Tuesday 16^th June Cape Town – Johannesburg, South Africa

Today we leave for our trip to the island of Ilha de Mozambique to document the San Sebastian Fortress, built by the Portuguese in the 16^th century. This almost forgotten island and fortress played a fundamental role in the colonization of Africa, and indeed shaped the history of East Africa as it functioned as the Capital of Portuguese East Africa being a trading port on the way to the India spices. The documentation of this UNESCO World Heritage Site aims to digitally preserve the 3D spatial dimensions of the Fortress and to hopefully help with the restoration process being undertaken by UNESCO.

Heinz has left a few days earlier than the rest of us for Maputo to meet and greet the authorities. After this he was off to Pemba to finalize some logistics for us and to arrange customs letters for our equipment. This turned out to be very problematic with plans and agreements changing rapidly but somehow it all worked out in the end with Heinz meeting a local Portuguese man, a former Mozambican show jumping champion, who helped us out immensely and provided Heinz some respite in his idyllic seaside home.

13:30 A new adventure has begun and we are all excited after a hectic couple weeks organization. We board the flight in Cape Town and land in Johannesburg to stay at Francois’ sisters house in Pretoria where we enjoy a good braai, and good cricket, (SA beat India).

06:00 Leave Pretoria for the airport. We are joined on this trip by Francois Stroh and Sean Dane, salesmen from Leica and Optron respectively, who are each bringing along one of their companies laser scanners. Chris manages to confuse the Air Mozambique flight attendant and we get away without paying any overweight luggage. We have about 240kg of luggage between the six of us so we cram as many things into our hand luggage as possible, which they don’t weigh, and each board with two bags plus a camera bag hand luggage.

It is always stressful at this part of the trip, holding thumbs everything is packed because if we forget a single cable, battery or converter the whole trip could be a disaster. We have to be totally self sufficient, but this time we were told there would be power on the with extension cables, which relieved us of finding a power source, normally an undependable generator.

13:00 Touch down in Pemba, northern Mozambique. Heinz is waiting outside with two cars. We manage to slip through customs quite efficiently for a change. Heinz then goes off to find a piece of paper to sign and we’re in! This is probably the easiest entry we’ve ever had though I’m sure we will have it double trouble when we try take our equipment back out. The country has a friendly, relaxed vibe although you can immediately see that it’s a poor nation. The air is warm and humidity high, I am loving it.

It’s past 2pm already and we have a 6 hour road trip ahead to get to Ilha de Mozambique. Sean and I get in the bakkie and the rest climb in the minivan. Besides our plan to go in convey we are soon way in front speeding along these potholed roads. Soon we lose the minivan behind us and we attempt communication with or driver to slow down. There is no common language. So at the next turnoff we somehow convince the driver to stop and wait for the others to catch up. We wait and wait some more; there is no cell reception. Then we get a bit worried and decide to go back and look for them. So we turn around and stop cars along the way to ask if they’ve seen the van. We get mixed messages, until about half an hour’s back tracking with our worry mounting, our  driver stops. What shall we do? Go back to Pemba and keep looking or turn and head to Ilha? Our driver wants to go to Ilha. Sean and I are undecided and after lengthy deliberation and a possible coin toss we turn and head for the island. Our driver is newly motivated now since people don’t like driving at night and with a malevolent glint in his eye we’re off like a rabid rhino. I actually couldn’t look ahead at some points we were going so fast, the road was so narrow there were people everywhere. Soon it gets dark and still no word though we’re still going at a 100 km’s an hour. Eventually after sending a message from the driver’s phone we make contact and realize the other vehicle is somehow ahead of us! How they passed us is still a mystery and we blame it on the strangeness of Africa. We finally get to Ilha around 9pm after crossing a 3km one way bridge to get to the island. It is a fascinating place, even in the dark, and we find our hotel and unpack. We eat some fish and pizzas and have a beer at a local and celebrate all of us arriving alive.

Thursday 18^th June

First day of work. We walk to the fortress at the northern tip of the island along some back roads past dilapidated colonial buildings and 15 minutes later arrive to meet Francisco Monteiro, the  UNESCO representative doing the fortress renovations. Our first sighting of the fortress is one of awe, we know this is going to be challenging. The fortress is colossal. Apparently the power at the fort is not working so it’s just the Trimble FX and Leica HDS 6000 scanners that can work, since both rely on battery power. Our HDS 3000 relies on mains power since we do not have a battery with us, since ours has a low operating time. Francisco discovers that the bare live wires haven’t even been hooked up.

This island of Ilha de Mozambique is an intriguing place and the whole island is inscribed on the world heritage list. It is situated in the north of Mozambique at the closest point to Madagascar and was first an Arab slave port and boat building centre before Vasco de Gama visited and the Portuguese established a naval base there in the early 1500’s. Ilha de Mozambique used to be the capital of Portuguese East Africa since from the 16^th century until 1898 when the capital moved to Maputo. It was a successful post because of its isolated position as it could not be attacked easily. It has amazing old colonial buildings which are now just falling to pieces, such as the Hospital which used to be the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa. A couple of Europeans have now bought a few old ruins and turned them into charismatic little guest houses and restaurants. The island homes about 17000 Mozambicans, but there is no proper sanitation and infrastructure for them although there is a school and the children can speak  a basic English. There aren’t many cars on Ilha just some foreign owned 4x4s but a lot of the locals own motorbikes and bicycles which they cruise around the island on. The place has a sort of deserted ghost town feel and it’s hard not to imagine what it must have been like in its prime.

Francisco, from UNESCO, is overseeing the restoration of the fortress. He has fixed most of the structural damage that was done over its almost 500 year history and has fixed all the roofs  which all form part of an intricate drainage network that collects water in three big cisterns which were built to compensate for the islands lack of freshwater. It is quite an incredible construction with all these concrete channels and it would be interesting to see it working when it rains. The buildings themselves are in a decent condition, thanks to UNESCO, and the whole fortress is to be re-plastered. Our 3D model will help them calculate the surface area. It is amazing the outer walls are still intact as at high tide the sea breaks directly onto them. The fortress is built on  a coral reef and you can see where the sea has undercut the coral heads.

