Sunday 17 September 2023

Millenials are heading to Mongolia

I concluded my 2017 posts about Mongolia with these words:

"Where the backpackers trek today, the luxury glamping folks will follow, and that means one of the major impediments to getting there (the state of the roads) will get sorted out, allowing all sorts of people to wander in. These people won't put up with bad roads, and they certainly won't put up with open air pit latrines, even if the views are superb. This is economically good from a development standpoint, but ... "

Well, it has started.

The New York Times (click here) had an article today about the boom in tourism in Mongolia, seemingly driven by Millennials. People are actually renting cars! I'm of two minds about this -- I wish the country well, sandwiched as they are between Russia and China and facing one of the world's more unforgiving climates, but on the other hand... 



Thursday 16 June 2022

Iceland 2015 and 2017 recap and recommendations

I've had questions about Iceland from people interested in going. I've been twice: in June 2015, and in March 2017. I've written up the 2015 trip (click here) but not the 2017 trip; and the earlier report was perhaps more information than people want. So what follows is a quick overview of interesting things to do, either solo or as part of an organised multi-day hiking tour. 

Note that most place names can be found using Google Maps. 

Multi-day supported hikes

These get you away from roads and towns, with a range of levels of support. The tour organiser hopefully will have taken advantage of the excellent network of cabins, which include a large common cooking and eating area on the ground floor and separate sleeping platforms for men and women upstairs. There will usually be a latrine and a coin-operated, propane-powered shower (get undressed before putting in your coin, because the meter starts ticking immediately...). 

The tour I took with a friend in 2015 was organised by Fjallabak (click here). They have a selection of tours; I opted for the eastern inlets (click here) through the homes of the Elves, an hour's flight from Reykjavik. The company is run by the daughter of the founders and is completely Icelandic, so your payments go entirely to locals. National Geographic recommended this trip and it is indeed superb. There were 8 of us (2 Canadians, three Swiss ladies, and three Americans), plus the guide.

A typical day was 10 to 15 km and perhaps 400 to 500 vertical metres as we crossed over the headland or col separating one fjord from the next; at least one mountain stream had to be forded on foot so you will want water shoes to keep your hiking boots dry. Your day pack needs to include cold and wet weather gear even in summer, but the tour includes a 4wd vehicle to carry your bigger bag (sleeping bag & dry clothes) as well as food from cabin to cabin, and serves to evacuate anyone who feels it is too much. Pictures follow; there are other tour organisers offering a similar range of outings. Closer to Reykjavik you will find lots of tours of the Mount Hekla and Landmannalaugar area, and these may be more heavily travelled than the more remote eastern trip I took.

Icelandic ponies are related to Mongol ponies. You can find horseback rides as well.


Typical descent into a fjord.

A guide with a GPS and personal knowledge of the area is a good idea as the descent from the col into the next valley can be unclear; there are after all no trees to which trail markers can be attached. Be prepared for snow, rain and fog. Trail markers consist of stones or sticks which can be hidden in snow even at the end of June. 

We were the first group on this route in late June 2015 and the authorities thoughtfully plowed some of the routes over the cols ahead of us, not just for us but for the 4X4 truck with our gear and food. Some trails were narrower and steeper, but the group included a couple of people who found this challenging, so I suspect the guide made an on-the-spot-decision to opt for easier trails or 4x4 tracks as we got further into it.

Typical cabin. Reservations are needed for the sleeping accommodations, but if you hike in with your tent, you can set up pretty much anywhere. (Likely a park pass of some kind is also needed).  

One of my favourite pictures, heading into Loðmundarfjörður. At left you can just see the weekly ferry from Seyðisfjörður heading out to Denmark via the Faroes.

Solo or self-directed tours and day hikes

South coast

After the 2015 organised tour, I set out alone in a rental car along the south coast. There are plenty of spots to get out and stretch your legs, such as the volcanic ash beach just east of the town of Vik where I rented a room. This is where the iconic picture of three spires comes from; the spot turns up in Icelandic tourist brochures.


