Another vintage photograph re-purposed for the "Masks of Nyarlathotep" project. The original dates to 1921 and was taken in Liberia. Click through for the high resolution version.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Bridge
An expedition heading into the African interior poses with a native-built suspension bridge, or "yanketti", crossing a ravine.
Another vintage photograph re-purposed for the "Masks of Nyarlathotep" project. The original dates to 1921 and was taken in Liberia. Click through for the high resolution version.
Another vintage photograph re-purposed for the "Masks of Nyarlathotep" project. The original dates to 1921 and was taken in Liberia. Click through for the high resolution version.
When I see a suspension bridge like that I think of the one I crossed 25 years ago. It had lost all the planks from the flooring and there were just steel cables set into crumbly concrete posts across a mountain stream like something out of an Indiana Jones film.
ReplyDeleteThis was in north central Turkey and we wanted to see some dark ages cliff dwellings on the other side. Anyway we inched across sideways, feet on the bottom cable and clutching on the side cable. Neither one was taut and we wobbled across inch by inch, trying not be pitched into the cold rushing water below sometimes careening crazily as our legs went one way and our upper bodies went another on the loose cables.
Eventually we made it across, thinking ourselves heroes making the perilous crossing safely, when several village children spotted us and whisked across with the greatest of ease, heel to toe like a high wire act and just only touching the hand rail to maintain balance. Some great world explorers! Ha.
We did visit the ruins, which were several stories tall, cut out of volcanic tufa and going deep inside. There was no great treasure and the passages and rooms were half full of dirt. It was a fun expedition and nobody got hurt, except for some pride.