We start the scanning of the approximately 200m x 100m fortress. The RTK GPS is also set up to capture scan positions which will later be used for registration. Francisco gives me the key to the office where we keep all the equipment. Then the bad omens strike; the door is blown closed with the key inside. We can’t get in to the equipment and try phoning Francisco but can’t through. The HDS6000 battery runs out and the replacement is in the office and we lose quite bit of time before the security guards devise a plan with piece of wire to unlock the door and free our equipment. I was stressing because it seemed there is no replacement key.

Friday 19^th June

07:00 Hot and humid but with a steady breeze. Roshan and I are staying in a little hotel around the corner from where the rest of the team is staying. We walk over to their guesthouse and have breakfast of Portuguese rolls, egg, jam and processed cheese. Their guesthouse is one of the converted ruins at the North of the island and is quite a little jewel in this crumbling town. From outside it looks as all the others do, like a bomb site, but the Portuguese owner, Angelo, has gone out of his was to create a haven for tourists to sit amongst the coconut palms and banana trees, away from the humid dirty streets outside.

We walk the short stretch to the fortress along the sea promenade and through old gardens; the huge trees suffocated by strangler figs, and arrive at 8am. The Trimble FX and Leica HDS 6000 scanner set off right away scanning the roofs and inside of the fortress, lowering their resolutions they were using yesterday to optimize time. They are now scanning at about 2cm over 25m. We might also scan the other fortress at the opposite end of the island which is much smaller, but this depends on how much time we have and what the priorities are. At last we get power on site with the fortresses electricity being hooked up and the prepaid meter loaded. We set up the HDS3000 in the centre of the main courtyard on the old well and begin. But alas. We realize we have only packed one tribrach, the connection between the tripod and the scanner, for the two Leica scanners. So Heinz and I swap tripods with Sean’s Trimble FX as the FX can screw directly onto a standard tripod and we use its tripod which we can try fit the HDS 3000 directly onto. Unfortunately the fitting is too big to take the 3000 so we attach some tape around the bottom and add a few match  sticks to make up the gap and then cable tie the legs to the scanner so that it’s properly stable. We work through lunch with minimal water due to logistics problems, but besides the Trimble almost falling and being destroyed we are scanning like little worker ants. Three scanners is definitely better than two! (We normally have two for our trips).

We finish around 5 o’clock, go back to the hotel and have a most deserved beer – Laurentina and 2M. It was very hot and windy today which really drained us plus we didn’t have lunch and also had a lack of water. We eat a great local meal that costs around R250 for all of us. So far each meal per person is around R80 so this is a great save. The dish was cooked by a local chef and included cooked banana, fish curry, a massive amount of coconut rice, chips, onion and tomato salad, grilled spicy fish, as well as Portuguese rolls. We were all stuffed and retired to bed early. I hear SA lost to Pakistan in the semi final of the Pro20 cricket world cup and am gutted.

Saturday 20^th June

We are getting into the routine of things here now. The island has a defiant charm to it, an ageless  grace of indifference to the outside world. Its tide is out now, but with its rediscovery from the tourist world it will one day be back as a popular destination for travelers. It is fortunate for us to experience it now without the artificial veneer that coats other tourist traps, but I do hope they maintain some of the amazing architecture of these buildings before they totally disappear.

8am Very hot and humid. Ralph and I scan with the 3000 outside the entrance walls which is  great to be next to the water. The fortress is really in an amazing setting, surrounded on three sides by warm clear water. At low tide the water reveals a coral reef all around the fortress and at high tide the water breaks against her walls. Local islanders sail past on old dhows and pick seafood from the reef. Time has really stood still here.

We scan at quite a high resolution (better than 1cm between points) because UNESCO wants to see the state of the degradation of the outer walls. We plan a lunch time swim after a local meal which will be brought to us by the same chef as last night.

13:00 Our lunch arrives at the fortress fit for any  soldier. Coconut rice, ugali, prawn curry, oranges, and fish samoosas. It is very good indeed and we struggle to finish it eating with makeshift spoons off the lids of pots as we have no cutlery.

After lunch we head down to the beach in front of the fortress and climb in the warm water. This is more like it! The water is refreshing except for the fact that a floater could drift past anytime though we are assured the current runs north to south and we’re at the north. It was amazing to be swimming in this clear paradise water with this mountainous fortress in front of us. It looks particularly overwhelming from the sea. We get back to work after lunch but unfortunately the Trimble team has locked their instrument in a room and the key won’t budge. The 6000 team scan the water cistern – Francois setting up the scanner in knee deep water. The 3000 is on top of the main entrance scanning down to the outer walls and also the inside roofs.

We finish in the dark and eat around 19:00 over a cold one. Ralph realizes he has lost his wedding ring. Oh bugger. He had it in the morning and now he realizes it is just gone. And he has no idea when it could have fallen off though possibly when we had our swim, after he had put sun-cream on.

Francisco comes round and gives us the maps of the fortress produced by a very extensive survey. He also gives us some history:

To get their ships up the east coast of Africa, to the spice trade in India, the Portuguese had to rely on the monsoon seasons and so needed a place of safety to stop when the monsoons subsided. Ilha was picked for this purpose and early in the 16^th century they built their fortress. The Dutch tried to take the island and the fortress around 1603 but they had little knowledge of the monsoons and could only muster a measly attack. In 1607 and 1608 however they assembled a much stronger assault on Ilha. They took the city and burned it to the ground. Over 8 months of attack on the fortress commenced, but the valiant Portuguese held out. This was partly due to the clever water collection system they built on top of every roof of the fortress that fed the Cisterns. Even though the Dutch took the city they still could not use the island because the fortress guarded the main shipping channel to the calm waters situated between the island and the mainland that was used as a sanctuary between monsoon seasons to shelter the ships. The Fortress was designed to block any ship that wanted to enter this sanctuary. The Portuguese could control the traffic by firing their multiple cannons, cannon balls skipping across the sea and plowing through many a wooden vessel. The Dutch were thus never able to take the fortress, though if they had Cape Town and South Africa would be a vastly different place.