A more strenuous day hike can be found further east along the south coast, in the heart of Europe’s largest national park, Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður. I hiked Skaftafellsheiði, the mountain next to Skaftafellsjökull. It’s a 17 km loop, 700 meter vertical gain, promising views over the Skaftafellsjökull glacier. This is a tongue off Vatnajoküll, the towering slab of ice visible from the highway that is Europe’s largest glacier. (Incidentally the ending 'jökull', pronounced something like 'icicle', means 'glacier'.) The park includes a range of other hikes and can be found online.


An excellent hike on well marked trails up Skaftafellsheiði.

Also along this stretch are a variety of glacial lagoons, some with parking lots just off the highway, others a bit further in. The easily accessed ones are, as always, the busiest and I couldn't get into the parking lot at Jökulsárlón.

People on the shoreline give a nice sense of scale.

Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) and Heimaey

These islands are accessible by ferry from the South coast, or by a short flight from Reykjavik Municipal airport (not Keflavik). As the winds blow like the dickens here, the landing can be entertaining if you choose the flight... There are lots of self-directed walks around the town of Heimaey, and a guided bus tour. But the winds ... don't drop a piece of paper because it will be halfway to Norway before you can react.

Midnight sun from my hotel in Heimaey.

Heimaey, population about 4000, is a fishing port and is the most protected port on the south coast.

 Húsafell and Snæfellsjökull National Park

To the north and west of Reykjavik is Snæfellsjökull National Park and Húsafell, which I visited on a return trip in March 2017 on my way to Stockholm. The weather of course was not as good and I didn't get to see much of Snæfellsjökull, which is the volcano Jules Verne used as the starting point for Journey to the Centre of the Earth. But still the scenery is spectacular and there are plenty of opportunities for more or less extensive day hikes, weather permitting. 



 

Any 'highway' beginning with the letter 'F' is for serious and well equipped off-road vehicles only, driven by people who know what they are doing and are familiar with the terrain, as there may be fords and other obstacles along the way. I stayed off them, or only ventured as far as seemed reasonable with my little Nissan 4wd before turning back; get stuck up here in a rental and you are most definitely not covered by the insurance company (the folks at the rental counter at Keflavik warn you about getting water in the engine...)

The farm at Húsafell, to the northeast of Reykjavik, gives you access to a glacier tour which is very highly recommended. For tourists arriving in flip flops, they offer skidoo suits, otherwise your Goretex jacket and pants, with fleece or down inner layers, will do just fine. (When they found out I was Canadian, they said oh, OK, no problem, get on the truck.)

The glacier research station is accessed via a decommissioned NATO missile launcher. Just that part was a load of fun.

Tire inflation pressures are controlled from the cabin via a cellphone app.

Monster truck.

These tunnels need to be redone every year as the glacier shifts and moves. This is Langjokull.

The hot tub at Húsafell, heated by volcanic action, was entertaining, with the wind actually whipping up whitecaps on the surface and sending sleet and ice spray into our faces. I guess you had to be there. 

Still on my bucket list

I hope this has been helpful. I intend to go back as I haven't seen anywhere near all of it, and there isn't a boring moment. Don't miss the Islendingur museum next to Keflavik on your way home. 

This ship, the Islendingur ('Icelander'),  sailed to New York, via L'Anse aux Meadows, to commemorate 1000 years since Leif Ericsson visited America.


Sunday 25 July 2021

Why British engines have traditionally been small-bore designs

An enduring mystery to me has been why Jaguar stuck with typical pre-war engine design, typified by a long stroke and a small bore, until well into the '60s. At Le Mans in 1957, the 3.8 litre Jaguar D-Type arguably beat the much more powerful Ferrari 315 S, also with a 3.8 litre motor, mainly due to having disc brakes -- once Ferrari adopted discs, it was all over for the classic Jag engine. (Some references also credit the Jag with better aerodynamics.) Let's look at some numbers. 

