Google Earth Contest #37

[E-8]

http://www.trainboard.com/contest/contest37a.jpg

http://www.trainboard.com/contest/contest37b.jpg

Yes, this is a railroad location.

[HarryII]

Donner Pass, old track

[E-8]

Sorry, incorrect.

Charlie

[HarryII]

:tb-wacky:

[Curn]

Terraced Hills. Blue Metal Roofs. Mountain Roads.

I would guess Peru. They also seem to drive on the same side of the road as us Americans. The shadows seem to point towards a more northern local though. Good Hunting. I'll look when I get home in 5 hours.

[Hytec]

Wait a minute...didn't EdM show us this place (although from a different angle) on his camping trip this past March?

BTW Charlie, these are great fun, especially seeing Scott and Russ battle for "who's on first". :tb-tongue:

[E-8]

If Ed's been camping at this place, I will be surprised.

Charlie

[SteamDonkey74]

The Peru guess curn put forward seems like a good one. Peru is mountainous, and some of this land appears terraced for farming, much like in Peru.

[r_i_straw]

Where is Hemi? This one seems to have a tunnel.

[Scott Stutzman]

This is a tough one! Must be a pretty wide east/west mountian range....:confused2:

[r_i_straw]

Quite arid. North of the Tropic of Cancer. Similar terrain features found in the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain, in Mongolia, China and many places where there are no railroads. Go ahead and take this one Scott. http://www.trainboard.com/tbsmiles/013.gif

[E-8]

BTW, this was a user-submitted location. I would not have found it by the normal method.

Charlie

[E-8]

152 views.

I sure wish you guys would pull it together. I've got a bunch of good ones in the hopper here.

Okay, hint time I guess if it's too hard for you.... this is not in North or South America.

Charlie

[SteamDonkey74]

It's kind of fun when they go long enough that I get to see them before they are solved.

I would say it's probably not Antarctica, either. That just leaves the other four continents to consider.

[r_i_straw]

I have checked out the Pyrenees Mountains in such detail I can now speak Basque. I know now many sheep there are but still no luck. I think I will go look at sheep in Turkey or maybe Azerbaijan.

[SteamDonkey74]

Since Russell now speaks Basque...

Nora doa tren hau?


I'l let him translate.

[SteamDonkey74]

I am now thinking Mediterranean location but I am probably wrong.

It doesn't appear to be Sicily.

[SteamDonkey74]

I had this idea to check the "mountains of Syria," having forgotten, of course, that Syria is almost entirely mountainous.

Those green thingies that seem to run along the contours keep bugging me. I want to say they are agricultural... perhaps grape vines. I probably shouldn't be bothering with Syria if there are vineyards in the photos.

Let me see... countries with wine industries that also have arid conditions but that are not N. or S. American... maybe Italy, Greece, Australia... Israel?... South Africa?... who else has a wine industry? I am guessing that most Muslim majority countries do NOT.

[r_i_straw]

Since Russell now speaks Basque...

Nora doa tren hau?


I'l let him translate.
Barkatu, baina sarrera hau ez dago hiztegian.

[fitz]

Is this that serpentine mountain climb in Darjeeling?

[SteamDonkey74]

Barkatu, baina sarrera hau ez dago hiztegian.

You got me. :tb-biggrin: I don't speak any Euskara. I merely picked my phrase from the wikitravel phrasebook.

I speak Spanish, some Italian, some Latin, and some Scottish Gaelic, and very few words of Japanese, but, alas, no Euskara.

[r_i_straw]

Its really all gibberish to me. I had to learn Texican when I moved here. I can communicate with Frisco Bob in his native tongue. ;)

Well, I have spent some time poking around northern Italy and some in Grease. Working my way East. Probably passed right over it. I did find a spot where someone got murdered on the Orient Express.

[E-8]

Looks like I will have to give a major hint since you guys did not get it overnight.

It is in Africa.

Charlie

[firechief]

That shoots me down. I was going for North Korea.

Dave.

[DanRaitz]

Well, I'll be a..... with the way the shadows were, I was looking in the northern hemisphere.
Since Africa is pretty much cut in half by the Equator that narrows the search area.