Sunday 21^st June

Today Heinz and I took the RTK GPS and walked 3km to the south end of the island. We were looking for common points on the ground and the map we were given to geo-reference the map. Santo António church was used as well as other council buildings, the bridge and road crossings. The south side of the island is where all the poor folk live, we noticed this as we walked as there were more and more people, poorer and poorer houses, and more of an odor. There was a lot of character, and even if you are poor here you can fish and  eat some protein so life isn’t too bad. We also saw at the southern tip of Ilha the Sao Loraco fortress which sits on top a tiny island, the undersides being eroded away by the sea.

When we got back we somehow managed to lock the key in the office again. So after another good takeaway meal of prawn curry and crayfish and an awesome swim we constructed a device to unlock the door and we broke in again for the second time. Ralph organized for locals to dig up the beach and look under all the seaweed for his lost ring, unfortunately to no avail. Though I reckon he should have offered a hefty reward rather than paying a down rate before hand for the lookers.

We scanned down from the roof with the 3000 at the entrance. I also captured with GPS all 27 of the outer wall corners of the fortress. It was scary though standing right on the edge of the top of the fortress and holding the GPS pole in high wind with a 15 to 20 m drop below me. Ralph also took some panoramas, and then we noticed the GPS base station had blown over in the wind and moved about 15cm, putting all measurements out by this amount. It was frustrating but we took again some of the same GPS points to check and calculate when it moved.

Chris has been giving Francois panic attacks scanning with the  6000 on top of all the roofs of the Fortress. Being the main 3D modeler of the team means he likes to scan every inch of surface area. What this means in the field is finding some pretty sketchy set up positions for the scanner, one tripod leg balancing on a 1cm square piece of concrete 20m up on top of the look-out huts on the fortress wall.

That night Roshan and I moved to a new hotel, across the road from the sea, with a proper bathroom with a door though it was outside. We ate like kings again, prawns and fish and a good coconut cake for desert

22^nd June Monday

The tide was low and we took advantage. The Trimble went out to the low tide mark and started scanning the outer walls and the outer edges of the chapel. It was really beautiful standing out  on the coral reef and looking at the massive walls of the fortress. I took some HDR panoramas on the reef with the tripod legs resting in the water, so hopefully they will be able to capture the atmosphere. I also took a panorama in the little chapel, which felt a bit eerie since it’s the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere, built in 1522. The 3000 continued to scan the outer wall from the top of the fortress walls to link the outside of the walls to the inside. Inside the 6000 scanned the roofs. The work is going well and we should finish soon. It is expensive though to have 7 people on a field trip so we would like to stay for as short as possible.

We have a photo competition going between the Zamani team. The pictures will be judged by our interns back in Cape Town. The prizes are for best picture and best collection consisting of five pictures, so it’s a constant battle to capture that unique shot, though sunsets have been all but banned.

There is maybe a plan to catch a little 6 seater plane, owned by a local German on the island, back to Maputo, Nampula or Pemba and it will cost US1770 dollars for two trips. Two cars would cost US1500 dollars. We want to try fly from Nampula to Maputo since it’s closer to Ilha and easier to get our equipment out of. However this may not be possible without us spending a lot of money.

Tuesday 23^rd June

The chicken was good last night and the pizza too of course. It was good to eat out and have a few beers. The conversation involved Ralphs 80 gig music collection, TV licenses, who can keep dead still the longest and how SA got into the semi final of the confederations cup. Also Sean was re-christened “wormhead” from now on as Roshan found a hairy caterpillar in his hat.

Today we continue to scan the outside walls. We are scanning with the tides so right now both phase base scanners are moving their way around, very refreshing to be able to stand in cool sea water and scan and look at star fish and shells and other sea life. I took a couple pictures all  around the outside of the fortress for texturing the 3D model.  On my way around I find a local who has speared himself a yummy stone fish. He pulls up the deadly tentacles to show where not to touch, all the while with a massive grim on his face. Local dhows sail past us and guys on dug outs paddle and cast fishing nets, it really feels like being on holiday.

The weather here is exactly the same every day. Sun is up around 5am, then at 8am when we start work it’s already super hot and humid and still, as the hours go by it actually cools down as the wind picks up and blows some cool sea air around. So it’s just the morning hours to be wary of, by night it is still and warm, the sunsets magnificent.

Wednesday 24^th June

Today is the final day of scanning. Everything was planned to strict German precision standards. Even the flights were booked by Heinz who made a connection with somebody in the government. We were also given a GIS of the island which should be interesting. We have changed our flights to fly from Nampula to Maputo, and the good news: it’s free of charge, saving a whole R24000 if we had done it our own, and not through our government friends.

I managed to boot Roshan off the FX and scanned with “wormhead” the bottom inside rooms through to lunch. Then after lunch we scanned the outside entrance. We managed to put on an impressive 80 scans, a new record on the FX, and then ran out of disk space. After this was solved the 6000 had some issues and so we are scanning their last scans for them with the FX.  We were all buggered and ready to finish this job, which should have been finished at lunch but the scans just seem to drag and drag sometimes. We now have around 900 scans, which should keep us busy for a couple of months…

Francois takes us to ‘Spatch-cock’ restaurant and five of us order whole chickens. Then Heinz and Ralph hear what the catch of the day is and also go with the chicken. Stonefish. We drink a couple of beers to celebrate the work being completed. The Laurentina Preta beer, a stout, is definitely the favourite pick, and is almost as good as Guinness.

Thursday 25^th June

The Fortress is done and scanned so it’s our day off to see the island and relax. We wake up with the weight off our shoulders, organize a dhow trip and climb aboard, destination: the lighthouse on Goa Island, Roshan’s request. The tide is going out as we set sail in the calm humid morning. The wind is always still at this time and we settle in for a very slow voyage across the bay to the mainland at Gatrushka. We cross the deep channel and get onto a vast reef full of soft and hard corals, sand and weed. It’s only about 2m deep in this huge body of flat turquoise water. We can see the bottom as we sail over star fish and giant sea urchins. Chris was thoughtful enough to  bring a pair of swimming goggles and François and I take turns holding onto the keel of the dhow and gaping at the underwater scenery as the dhow sails along, pulling us through the water.