The Jag 6 and the Ferrari V12 are within a couple of cc's of each other. But the similarities end there. First is bore to stroke ratio. The Jag, at 87 x 106 mm, is undersquare at a bore:stroke ratio of 0.82, while the Ferrari, at 76 x 69.5, is oversquare at 1.09. Power is also quite different: the Ferrari manages 360 horsepower at 7800 RPM, versus 306 at 5500 RPM.

But the real interesting concept is taxable horsepower, how it was calculated in different jurisdictions, and how it affected engine design.

In France, the approach that generated the famous 2 CV appellation is based on displacement. (Note actual 2CV power output, in the 602 cc version, was 29 hp). There is also a fiddle factor and a rather bizarre RPM calculation. The formula in place from 1956 was CV = 0.00015*n*D^2*L*R, where n is number of cylinders, D is bore in cm, L is stroke in cm, and R=20 is another fiddle factor. So far so good; this is essentially displacement but replacing π/4 with 20 x 0.00015. (For details of the truly bizarre calculation for R, see here, in French). Both the Ferrari and the Jag come out at about 14.5 taxable hp. 

In most other European jurisdictions the calculation was displacement-based. (Today it is based on CO2 emissions). But in Britain, the RAC taxable horsepower calculation only took bore into account; big bore motors were thus taxed more heavily than small bore motors at the same displacement. The formula is P = n*D^2/2.5, where n is number of cylinders and D is bore in inches. The Jag is thus rated, for tax purposes, at 28 hp, but the Ferrari comes in at a whopping 43 hp. 

British manufacturers often provided both taxable and actual horsepower in the model name, hence the Wolseley 14/60 with 60 real hp but taxed at 14 hp; the Alvis 12/70 managed the trick of more actual power (70 hp) at a lower tax bracket (12 hp), presumably via a smaller bore.

This also acted as a non-tariff barrier to imports: the Ford Model T was rated at 22 hp and was thus quite a bit more expensive than an equivalent British car of similar displacement or performance.

So obviously British manufacturers built tall, narrow, small-bore motors to minimise the tax hit. And this persisted well into the '60s, when the classic Jag 4.2 litre had bore and stroke of 92 x 106; the 4.0 litre AJ6 motor that replaced it wasn't much better at 91 x 102. The 5.3 litre V12 was far more modern, at 90 x 70; even the 7.0 litre version was still oversquare at 94 x 84.

So here you have it: unintended (or maybe not) consequences of a poorly thought-out regulation.

Tuesday 16 March 2021

Ten (non-fiction) books to take into quarantine

Ten non-fiction books for a lockdown: A personal selection based on my own interests. 

Day 1: What Google searches say about you and about the world. People will put their darkest thoughts into a Google search box, even (especially) things they would never confide to another human being. The extent of racism in the US, what people are really doing in bed (which is most definitely NOT what they tell pollsters); it's an interesting read. But beware: in the discussion on racism, he uses the n-word (because he tracks searches using this word combined with other words, such as 'Obama'); and his discussion of sex can also be disturbing. Requires an open mind.


Day 2: A very literate and well-written overview of human history, with some interesting analysis that ought to raise some discussion. He identifies several Revolutions in our history, the first being the Cognitive Revolution (about 70,000 years ago) which brought the ability to deal in abstract concepts into language. As with chimpanzees today, we probably had ways of communicating "there's a lion in the bushes" or "food is over there", but a discussion of tactics for evading that lion or tracking down that food required abstract concepts. "I'll hide here with a spear, you go scare that gazelle into coming this way". By 40,000 years ago, bands of homo sapiens were stampeding herds of animals into narrow canyons where meat and furs for a year could be obtained fairly easily, something Neanderthals never seemed to have grasped.


