https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....02ed754e74.png




Portia was 'With Child' when she passed through the Boundary hedge.

RAF Docking perhaps?

Well done Jenkins. RAF Docking Norfolk it is. Active 1939-1945. Originally Decoy Aerodrome and subsequently Satellite for nearby Bircham Newton. Became a very busy Coastal Command Aerodrome being more suited for Night Operations than Bircham Newton. Longest runway (Grass) N/E-S/W 1730yds. Hosted Shipping Strike Squadrons, Met Reconnaissance Flights, Air Sea Rescue Units and a Beam Approach Flight (this last 1942-45). Proximity to coast meant that crippled aircraft returning from Ops over Europe, short of fuel, or weather diversions would sometimes land at Docking. My clue alluded to the latter:


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c2d093e153.jpg



https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....db08f7b46.jpeg
42-30263 Pregnant Portia at Docking October 30th 1943. Also suffering similar fate at Docking on the same day B17s 42-30250 and 42-30171. All 385 BG (Great Ashfield) on Ops Recall. Photo credit American Air Museum in Britain.

(Observed by ATC at Docking to have landed long.)


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e455138e4c.jpg

Crews of 206 Squadron at Docking in 1940. The Squadron suffered heavy losses in that year. Photo credit Bircham Newton Heritage Centre.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6cc770b76c.png
Flying Officer J.B. Gordon and his 1041 Met Flight Gladiator at Bircham Newton. The location of this photo is sometimes given as Docking from where this aircraft operated.
Photo credit Imperial War Museum.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....eadd6c213e.jpg
Photo credit Airfield Research Group.

Further reading: Up In all Weathers By David Jacklin published by Larks Press.

Over to you Jenkins

Terrific photographs: thanks, I am sure, from all here. Stopped one lunchtime in local pub for lunch, somewhat perturbed to find that local burial was having a wake therein. Lovely countryside, and not particularly flat. Nearby Commonwealth War Grave cemetery worth a visit.

Open House I regret, no source of anything decent.

Yes a gently rolling landscape, beautifully stark with vast skies. The first image looking west from the remains of the eastern perimeter which now serves as a lane. The only clue to the lane's former function being in the regular fissures of its concrete construction. Very atmospheric.

I don't expect this to last long.............

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f9f270d1d4.jpg

Fantastic photos indeed. What type are these RAF aircraft? Interesting looking machines, although not the most attractive :)

Lockheed Hudson

Australia....?

A long way from Australia...................... though English is spoken by most of the inhabitants

I have worked my way through airstrips in Guyana, Sierra Leone, Liberia Nigeria and Cameroon.
Did I miss something or is it closer to Australia than Cameroon?

Dank je wel, SLB!

Not a lot in it Bear - but you have made a significant error in the thought process in line 1 - rather a pleasant spot to sit with a beer.............. a once a day service more or less but mainly for the relatively well heeled to look at wild life

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1ea4c3cde8.jpg

Treetops Hotel??

well I could afford to stay there so not as grand as Treetops... and a lot closer to sea level...............

I think the airstrip is in a national park - although not sure it is in Kenya.

O/T. I didn't rate Treetops when I stayed there in the 1980s, it just seemed like it was trading on it's name. If I remember correctly it wasn't in the treetops when I visited as they had all been cut down, although looking on GE now, looks like the walk in to the hotel has been re forested. However, it also looks like the location is a bit out on a limb, with settlements only 1km away to the N, E & S. I visited the Ark (also in the Aberdares) the previous year, and I remember that being in the middle of the forest, with just the water hole as the open space.

Not sure if it's a national park - I think it has general protection tho'....... you can see the sand dunes fringing the ocean at the https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f841c6ac9d.jpg
end of the runway in this shot - it's not exactly overrun with navaids!

From your clue "Not a lot in it Bear", I reckon it is must be somewhere in the Indian sub-continent - but where I have no idea.

"I don't expect this to last long" :ok:

[QUOTE=nvubu;10999920] "I reckon it is must be somewhere in the Indian sub-continent - but where I have no idea."

except that I don't think that you'll find "English is spoken by most of the inhabitants'" in India...or anywhere else in that area (except on a few tropical islands).

Further thoughts...