Dan

[r_i_straw]

Wow, never thought there would be so many rail lines crossing the Atlas Mountains along the north coast in the area between Marrakesh and Tunis.
http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/imfile/07181.jpg

[Scott Stutzman]

Russ, I've been all over North Africa! This one is Kick'n my Butt!

[Scott Stutzman]

l'm thinking somewhere south of Algiers....

[r_i_straw]

I may go back and look for the Scott Stutzman special. If I am going to be looking for a needle in a hay stack I may have better luck.

[E-8]

C'mon Russ. Suck it up.

Charlie

[r_i_straw]

with the way the shadows were, I was looking in the northern hemisphere.
Since Africa is pretty much cut in half by the Equator that narrows the search area.

Dan Well, maybe. The vast majority of Africa is north of the Tropic of Capricorn. If the photo was taken around mid day on December 31, the shadows would be falling to the north just about everywhere in Africa except for parts of Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and all of South Africa. Hmmm. Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) has lots of railroads.

[Scott Stutzman]

OK, Who's the "smart guy" that submitted this one?:grumpy6ho::we-eek:

[E-8]

jagged ben :)

Charlie

[r_i_straw]

jagged ben :)

Sadistic Ben!http://www.trainboard.com/tbsmiles/101.gif

[Scott Stutzman]

OK, I'm really tired of this one!:we-radar: How about Hinzi, Eritrea Africa! :we-tongue:

[E-8]

Congratulations Scott Stutzman.

Hinzi, Eritrea

http://www.trainboard.com/contest/contest37c.jpg

[Curn]

Ooops too slow

[Scott Stutzman]

Oh, Thats only 5 hours of my life I'll never get back.:we-twitcy:

[E-8]

You're a better person for it though.

Charlie

[Scott Stutzman]

Curn, I'm glad you found it too! I'm not Alone...

[SteamDonkey74]

Oh yeah... Hinzi, Eritrea! How could I have missed such a location. I bet even my two pre-schoolers could have gotten that one.

:tb-wink:

Good job, Scott Stutzman and Curn.

[HarryII]

Congratulations Scott Stutzman.:tb-biggrin:

Pos: 15°21´21.57" N , 38°59`20.07" O

[Curn]

I should have reloaded the page before I hit post reply. Oh Well. It looks like you beat me by about 10 minutes

[Scott Stutzman]

PFFFT! Piece of cake! NOT.

[Otto Yard]

PFFFT! Piece of cake! NOT.

Congrats, Scott!

[r_i_straw]

Man, that's a blank zone on Google Maps. They don't even show the roads. My search technique of toggling back and from Satellite to Map let me down. I worked my way up from Djibouti to Aswan and did not see a single railroad. How did you find that Scott?

[Scott Stutzman]

I tried not to focus on the man made features. I went for the geographical "fingerprint". (Colors,shadows ect...)

[friscobob]

Its really all gibberish to me. I had to learn Texican when I moved here. I can communicate with Frisco Bob in his native tongue. ;)



You speak Huskerese? Cool!!

BTW, I was born in Nebraska, and consider myself a Midwestern refugee. As the saying goes, I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as quick as I could :D :D :D

[SteamDonkey74]

My wife left Texas and is in business with a friend of hers who also left Texas but was originally from Tennessee. They call themselves "Texpatriates."

My dad is from Louisville, Kentucky, if you count being born there and living there until age four as "being from there." My maternal grandfather is from Arkansas, but again only lived there until age four. I sometimes get called a Yankee by the three of them, though I think of Oregonians as being way removed from that Southerner/Yankee Mason-Dixon Line stuff. After waking up in my log cabin and putting on my buckskin outfit I pick up my knife and go wrestle some bears down by the river, only to return later and cook up some nice flapjacks on a cast iron skillet over an open fire. That's what Oregonians do, right? That doesn't sound very Yankee to me.

[jagged ben]

btw everyone, I'm sorry! Very very sorry!

If you want to know, I saw a picture of this railroad on Railpictures.net a few months back. (Search that site for Eritrea if you're curious.) I found the spot in Google Earth, and it looks like it would be a very fun train ride.