Day 3: There's nothing like a good spy novel. This one, by Ben MacIntyre, is even better because it is true. The basic story is how German intelligence was fooled into thinking the Allies would land in Greece and Sardinia rather than in Sicily, thus diverting defensive efforts away from the actual landing sites, but the plot line is so far out there that if it were a novel, you'd say 'yeah, right, that would never happen'. In fact Neal Stephenson used some of the more outrageous components of the story in his classic novel Cryptonomicon. And MacIntyre writes very well; see also his books on Kim Philby and other famous spy stories.

Day 4: Continuing on yesterday's theme of WWII, this overview of the bloody Winter War (1939-1940) following Russia's invasion of Finland is a classic and describes events that are probably not well known outside Finland. Those of you who have been to Finland will know that this was a defining moment for the country, which only obtained its independence from Russia in 1917. On my first trip to Finland back in about 2002, three different people said the same thing to me, in three different contexts, but all referring more or less indirectly to the Winter War: "We are a small country, we have to work together". The Finnish concept of Sisu, meaning grit or fortitude in the face of lousy odds, is well described. I first picked up this book at the airport in Helsinki on my way home in 2002, and have since purchased two other copies over time as it tends to get borrowed and not returned.

 
Day 5: Two, well OK three books about Everest. While I have absolutely no intention of ever going there (I had enough trouble at 11,000 feet, never mind 29,000), I have always been fascinated by people who tackle Everest and places like it. The Vendée Globe race is another incomprehensible activity, and the classic Antarctic adventures of Scott and Shackleton are always fascinating. 

Wade Davis has assembled an excellent book that combines the best of several previous books on the topic. Mallory, Irvine and their colleagues are not presented in a vacuum but in the context of their backgrounds as shell-shocked survivors of the trenches of World War I, and in the context of post-war Britain as well as manoeuvring between the Great Powers. Both characters are well drawn, but so are the people who accompanied them on their several trips before their ultimate disappearance.

  
 
The finding of Mallory's body, and the analysis of whether they were ascending when they died or had managed to summit, are covered in Davis' book, but a better source for this part of the story is presented in "Weighing the Evidence", Chapter 22 in "Last Hours on Everest" by Graham Hoyland. Hoyland, who was on the expedition that found Mallory, has written a very personal and emotional account of the impact of his Everest obsession on his family and marriage. But unlike Davis, he has summited Everest several times; and a cousin of Hoyland's father, Howard Somervell, was on the fateful 1924 expedition. These personal circumstances make his account very informative if you want to delve deeper into the topic.
 
 
Of course Krakauer's story of the commercialization of Everest, and the fact it can still be deadly, is priceless and belongs on any bookshelf devoted to Everest or the broader field of mountaineering.


Day 6: This book provides a fascinating alternative to the usual story of how the late Middle Ages became the Renaissance. One thinks of Florentine or Parisian artisans and their wealthy, well-connected patrons; but the mercantile activities around the North Sea and the Baltic are equally part of the story. I for one knew very little about the Hanseatic League or the trading activities of the Vikings. The story begins with the Frisians, living and trading among coastal marshes and dunes in what is now Belgium and Holland. The Romans didn't get it -- how can you be civilised if you haven't built any monumental cities -- and failed to root them out because their horses and carriages got mired in marshes while the Frisians disappeared on flat bottomed boats. But those same boats allowed them to trade easily; and they quickly learned about dikes and canals. Trade flourished between cities, extending well beyond the marshes to cities from Gdansk to Trondheim and the east coast of England, with little or no royal "supervision"; taxes were collected and used for port facilities, and for the establishment of early trading houses or bourses.


Day 7: More on the Vikings. To illustrate how far the Vikings roamed, it is enough to point out that the Mongolian and Icelandic ponies are genetically very closely related. Vikings served in the Varangian guards and as mercenaries in Constantinople and elsewhere in the Middle East, having crossed from Moscow to rivers such as the Volga that empty into the Caspian Sea. Looking west, a small group made it to L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and wintered over at least once. But they weren't just rampaging barbarians, and this book gives you a more balanced view.