Interestingly, OP hasn't yet said which in direction from Cameroon to Oz it's equidistant, so with those dunes & grass, the cooler latitudes on the other way round to recent guesses may be more fertile linguistically, perhaps?

Ahh - someone thinking outside the box!

If Bear wrote down the reasons he started looking in "Guyana, Sierra Leone, Liberia Nigeria and Cameroon" and examined them carefully it might lead to a different set of parameters for the search.................

There are a couple of other forums on here where I'd expect it to have lasted about 3 minutes.

Bahamas or Caribbean?

Searching for the required historic link, are we nearer to Sheffield?

I was originally looking for native English countries.
I think Baja California equidistant to Cameroon and Australia.

but not much time to search.

It's a long way from Sheffield as well but there is a historic link

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....516cda9840.jpg

Could it be the Falklands?

It could............................. uncropped picture

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....69d0b4549a.jpg

I'm betting Its Sea Lion Lodge landing strip.

How's that?

An historical link...a long way from home.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....323d70033.jpeg
H.M.S. Sheffield Memorial, Sea Lion Island

How much beaches I have been ploughing the last two days.
And only to find the most sand was already between my ears....

Nice challenge
and a wonderful spot to spend a holiday week.

"...and a wonderful spot to spend a holiday week." SLB - I think you'd find most of your week spent in getting there & back.
Pending Asturias' adjudication, those of you interested in Falklands airports may find the following of interest - the DC4 hijack to the Stanley Racecourse is quite amusing!

https://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/opera...fore-invasion/

I shall show discipline - come back at 17:49! :ok:

getting to the Fi sin't too hard in normal times- (but it isn't cheap) - the RAF one-stop runs a couple of times a week and is effectively an overnighter. The LAN Chile flight can get you from Madrid via Santiago but that requires an overnight each way (and a horribly early departure on a Saturday) in Santiago - which is a nice spot.

The "second flight" which is/was going to be TAM from Sao Paulo via Argentina was due to start when CV-19 stopped all that - I think that was going to be a mid week flight but never saw the timetable .

Thanks Max Tow for that very interesting Falklands Link.

Thanks for that - The "DC4 racecourse" in Stanley seems to be little changed from the 1966 photos in the link.
As others have remarked before, these explorations tend to throw up all sorts of interesting diversions!


By the way, I've P.M.'d Asturias as I wonder whether the Mods really do require him to impose a 24hr freeze after a correct guess (esp as he started the challenge back in Feb), or perhaps the intention might just have been to set a minimum of 24hrs from the original challenge post to declaration of a correct answer, in order to allow us Transatlantic & Antipodean types a look in (which seems to be working fine). Is that correct?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ccc62cbcc.jpeg
It does look a bit like a control tower...

That was the aim - but the way its been enforced 9and I mean that) - the posts have been somewhat contradictory - the original rule only referred to "24 hours after the post to confirm" whereas a more recent edict refereed to "is not named until 24 hours after the original post" . Which I would take to be the original challenge.

Having been wrapped on the knuckles before I'm not taking the risk...... it took me two years to get back on "Rumours & news"

Having been there several times (abait briefly and in the 1990s) you'd of thought I'd of got that one. Got to say that my trips were free though and not exactly by choice.

The next challenge is ready and waiting for Asturias56 to fire the starting gun...

Not one I can se on the list of previous and hopefully compliant with the spirit and rules of this contest.

A photo I took myself, but I'd be amazed (and delighted) if the super-sleuths on here didn't crack it in double quick time.

The link to the DC-4 made for interesting reading. Never been to the FI myself but used to fly with one of the original FIGAS pilots, whose obituary in the Telegraph in 2005 told of a "mercy" flight he'd undertaken for a sick child in a Beaver IIRC. A marvelous piece of flying.

I'm with OUAQUKGF and others on this - really interesting read, thanks for the link

Asturias56 - it's 24 hours after the challenge has been set.

It is indeed Sea Lion Island - a spot I'd recommend to anyone. The accommodation is not luxurious but fit for purpose and the food and people are wonderful. I have to apologise to Bear - I hadn't realised until he started hacking through the undergrowth in W Africa just how like a red soil strip it looked! By then all I could do was to ask him to check his assumptions.......

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....84dad3c824.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....37f3d375db.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b6efad3feb.jpg

Enjoy!

Not sure how long this will last, but have fun.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d0e24c34b8.jpg