Have you ever ventured the thought of what it must be like to be a mother in Mogadishu?

The stress and trauma of struggling to survive in a place that has been in constant conflict for the past 30 years?

Well, this female seems to have mastered the situation:






Oiiii!!!! You there.....No 2!!! STOP chewing!!!

They are nice looking pups....and a very tolerant mother!

Wonder what the future will be for them?

Part Dobermann and part .....?

Looks like a healthy litter, given the circumstances.

Hi,

I am excited……

Flew out of Mogadishu to Kampala on Tuesday. Green, cool, civilized Kampala is lovely to be in. Been busy working to provide the detail for a plan to provide and support the a 2500 man base on a ‘Greenfields’ site in Somalia…it is a biggy, and needs to start ASAP. Plenty of work.

In the meantime, I have been distracted by the sort of task that you enjoy being distracted by. Waiting for the nod from the US but, expecting to be flying into the most central part of Africa on Monday to conduct a recce, over an expected 8 day period, of a road and an airfield. Then back to Kampala to produce a report in 2 days then, back into Somalia.

Here is the maps of where I’ll be heading to:




Flying into Yambio, Sudan, and then driving the road that needs some upgrade works, and then onto the airfield, past Obo in the Central African Republic. I am meeting up and travelling with the contractor, as per his e-mail here; Steve is my Boss:


Steve,

Thank you for inviting us to undertake this survey and we are pleased to outline our costs for this initial survey. We intend to send our best project manager in Sudan ##### and our best roads engineer #######. These will each drive one Landcruiser which mean that there is no loss of transport capacity by employing drivers. The Landcruiser can realistically only carry 4 people when on very bad roads so this leaves a total of 6 spare seats. One for your person and 3-5 for security. If we need more security then we will need more cars. They are available if desired.

Plan is for your man to fly Entebbe - Yambio on our charter plane; in on Monday out on Friday. If the trip is longer than anticipated then out on following Monday.

Monday spent looking at road building in Maridi to give an understanding to your man as to what can be done with the various machines, we feel that an understanding of what we are already doing in very similar conditions will be very valuable to your person, naturally if he has already worked on gravel roads in Africa this might not be necessary.Monday Night stay in our Yambio road camp, then leave very early next day to travel as far as is possible. Distances travelled in DRC can be surprisingly little per day, my worst day's travel was 6.3km in two Landcruisers with diff locks, admittedly in wet weather. see attached pics!

The cars must have 7 days water and 5 days food on departure.

Travel to Obo studying road conditions; Murram supply etc, survey airfield in Obo and return to Maridi and depart Entebbe on next flight.

Cost for Civicon personnel plus Landcruisers and Life Support for our 2 people and your man is $#### per day.

Any extra Landcruisers is at $### per day inclusive of driver. Any security from UPDF or SPLA will be billed at direct cost, unfortunately we cannot estimate this cost as it is so variable and seems to be at the whim of the man on the ground.

Cost $#### x 5 or 8 days $#### or $####
Security car if require $### x 5 or 8 days $#### or $####.

Security personnel at cost.

We trust that the above is acceptable and hope to hear from you shortly.

Best regards
David


These are the photos sent in by David:

DRC0001.pdf

Not an ‘everyday opportunity’ in a not quite ‘everyday’ part of the world. Looking forward very much to the drive….now…how can I get my Landy across?!!!

Plenty of photos to follow.

It didn't happen. Spent 4 days getting the plan together, wrote the instruction, put the proposal through to the Dept of State in Washington, waited, waited, a week and a half then...no. Bugger...was so looking forward to the drive and experience...anyway...

Back now in Mogadishu. Plenty of stuff happening with the well publicised build-up to an offensive. I have been appointed the Project Manager to implement the following support to the Transitional Federal Government:

a. Task 1. Ammunition and Weapons.
b. Task 2. Vehicles 150.
c. Task 3. Rations (50t of camel meat/mth) and Fuel.
d. Task 4. Maintenance Support.
e. Task 5. Boats.
f. Task 6. Infrastructure Support.
g. Task 7. Funding for stipends for translators/instructors.
h. Task 8. Training and National Security Force ethos.
i. Task 9. Medical.
j. Task 10. Recruitment and Vetting System.

Starting out with a Force Preparation Base to support 900 before the end of Apr 10. Will spiral to support a projected total of up to 15000 troops. Busy.

Went for a recce today to work out how to do the logistics through the port. Following photos are all of Mogadishu port:



Wooden hulled dhows that sail between Dubai and Mogadishu...no doubt...well in tune with the pirates:





The thriving mass of humanity that works the loads, out of the vessels, and onto the trucks...not much containerization here:



















D'ya reckon they can load trucks up?

LOL...ya ain't seen nuthin yet!!



Is that a bus load...or what?