We are making very slow progress and the one guy is even pushing us with a long stick till eventually we call a stop and all go  for a swim, it’s like a giant swimming pool out there and we find a little coral head. On it are clown fish, dominos, cleaner wrasses and even a lion fish. Sean finds a pansy shell and a sand dollar and we swim around in this paradistic ocean warm as a bath.

Finally we turn back realizing we will never make it to Goa this way and are eager for the winds that pick up around 11 o’clock. Sadly the winds just don’t arrive and we abandon Goa and slowly sail back to shore, passing guys in dugouts fishing with nets and hand lines, and others in bigger dhows like ours with nets, and even the odd spear fisherman.

Back on land we eat some steady lunch and go for a trek downtown.  We go past the fish market and the ship builders, past people carrying on with their island lives.  Then down to the southern tip to see the Hindu temple, then back along the other side of the island, the windy side.

The photo comp is now in full swing as many unusual sites greet us. These include: a guy relieving himself on the beach, a man in a suit with a bundle of fish, ducks in a dump, goats and baobabs on the beach and a very rustic petrol station.

We go fetch all our equipment from the fortress and cart it back in the dark to our hotel. There are some transport problems now to get us and our luggage to the airport tomorrow morning. The government promised us transport and that we would hear from them tonight. We need to leave at 6 am tomorrow to catch our flight. So far we’ve heard nothing and have made an alternate plan, but if we don’t hear from the government soon we’ll have to go for the alternative since we can’t really explain to them, being Portuguese, that they’re just on backup. One more hurdle to jump and we’re home free.

Friday 26^th June

Heinz gets a call at 00:45 this morning from the government official telling us the cars will be there. Not the most efficient of timings since we already arranged with the other driver to take us, who is now very upset . Anyway we pile in the two double cab bakkies and head to Nampula. Being with government it was great not to have to stop at roadblocks and wait our turn for the bridge. The bridge is really interesting. There are bays to pull over if another car comes, but mostly it is people walking or on bicycles or motorbikes traveling between the mainland and Ilha.  We stop at a petrol station to full up, and witness some real Africa ingenuity. This guy on a motorbike has strapped two 20 liter drums to the back of the bike, and another 20 liters between him and the handle bars. He’s a motoring petrol bomb waiting to happen. Then we pass the beer truck: two guys on a motorbike, the guy at the back with three crates of beer on his lap.

At Nampula we have no trouble boarding with customs, which is a nice change, and catch the flight to Beira. At Beira we all get off with our two or three huge pieces of personal luggage, wait a little while then get back on the same plane for Maputo, they even serve us prawns for lunch on economy class. At Maputo we all get off again. Get stamped out, and all pile back on the same plane for the third time. Then it’s another short flight to Johannesburg where I say my goodbyes, since I’m staying in Johannesburg for a few days holiday and the rest of the team catch their fourth flight of the day back to the Mother City, Cape Town.

Another fantastic trip has come to an end. I just hope the huge shell I bought is not illegal. I also managed to get a couple necklaces made from trade beads that wash ashore from the vast amount of shipwrecks. The trip was quite rushed since it was expensive to stay there and there were so many of us this time. But we managed to scan more than we thought we would and ended up with about 900 scans, 35 panoramas, hundreds of photogrammetric pictures and even more casual pictures and a lot of office work. We are happy to have another great site scanned and digitally preserved!  

Trip Campaigners:

• Prof. Heinz Ruther – Principle investigator for Zamani Project
• Christoph Held – Scientific Officer
• Ralph Schroeder – Scientific Officer
• Roshan Bhurtha – Scientific Officer
• Stephen Wessels – Scientific Officer
• Francois Stroh – Leica Geomatics Equipment Salesman
• Sean Dane – Optron Geomatics Equipment Salesman

Equipment:

• Leica HDS 3000 3D time of light laser Scanner
• Leica HDS 6000 3D phase laser Scanner
• Trimble FX 3D phase laser Scanner
• Leica 1200 GPS RTK System
• Nikon D200, D100 with 10.5mm fisheye lens and Nodal Ninja Panorama head
• Sony Video Camera

Friday 6^th February – Cape Town, South Africa to Dubai, UAE  

Today marks our departure for our trip to the Sudan to digitally preserve in 3D the Meroic temple of Musawwarat es-Sufra, situated north of Khartoum on the 6^th cataract. The objectives of this mission were for preservation of the structure in digital form for future generations as well as for site management and archeological interpretation.  

10:00 We are still hurriedly packing up our gear. We are also under some time pressure as our passports have not yet arrived yet from the Sudanese Embassy in Pretoria, and we are meant to be leaving today. Also we still need to go to the bank to exchange money for the trip.   

16:30 With some more minor problems sorted out, such as South African banks having sanctions against Sudan, we are finally on board and the 5 of us are eager to be on a new expedition to experience another marvel in the midst of Africa.  

Saturday 7^th February – Dubai Airport, UAE to Khartoum, Sudan  

5:30 We arrive in Dubai Airport for a 10 hour time kill stint before leaving for the Sudan.  

17:30 We arrive in Khartoum, Sudan, collect our luggage and head for the dreaded Customs Offices. We always have problems getting our 3D laser scanners, which are rather expensive, through customs officials who don’t understand what the instruments are used for. We find ourselves in a room in the Khartoum airport full of packages piled up to the ceiling and go about trying to find someone dressed in a uniform to sign our Equipment Import letters. We get passed from one official to another and are finally told to bring our logistics champion, Tim Karberg, to vouch for us. Tim is working with the German archeologists who have a camp at Musawwarat where we will be staying to conduct the fieldwork. The negotiations are started and end two hours later. Conclusion: leave all the stuff behind and come back tomorrow.  

