the equator makes it ideal for sugar, coffee and cocoa cultivation. These plantations were overseen by European masters, with slaves from all over West Africa used as labour. In 1975, after various cycles of unrest, São Tomé became an independent country.
Today, São Tomé is one of the most obscure, inaccessible counties on Earth, but is supplied by air from Gabon twice a week. Given that I was in Gabon and that São Tomé is home to an Ultra, I could not miss the opportunity to go out there and explore.
Pico de São Tomé (‘The Peak of St Thomas’) is one of only 6 Ultras in the South Atlantic. Despite being nearly twice the height of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain, it is completely blanketed in tropical rainforest.
The other 5 Ultras of the South Atlantic are Pico Basilé, Gran Caldera de Luba (both on the island of Bioko), Queen Mary's Peak (on the British island of Tristan da Cunha - the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world), Mount Paget and Mount Carse (both on the British island of South Georgia).
The Flight to Gabon
The flight to Gabon from Paris was absolutely spectacular; a real privilege. Not a cloud was seen from the northern coast of Algeria to the southern border of Niger.
On the north coast of Algeria, at the eastern end of the Tell Atlas mountains, Lalla Khedidja could easily be identified. Lalla Khedidja is one of Algeria’s three Ultras and is the snow-capped peak towards the top of the photos, standing slightly separated from the rest of its mountain range.
From there, the Sahara begins. Seemingly endless but immensely varied desert.
Then, rising from a sea of sand, the Hoggar Mountains appear. This area is home to Mount Tahat, one of four Ultras to be found in the Sahara.
At the end of December, I posted this thread - https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/logging-off-for-a-month.34352/ - declaring that I’d be off grid for a month or so. Outside of my work on A2s, I work as an audio systems engineer and had been asked to work on a recording studio in Libreville, on the Atlantic coast of Gabon. Whilst the job itself only took eight days, I spent the rest of the time exploring. I had intended on posting a load of photos immediately upon my return, but various other commitments meant that has been delayed until now.
I travelled with Martin, a life-long friend of mine who is French-speaking Belgian. My French is patchy at best and Gabon, where the audio systems job was, is a former French colony. As such, Martin took leave from his usual job and worked as my translator for a while before we resumed our regular relationship of travel companions.
Understanding Ultras
Ultra-prominent peaks, known simply as ‘Ultras’, are mountains that have topographic prominence of 1500m or more. Altitude is a simple measure of how much vertical height there is between the surface of the ocean and the summit of a mountain. Prominence, on the other hand, is a measure of how much a mountain protrudes above what’s around it.
For example, the city of Lhasa in Tibet is approximately 3600m above sea level simply because all of Tibet is at high altitude. As such, even minor bumps outside the city are of much greater altitude than almost the entirety of Europe, but their prominence is very small because they don't rise far above the surrounding landscape. By climbing one such bump, you might be at high altitude, but you don’t get a sense that you’re towering above all you survey.
If you could run your fingertip over a scaled-down model of our planet, the Ultras are the mountains you’d feel pricking your finger. There are approximately 1500 Ultras and they can be found in almost every corner of Earth, from the Sahara to Antarctica. There are no Ultras in the UK; the closest are in France's Massif Central and in Norway’s Jotunheimen region.
The Cameroon Line
The Gulf of Guinea, or ‘Africa’s Armpit’, is home to a chain of volcanoes called The Cameroon Line. Starting in mainland Cameroon, the chain of volcanoes continues far out into the South Atlantic Ocean. Five Ultras can be found here: two in Cameroon, two on the island of Bioko (which is part of Equatorial Guinea) and one on the island nation of São Tomé. Beyond the island of Annobón, the Cameroon Line only pops its head above water once more, 1300 miles further out into the ocean, where it forms the British island of St Helena (where, after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled until his death).
Pico de São Tomé
São Tomé is a shield volcano that rises 5000m from seafloor to summit. It was first discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century and was, until then, completely uninhabited. The island became a Portuguese colony and was used as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as for crop cultivation. Its location on the equator makes it ideal for sugar, coffee and cocoa cultivation. These plantations were overseen by European masters, with slaves from all over West Africa used as labour. In 1975, after various cycles of unrest, São Tomé became an independent country.
Today, São Tomé is one of the most obscure, inaccessible counties on Earth, but is supplied by air from Gabon twice a week. Given that I was in Gabon and that São Tomé is home to an Ultra, I could not miss the opportunity to go out there and explore.
Pico de São Tomé (‘The Peak of St Thomas’) is one of only 6 Ultras in the South Atlantic. Despite being nearly twice the height of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain, it is completely blanketed in tropical rainforest.
The other 5 Ultras of the South Atlantic are Pico Basilé, Gran Caldera de Luba (both on the island of Bioko), Queen Mary's Peak (on the British island of Tristan da Cunha - the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world), Mount Paget and Mount Carse (both on the British island of South Georgia).
The Flight to Gabon
The flight to Gabon from Paris was absolutely spectacular; a real privilege. Not a cloud was seen from the northern coast of Algeria to the southern border of Niger.
On the north coast of Algeria, at the eastern end of the Tell Atlas mountains, Lalla Khedidja could easily be identified. Lalla Khedidja is one of Algeria’s three Ultras and is the snow-capped peak towards the top of the photos, standing slightly separated from the rest of its mountain range.
From there, the Sahara begins. Seemingly endless but immensely varied desert.
Then, rising from a sea of sand, the Hoggar Mountains appear. This area is home to Mount Tahat, one of four Ultras to be found in the Sahara.
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