If you've ever wondered what an exploded propane bottle would look like, here's your answer.
Our principal road route in to the concession was to drive along the coast road to Ajdabiya and then turn south into the desert. After 400 km (250 miles) we'd then turn east off the road and travel about 90 km (55 miles) to the oil installation at Sarir.
A few miles east of Sarir as we would start to wind in and out of the taller dunes, lay the remaining wreckage of a MAN 6×6 supply truck that had been assigned to another of our survey crews who had worked this area in the late 70's or early 80's.
Something had started a fire on this supply truck. The fire reached the propane bottles it was transporting and the truck went, ‘kaboom!'
Fortunately no one was injured. The truck was scavenged for useable spares, such as all the drive train, and the remnants abandoned to the shifting sands.
The photo below is of the remains of one of the exploded propane bottles that I took in 1991, some 10 or so years after the explosion.
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