Sunday 8^th February – Khartoum to Musawwarat es-Sufra, Sudan  

07:00 We are up early for breakfast after an exhausting sleep from over 36 hours without. We are in Khartoum, a historically important city at the convergence of the White and Blue Nile. We head to the Interior Affairs department to register our passports and get some documents to get our equipment out of customs and then we’re off to the airport to get the gear.  

No luck. We’re dropped off at the hotel and Heinz and Tim go off to pick up someone to take to the airport to sort out the tangle. 6 hours later they return with still no luck. This after filling in dozens of forms, being shuffled around, told contradictory information, and finally being shut out of the customs offices. They managed to sneak back in through a back door to find all the equipment lying all over the place, some on top of those piles of boxes up to the ceiling. Eventually they manage to get all our equipment out. The rest of us relax at the hotel, sleep on the couches and smell the paint dry. But the equipment is free!  

17:00 We pack up the truck and head out for Musawwarat es-Sufra. Finally we are able to get out of Khartoum and get to the site! Chris, Roshan and I cram in the back, in the cold, in the dark, and 4 hours later we arrive dusty and weary at the German archeological camp at Musawwarat. We settle down to some spaghetti and sauce. German conversation fills the air as we settle into our new home for the next 2 weeks.   

The Camp is sponsored by the Humbolt University of Berlin, is run by Thomas and has been operational for over 15 years. It is fully self-sufficient with solar power, kitchen, toilets, showers, and eating areas. Food and supplies are collected from the nearby town of Shendi, while water is fetched from a nearby well. Thomas comes here for a couple months every year to work on excavating and reconstructing the Musawwarat temple and is in the process of erecting the outer wall around the temple. Conny has also been here on and off for a few years and is busy doing  research work on the graffiti on the temple. Also at the camp is Tim, the logistics person, Yenz  who is Conny’s student and Rebecca who is also doing research on the site.  

Monday 9^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra, Sudan  

6:30 We awake by the sun at dawn and eat a breakfast of pita bread with sheep cheese, strawberry jam, yoghurt, bananas, and tea. We feast well for we know a long hard day waits.  

We have come  a long way to be here. Over 4 years of planning, organizing and negotiation and now the scanning will begin. The temple is a collection of ruined walls and passages. Pillars stand at irregular heights and carvings mark the walls. Courtyards open onto terraced balconies and ramps lead up to rooms. Some think this temple could have been for elephant training, others think it was a school for architects, its true function is not precisely known. Now it lies abandoned, loose rocks spilling from holes in the walls. Much of it lies under sand, which protects it. The exposed regions lie unguarded against the wind and the sand and wind erosion is evident on many columns and walls. This is why it is essential that scanning projects like ours act quickly to digitally preserve these sites before they are gone forever.  

A light breeze blows the harshness of the desert sun away as the first scan position is chosen atop a wall in the ‘great enclosure’ of Musawwarat Temple. From this viewpoint the entire temple compound can be seen, and scanned with the Leica HDS 3000, which has a range of 130m and is perfect as the size of the site is roughly 250m x 200m. The generator is fired up but unfortunately it splutters to a halt and endless configurations of batteries and UPS’s are tried until eventually the generator makes a remarkable recovery and maintains a somewhat steady power output. The scanning has begun! It will take a good couple hours to do a full 360 degree horizontal, -45 to 0 degree vertical scan at 5 x 3 cm resolution over 100m. The Leica HDS 6000 which runs of battery is much faster with only 3 and a half minutes per scan, although on a much shorter range, the resolution is chosen at 2cm over 25m at 360 degrees full dome. They quickly move around the pillars and walls capturing more detailed information.   

Our procedure of scanning is not to use targets as is the conventional approach. We find that the setting up of targets uses considerable time, especially since we will eventually will have around 360 scans for this trip. We use geometric surface features for registration of the scans after we have created meshes out of the scans. We are also trying out a new approach to registration which involves capturing the scan positions by RTK GPS.  

The evening is spent trying to send emails, having a braai, and taking a shower which is warm from the days heat. Our bedroom is under   

the lucid night stars with an incredibly bright full moon, sleeping on camp stretchers out in the open desert. A dogs howling would have topped off the wilderness atmosphere, but Roshan’s snoring is sufficient, especially for Ralph who decides to move his bed far away to get some quieter rest.   

Tuesday 10^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra  

Today we start early to catch the morning cool, and we are much better organized with batteries and generators running smoothly. Conditions are excellent and today promises to be constructive. The 3000 is set up for a 3 hour 360 degree scan, while the 6000 is started off down a passageway near the central part of the temple, with attention given to capture the tops of walls. These walls are crumbling apart and sometimes 2 or 3 meters high and its quite tricky setting up the scanner in certain sections while being careful not to damage anything. Chris’s rock climbing skills come in indispensable as  he chooses what some would call risky setups, which are no doubt perfectly stable in his mind. Roshan is meanwhile having a mini nervous breakdown and Heinz threatens to hurl him off Blaukrans bridge when we get home to cure his fear of heights, bungee-rope attached of course…   

Once the 3000 is  started there is nothing for us to do, besides trying to find a shady spot to hide from the sun. So Roshan and I start the Panoramas. Heinz also starts his photogrammetry in the morning light. Careful not to capture the scanner in the background, 10 or so spherical dome panoramas are taken in HDR. I set about teaching Roshan how to take HDR panoramas and carefully show him how to determine the correct aperture and exposure settings. HDR involves taking at least 3 images, or frames, at one spot. One photo is taken at normal exposure, and the other two are over and under exposed. Once the 3 or more images are blended together the dark areas can be brightened and bright areas darkened quite easily since the 3 images ensure a high range of exposures are captured.   

Lunch time is as soon as the 3000 has finished. 12 o’clock it is done and we pack up, leave some equipment on site and head back to camp. However, a storm arrives soon after we leave. In Cape Town a storm means lots of rain. In the Sudan it means lots of dust. The dust storm threatens our work schedule for the afternoon and also our equipment which was left on site; the 2 scanners, generators, tripods and batteries. We rush back to fetch the equipment, shielding our eyes from the painful dust. Back at camp we eat lunch and grumble. The afternoon seems to have been ruined after an optimistic start to the day.   