Now...this is getting pretty full:





There ya go...if it had a goat on top...you could call it a full load:



Part of why I was there was to check out the warehousing. Note the wooden laminated beams:



This was interesting....graffiti:





Not Somali though...US military...from 1993.

The port shots are very interesting. All that manpower to shift things around.

I wonder much stuff goes "missing"!?!?! We used to have real problems getting stuff through ports/customs in Kenya, with bits going missing all the time. Or being "held up" until a little cash was passed so the paperwork could miraculously be found again, and our goods would eventually materialise.

Always love those overloaded shots of utes & trucks

Cheers
David

This book will be out in shops at the end of May:



It is of special interest to me as Shane Bryant (the subject) and Tony Park (the author) are both friends of mine and were introduced to each other by me.

Tony has now written a shelf full of books and he spends half of each year driving around Africa with his wife in their Land Rover...'wucky bastard'! Tony and I grew to know each other from some assistance I provided him with the writing of his first novel, 'Far Horizon' that had the lead character as a Royal Australian Engineer Major clearing landmines in Mozambique.

Shane and I knew each other from 1991 when he was one of my soldiers when I was the Troop Commander of 3 Troop (Tunnel Rats) 1 Field Squadron.
Shane went from being a Sapper Combat Engineer to train and become employed as an Explosive Detection Dog Handler. One story I can tell about Shane is of the photo he has of himself and his dog lying in President George Bush's (the 1st one) bed in Sydney when he paid a state visit in 91.

The next time I met Shane was at Tarin Kowt, in southern Afghanistan. In between he had been a NSW Police Dog Handler.

Shane and I used to do 'sundowners' on the top of one of our 20' containers in my camp there. Shane was employed in the US Special Forces Camp next door as a EDD Handler. To all intents and purposes Shane was another soldier in a SF combat team. He wore the uniform, manned one of the .50Cals in the back of a Hum-V and then, as required, he went forward to detect and clear any ground they were uncertain of or, to look for explosives and weapons in quala searches. A soldiers job that he did.........for 3 solid years. The current ADF rotations are 8mths.

I was so taken with his story that I introduced him to Tony because....he had a story that needed to be told.

Shane's motivation for telling his story? He has a young son, and he wants to be able to let him know what his father has done.

I'll have to look out for that one.

I've got a good idea for their next book

__________________
I've had enough of this wowdy webel sniggewing behaviour.

Nice pics once again. I noticed the load capacity rating on these vehicles, makes the thread about Roof Rack weight seem like were bitchin over nothing

I noticed the rear axle, interesting design

__________________
Carlos (Stooge)
1996 Land Rover Discovery 300tdi
Photography - www.plottier.net

0530h start again with a bird in at 0630h. The first of three we had to respond to today.

Since Saturday we have moved 2 x 737’s of 97 pax/flight to and from Mogadishu and Bujumbura, Burundi, for the Burundi Military. 97 personnel and their packs off a plane, then 97 on, with their packs in less than 20 mins..we ended up doing a less than 16 and down to 12 mins…a well drilled team.
Burundi Troops on the way home, after 12mths in Mogadishu:




Fresh Burundi troops arriving.




Very athletic troops and, there is a very real reason for them running. On Saturday they lobbed 3 x 82mm mortars at us during a movement, the last round cracked over my head and landed some 100m away. No one injured but, it helps you remember how to run.

The flights were provided by the UN, using Jordan Aviation, with us running the ground-handling.

After the flights this AM I then had to meet with the AMISOM Force Commander and discuss the issues to do with supporting the TFG Military and then, don ballistic vest and helmet and sweat our way around town, on the way over to the State House in the middle of Mogadishu.

The State House is one of the TFG patches of control in a violence ridden city. It consists of a number of compounds, some of which in the past, seemed to have been accommodation for politicians and public servants. Now, they are housing the Ugandans and the TFG Military.

Some old, no longer used, weapons:





A Mamba, a legendary mine-resistant vehicle:



The whole place is occupied by Ugandan and Somali Troops. The Somalis are literally all living there with their families, in some of the most impoverished conditions imaginable.

This is a young Army Brat…I think that could be his Dad behind him:





Some vehicles, ‘Technicals’, in their workshop area…we have to buy and ship in another 150 odd:



A Somali General, one I’ll be dealing with into the future:



A Ugandan and Somali Officer joking in Swahili:



A graffiti caricature from another time:



Ugandan soldiers…just chill’n:



Young kids fetching water:



I had to go and assess the facilities for the eminent delivery of food and fuel to sustain their growing military. Later this week we will move 1000 out of Mogadishu for training in Uganda and concurrently, move 700 trained soldiers back in. This sort of activity is only increasing here. Within the month we will be building a 900 man camp. It will be the first of maybe more than 5. Busy, busy, busy.

Then, on Sunday, I have to see if I can find a Kiwi and we will commemorate ANZAC Day. No longer in uniform but, it feels like it, most days.