Day 8: A fascinating history of Central Asia, the crossroads of the world straddling the so-called Silk Roads, from the Arab invasion of 680 to the Mongol invasion of 1220. (The chapter on the years between Chinggis and Tamerlane is somewhat brief). Traders met here from all over Eurasia, bringing goods for trade but also ideas and religions into what was for a time a multi-cultural, multi-lingual melting pot.

In particular, the scientific understanding developed by Central Asians of Persian descent is absolutely stunning. After the Arab conquest, most scientists in Central Asia wrote in Arabic, and we think of the results as being of Arab origin, but in fact it is mostly Persian. And the so-called Arab numerals in use today, complete with the concept of zero, came to us from India via Central Asia and just happened to reach Europe in texts written in Arabic.

One example will suffice. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (Abū Rayḥān Bērōnī) was born in what is now Uzbekistan in about 973. He developed early concepts in spherical trigonometry which he used to estimate the diameter of the Earth; he also plotted longitude and latitude of all the cities he had visited on a globe, and concluded that the known inhabited Earth represented only a third of the surface; he then posited that the processes leading to the creation of the Eurasian landmass must operate elsewhere, and that there must therefore be another continent out there somewhere. And if this continent is at the same latitudes as Eurasia, then it must be inhabited. Of course the Vikings were proving this proposition by actually going there at about the same time.

Biruni is known to have written at least 145 other books, most of which have not survived, but references to his work demonstrate the range of his interests. Most of the cities of Central Asia, such as Merv, Balkh, Bukhara or Gurganj, have fared equally poorly, with the failure of irrigation systems following invasions and the fact that a lot of it was built with mud bricks rather than granite or marble.

The fall of the scientifically literate Central Asian societies is ascribed to several causes. The Mongol invasion didn't help; and the fact that one of the major rulers of the time had the audacity to have Chinggis' ambassadors executed made things worse. (Chinggis wouldn't let something like that go without totally disproportionate punishment, and the damage done was much greater than that done by the preceding nomadic invasions that tended to happen with monotonous regularity every few decades). But the rise of extremist religious factions that frowned on rational investigations of the physical world was a big part of the decline; the argument was that since the Koran clearly provides all needed information about the world and is of divine provenance, rational scientific discovery is not only undesirable but actually heretical as it can be seen to question the veracity of the book.

Central Asia had been a crossroads of ideas and religions as well as trade but by Tamerlane's time that had ended; and the scientific Renaissance picked up, after a pause, in the West. One Christopher Columbus, in fact, depended on estimates of the Earth's diameter obtained from these Persian polymaths; but he made an error in converting units and was off by a large amount. Fortunately he made landfall about when he expected to...
 
 

Day 9. Two biographies of Genghis (now spelled Chinggis) show the story of Central Asia from the other side of the nomad's arrows. Widely seen as bloodthirsty barbarians, it is clear their PR department wasn't very well staffed. And without denying the waste they laid across Central Asia, these books provide a more balanced view. They were a bit like the Borg: agree to assimilation and all will be fine; but resist and your city will be razed. And it appeared that issues around race or religion were minor, with no one group targeted (unless of course the leader had rashly executed Mongol ambassadors in a show of misguided defiance). Regardless, Genghis stitched together the largest land empire the world has ever known; he was the first among nomadic invaders to recognise the importance of writing if only to account for the distribution of loot to his armies. His lack of a proper succession plan meant that it crumbled within a generation or two, with his grandson Kublai becoming the first of the Yuan dynasty in China and other descendants squabbling over Central Asia. Today Chinggis is revered in Mongolia, where the main international airport is Chinggis Khaan International.



And that's it! OK, it was a dozen books, not ten; so sue me.