The sand storm has ended  scanning for the day. It’s too risky to expose the scanners to the dusty wind that could get inside the instruments and play havoc. We watch the sun through the dust clouds, it looks like the moon.   

We look at some maps of Musawwarat on the GIS and realize the digital map made by Dieter, an architect, has been distorted. The map is a scanned version of a hardcopy map and has gridlines every 50m. We create the grid in ArcGIS and reference the map to it. It does not fit. Choosing 2 points on opposite corners to geo-reference the map to and then comparing a third corner reveals an error of 1.3m. Measuring the distances between grid intersections on the map reveals that the grid is not constant with errors of 30 cm common in varying directions. The Dieter map has remarkable detail, although being an architect he has drawn everything as straight lines which is not what is there in reality. Our final 3D model will improve this.  

We prepare some food, make some salad and then eat.  The dust storm still rages so we move our beds under cover of the porch and sleep.  

Wednesday 11^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra  

6:00 It is cold this morning out in the desert. A hasty meal of bread, jam and cheese is eaten before we pack and leave for the site. It looks like the wind is not too strong today.   

We then decide that the wind is in fact too strong so we huddle in a temple room and listen to Tims story of Kushite history. Then we decide to start scanning. The 6000 with Chris and Ralph goes around the main enclosure and the 3000 is set up on top another central wall and run off the generator. This will be another 360 degree 4 hour scan. In the meantime we get out the RTK GPS and set up the base station in the ‘great enclosure’ and start taking some points around the edge of the temple compound to register our maps to. Our RTK GPS is accurate to up to 3cm so we will also take some points of wall corners to reference our 3D model to. This is to orient and level the model, and check for possible scan registration errors. We pick up around 30 points of wall corners and then move to another small enclosure outside the temple compound. We draw a sketch of this enclosure and pick up around 80 points of wall corners before the base battery dies and we return.   

Chris takes some polynormal texture mapping pictures using the flash at multiple positions to capture different light sources. We have no power here now so I need to stop writing.   

Thursday 12^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra  

A magnificent day. Blue skies, light wind. No generator problems. The 3000 scanner is set up on a wall on the northern temple, a very shaky unstable wall, and is set for another 4 hour mission by Ralph and myself. The 6000 scanner with Roshan and Chris start at the “wedding rooms”. The light conditions are good and so Ralph and I leave the scanner to take panoramas in the early morning light.   

We take a few at the “great enclosure” and then move to the small temple. In the  meantime however, all is not well with the 3000 scanner. The external laptop battery has decided to end its career out in the sand and dust, but luckily the internal battery is still hanging in there. I arrive just in time to plug it onto the generator. The scan finally ends and we go back to camp to eat and recharge. There is talk of finishing this scanning of Musawwarat in three days and then heading on to Meroe to scan some of the pyramids there for another three days, with a stop at Naga to see some other Kushite temples which are apparently in excellent condition and quite amazing structures. We also want to scan the Hafir behind the camp which is a big ancient water reservoir. It has recently been dug out again with the view of converting this entire valley back into its original state, creating a haven for tourists and creating a theme park out of the Musawwarat temple. This is a terrible scheme by some unscrupulous businessmen but fortunately it seems they have run out of money. However, they have fenced off large areas of land, blocking out the nomads in the area and preventing them from reaching a valuable water source.  

During lunch I create the GIS with the GPS  points and  georeference the map of the temple so that Heinz can plot his photogrammetric picture positions. Afterwards we pack the gear and head out to the site for a late afternoon session. The 3000 is set up outside the temple walls to capture the outside of the outer wall and the generator almost gives up due to the strain of running the scanner, laptop and recharging a 6000 battery. The battery is unplugged and the little generator recovers. The 6000 meanwhile scans the connecting passage between the great enclosure and the northern temple. A cool breeze blows as the sun goes down over Musawwart in these agreeable scanning conditions.  

The evening is spent cutting up meat that looks like it’s been hung outside one of those butcheries you see in African towns. Actually that’s exactly where it comes from. A leg of lamb, or possibly goat. We carve it up and Chris and I light a fire with local charcoal and cardboard. We braai the meat and a couple tinfoiled bringels on the fire and at around 10 o’clock we eat a great feast of salads, potato chips, lamb, sources etc. Someone gets out a laptop and we set up the desert cinema. We watch Tomb Raider. It was kind of ironic however to sit with these passionate German archeologists and watch a sensational movie like that but it was fun.  

Friday 13^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra  

We head out to site, with a glorious sunrise framing the background. Ralph will one day publish a book called Africa’s best sunsets and sunrises and we wonder if he has a sunset function on his camera. The 6000 starts with the small east temple and the 3000 with the outer wall. The first scan finishes fine and then on the second scan the little generator dies out once again and cannot be resuscitated. In the meantime I continue with the RTK GPS of the small enclosure outside the temple compound. The other bigger generator is fetched from the camp and starts fine after its extensive repair last night. The second scan finally starts and we go rest under the shade of a thorny tree as a group of camels and donkeys walk by in a cloud of dust carrying water  containers to fetch water from the nearby well. After lunch we start scanning the hafir, then go back to the site quite late to scan the Northern temple with the 6000, using the GPS RTK to capture the scan positions which will make registration easier. We also capture some reference points at the site that have absolute WGS84 Co-ordinates so that we can reference our system to theirs. Another polynormal texture mapping picture is tried but the camera unfortunately moves and we go home, after a long 12 hour day.   

Some problems occur with the external hard drives as one power supply dies and leaks some nasty liquid into the plug-boards, short circuiting one of them. One external hard-drive is fixed so now we just have the one backup. This trip is full of challenges and we must really persevere if we want to finish.  

We watch a David Bowie concert outside in the desert cinema, take some photos of the moon and do some long exposures with a torch painting pictures against the clear night sky.  

Saturday 14^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra  

Everyone is tired today, you can see the body language and Chris and Heinz are not well. But alas the scanning must go on and so we head out to the site once again and continue where we left off yesterday. However, the big generator packs up again and so the 3000 is rendered useless.   

MAJOR PROBLEM   

Both generators are kaput. So now we solely rely on solar power, however this is needed to run the camp fridge and lights. So we put just one 6000 battery on charge for an afternoon session. A third generator that is dead now for 2 years is brought out and worked on but to no avail, the little generator gives out too small power and the other one does not start, with sparks flying out the bottom. Things are at their worst and nobody knows what to do. Sending the generators to be fixed in Shendi is talked of. Our last option is to try using an inverter on the car battery while the car is running. This amazingly works and we scan the rest of the hafir this way -scanning from the car as it idles. We should finish tomorrow hopefully if we can somehow recharge the 6000 battery and the RTK GPS, Inshallah.   

Sunday 15^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra  

Today we plan to finish the work. The 3000 reached its final frontier. We were running it from the car battery while the car was idling, but the car couldn’t keep up the charge and we were forced to give it up. Yesterday we  were lucky enough to run it and do the last scan of the hafir.   

Today I scanned with Ralph with the 6000 the southern temple. In the afternoon after the 6000 battery was recharged on the solar-power I did RTK GPS on Musawwarat Temple of the graffiti on the walls that Conny is studying. This is to create a plan of where the different types of graffiti are situated. It was very interesting as we got about 110 points of different types of graffiti, from animals to Apedomak the lion god, as well as some Christian symbols, and people drinking from a beer pot. There were also monkeys, and a crocodile eating a buffalo. This could have been a zoo perhaps? The 6000 carried on doing what the 3000 missed, the outside walls of the temple, and there was a final countdown as the last scan finished of Musawwarat, exhausted, in the dark after another 12 hour day in the sun. Relief!   

Monday 16^th February – Naga  

Today we go to Naga, an ancient Meroetic site with village, temple, kiosk, alters, tombs and an avenue of rams.  

We drive through arid desert, completely flat with desert shrubs and trees dotting the orangey-red landscape. This takes around an hour and we pass by some  nomads, and some camels and goats just left to wonder around.   

 We arrive at the Naga archeological camp and enter their ‘fortress’, a square structure with an open area in the middle. Statues are placed around the camp so it feels like you’re in a museum and we drink Pepsis kept cool in an old clay water pot. A team of white light, close range scanners are here scanning small objects like little clay jars and also some of the frescoes on the Amon temple walls with 60 micron accuracy. They scan 1m by 1m areas at a time and it is expensive work but the results are amazing.   

We walk around the Amon temple, which is small but spectacular. An avenue of rams faces towards the temple where Apedemak and snakes are depicted. I take some panoramas and we walk down to the local drinking hole – the well, passing some more temple ruins. The well is    fascinating on its own and you could spend hours there watching the events. It is 60m deep and to get the water out a pulley is set up on a wooden frame above it and two donkeys are attached to a rope that is passed over the pulley and attached at the other end to a leather bucket. The donkeys are encouraged, with a stick, to walk away from the well pulling up the leather bucket. The water is then poured down an opening which runs into a series of basins were people take it  from. Nomads come from all around the desert with their donkeys and camels carrying water containers. Also they bring their flocks of dirty long tailed sheep and fluffy goats to drink from the animal water basin. Donkeys rest against each other and people talk excitedly amongst themselves at this focal point of nomad civilization.    

The lion temple itself is spectacular with the  two entrance pylons having interesting depictions. This was the height of the Nubian rule and so the depictions of battle adorn the walls 5m high as well also a depiction of a fat Kush queen with long fingernails, quite contrary to the Egypt queens.  

 The story in brief popular form:  

Egypt civilization became powerful and decided to expand and take over other lands. Below them to the south was the wretched Kush. Egypt plundered their lands, stole their gold and took people as slaves. Popular depictions were of Egyptians beheading Kushites and crushing them. Egypt reached a decline in around 1000bc and everyone tried to conquer her. The kushites got their revenge and took over Egypt for about 100 years. From south of Khartoum to the Mediterranean the Kushites ruled and united and brought back some old gods. The Kushites made pharaohs of themselves and considered themselves much better and were more ardent supporters of their gods. Then the Syrians battled the Kushites for power until the Persians arrived and drove them out for good. The Roman Empire became strong around this time with Caesar at the helm, forming his bond with Cleopatra around 50bc. The Romans then took Egypt and fought the Kushites at the north of Sudan where finally a peace treaty was formed and the Kushites continued to live in relative peace, taking a lot of Egyptian mythology into their customs, as we see today in their Temples and Pyramids.  

We waved the Naga German archeologists goodbye and took the dusty road back to Musawwarat, wondering how Tim was navigating the criss-cross tyre tracks across the desert. It was a very interesting day that that very few people will see.  

In the afternoon we scan the Lion temple at Musawwarat with the 6000 scanner and I RTK GPS the rest of the hafir capturing the tops off the hills. This data will be used to calculate the volume of the earth that would have been excavated – and thus the volume of water the hafir could have held. It was 17m deep at one stage, holding water for the temple. Remains of a stone  trench show the water transportation to the Musawwarat temple. This is a big mission around of around three hours walking and the final round is done by 4×4 as I hold the GPS pole outside of the window as we drive around.   

Another site is complete and under the belt! We are all happy but exhausted and we know that tomorrow we will leave Musawwarat and the isolated paradise of the camp, to go a few hours north to Meroe and see if we can scan some of the pyramids there.  

Tonight Roshan makes curry and we celebrate the completion of the scanning of Musawwarat.   

Tuesday 17^th February – Musawwarat es-Sufra to Meroe, Sudan  

Today we leave Musawwarat to go to Meroe, which lies along the east bank of the Nile, 200km North-East of Khartoum, so hopefully we can even have a swim in its murky mystical waters. There are around 200 pyramids at Meroe, many in ruins, a temple and an ancient bath. Also the remains of an old town settlement complete with fortress wall are there.  

A colourful truck arrives two hours late at 11:30 which is not bad actually. We cram in the back like cattle in a baboon cage and speed off into the  Sudanese desert. We eventually get to the tar road high-way. Sitting in the back of the baboon cage huge transport Lorries and busses overtake us on the narrow road where burst tyres lie every 25m. We arrive in Shendi and this place is like a shrine to all that is bad about the African city. There are no roads. You literally drive anywhere you want. Across open lots, through people’s back yards,  over railway roads, it’s just sand and tyre tracks. Just point your car and dodge.  

We buy supplies like benzene and vegetables and leave for Meroe. Arriving in this fabled town everything is just one colour: the colour of sand. Sandy roads, mud brick houses, sand coloured donkeys. A railroad runs right through the centre of Meroe with no barriers or warnings. It feels like the wild west. Mereo has also adopted Shendis road system. We imagine that there is one road sign in Meroe and it points in the general directions of the  places you want to go and so you head off picking the path as you desire.  

We get to the German archeology camp in Meroe and have some tea. It’s in the middle of the village across from the train track. We drop off our luggage and point the truck in the general direction of the pyramids and head off across the bumpy terrain of the open desert. From a distance we see a monstrous sandstorm and soon are in it. The sand sweeps into the open back of truck and we are covered by the time we reach bottom of the dunes, marking the beginning of the Pyramid configuration. The Meroe pyramids stick out of the dunes as if to defy time and the limitations of human labour. There are three groups of pyramids and we trudge through the sand and up the dunes to see them .  It’s a magnificent atmosphere walking amongst these giant triangular piles of stone, dark as if burnt by the desert sun. The sandy wind is blinding and its evident the pyramids don’t want to be scanned today. We take refuge in the offering room attached to a pyramid and hide away from the wind and sand.   

Some locals offer camel ride to the tourists. A bit kitsch but Ralph and I have never been atop a camel and so we decide the time is nigh. We climb on top and are hoisted up into the air and pose unashamedly for pictures while we take a gentle walk around, it feels so high. The rest of the team is soon tempted and so everyone gets a go. Heinz looking like he’s spent half his life riding a camel.   

Back at camp I have a sand grain in my eye and we struggle to remove it, then I get a moggie in my ear that buzzes for hours and we shine a torch into my ear hoping to lure it out. Supper is cooked by a famous cook and we sit under a tree afterwards smoking shisha and talking about archeology with the other German people here. A very different life, excavating and interpreting out in isolates areas. We’re off to bed early as the moggies bite.  

Wednesday 18^th February – Meroe  

Today we scan if the wind is gone. Unfortunately it is not. So we go off to see the archeologists dig. They are working on a plan of the ancient walled village and are only excavating the top layer to get the layout. The outer defense wall is at least 1.5m thick and the rooms are tiny. This could be for lack of space of maybe for it was a military base. Then  we walk down to the Nile because it’s swim time! We walk past water canals watering the lands of wheat and beans. The Nile flows thick and strong and Heinz, Chris and I undress and take the plunge. It is the first time either of us has swum in this river, the biggest in Africa. The water is cool and refreshing and we swim against the current to stay in the same place. Apparently it’s a myth that bilharzia does not exist in the  Nile. I like myths.  

We then go see the royal city and ancient bath and also the temple where the head of the statue of Augustus was buried – the roman leader at the time of Jesus, and the one who plotted to overthrow Caesar. We go back to the camp and relax for the afternoon. The cook takes the truck for a spin and manages to completely destroy the drive shaft, twisting this thick piece of metal. Luckily we don’t need the truck anymore.  

Thursday 19^th February  

Last night was our last night in the Sudan. Heinz and I awake early to catch our bus back to Khartoum– or rather it catches us. The bus conveniently stops right outside our camp and we hop on. It’s an old bus of course and things are thrown on the roof for storage. We settle in and the bus moves on as we wave goodbye and make plans to meet up with the rest of the team who are driving by car to Khartoum. So we are on our way on a bus in Sudan driving around the dusty streets of Meroe, across people’s back yards, down alleys and over railway tracks and since there seems to be no bus stations we just drive around and pick everyone up from their houses. More things are thrown on the roof and more people, timeless in their Arab garments, get on, but no one will sit next to me, us being the only two white people on board. Eventually I tell this little boy who is uncomfortably sitting on the floor in the isles to sit down next to me. There is lots of litter in the barren wasteland, including dead camels and donkeys; it is a very harsh environment. We eventually arrive in Khartoum and find a taxi, although the driver speaks no English. We write some stuff down for him on a piece of paper and he assures us all is ok though we struggle to agree or understand each other about the price. Heinz threatens to jump out about five times and eventually we just put our trust in this Sudanese man who speaks no English to find the Emirates airlines building in Khartoum.  

We somehow manage to find the place, I actually saw the sign through a convenient hole in an old building, and go in and breathe the cool air-conditioned air. We eat some lunch at a takeaways and then go to a hotel and chill and use a proper toilet seat again after almost two weeks. Then the rest of the team arrives and we go to the museum. Roshan and I sit on the back of the bakkie driving through Khartoum at a time when westerners are not very popular since they want to arrest the Sudanese president for war crimes. The museum has quite a few interesting artifacts plus a temple or two that has been uprooted and relocated to the museum.   

Then it’s off to the airport for more fun. We get there and to our expectations they won’t let our equipment out. This is because we don’t have the original letters from the customs official when we arrived in Sudan. This is after the customs official said he had to keep the original and gave us a copy. After a while we engage the help of an Emirates employee and finally get our equipment through. We board and breathe deep sighs. We made it through the Sudan in one piece!  

After some tricky situations at the Dubai airport we are on board back to South Africa. This adventure has come to an end and it has been nothing short of amazing, with every challenge thrown our way and some spectacular memories to take home, not to mention an awesome heritage site done and documented for future generations!   

Trip Campaigners:   

• Prof. Heinz Ruther
• Christoph Held
• Roshan Bhurtha
• Ralph Schroeder
• Stephen Wessels

Equipment:   

• Leica HDS 3000 Time of Flight 3D laser scanner
• Leica HDS 6000 Phase Shift 3D laser scanner
• Nikon D100, D200, 10.5mm fisheye lens and nodal ninja panorama head

Photo Gallery