So I am back at work. This time I am in the office in Johannesburg, and apart for a planned fairly short trip to Mozambique to look at some cores, I will spend my entire rotation in the office.
Life when working in the office makes life when working at the rig look like fun. All I do here is get up before 6:00am, go to work, come back after 6:00pm, eat in my room and sleep. this is of course seven days a week.
I have to eat in my room because to go anywhere from the hotel I have to walk over a walkway which as become a perfect place to get robbed at gun point. They (the hotel) tried to set up a system where one could call the security guards and they would come and walk across the bridge with you. But since somebody was robbed at gun point when accompanied by two security guards (without guns) they gave up on the all idea.
I am mildly bored and pretty sure that I will get to bored to death before the end unless I get to go to Mozambique for a week, stay in a nice lodge by the ocean but spend my working hours doing tedious work which will, I am sure, end up being mostly a huge clean up of the government warehouse....I guess this is why I get paid to do it; because I would not do it for fun.
I am thinking of stopping in Vietnam on my way home at the end of my rotation to go and see Ben...It all depends on whether or not I can get a ticket. If I can't I will do another trip in Southern Africa.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Namaqualand
A relatively narrow strip of land along the western coast of South Africa from the Namibian border to a few hundreds kilometers south is called the Namaqualand. Port Nolloth and Springbok, an other small town where I stayed, are part of it. The plants in this part of the world are amazingly plentiful and varied and quite a few of them are endemic to the area.
It is a beautiful part of South Africa. This photo looks a little too much like a postcard, but it is the real thing. This is the way it looks. I took the photo, I was there. I hope I get a chance to go back.
It is a beautiful part of South Africa. This photo looks a little too much like a postcard, but it is the real thing. This is the way it looks. I took the photo, I was there. I hope I get a chance to go back.
Then there is the detrital diamonds of the west coast
Those diamonds are not found in kimberlite pipes but in the sediments brought to the west coast by the Orange River. To get there you have to drive through a very dry plain. As you arrive from the desertic inland the first sign that the coast is approaching is the bank of grey fog in the distance. 
The town (Port Nolloth) is in fog most of the time, they say 8 months of the year, and is amazingly cool even though 10 kilometres west of it is probably one of the hottest spot of South Africa. It is always hard to take picture of the fog but just here are the diamond dredging boats in the harbor.
These are used to get diamonds on the bottom of the ocean along the coast. They basically vacuum the ocean bottom to catch all the gravel. Then the gravel is sorted out to find the diamonds. All diamonds found here, unlike those found in kimberlites, are gem qualities. The theory, and it makes sense to me, is that it is because all the diamonds which are not gem qualities are not as strong and are destroyed by the transport and weathering.
Over 80 kilometers of the coast are closed off and are behind fences. And by the way, they mean it. They really really do not want people wandering in those areas.
In this photo you can see the difference between the white clouds and the slightly grey fog coming off the ocean and hanging around the coast.
The town (Port Nolloth) is in fog most of the time, they say 8 months of the year, and is amazingly cool even though 10 kilometres west of it is probably one of the hottest spot of South Africa. It is always hard to take picture of the fog but just here are the diamond dredging boats in the harbor.
These are used to get diamonds on the bottom of the ocean along the coast. They basically vacuum the ocean bottom to catch all the gravel. Then the gravel is sorted out to find the diamonds. All diamonds found here, unlike those found in kimberlites, are gem qualities. The theory, and it makes sense to me, is that it is because all the diamonds which are not gem qualities are not as strong and are destroyed by the transport and weathering.
Over 80 kilometers of the coast are closed off and are behind fences. And by the way, they mean it. They really really do not want people wandering in those areas.
In this photo you can see the difference between the white clouds and the slightly grey fog coming off the ocean and hanging around the coast.
There was the diamonds of Kimberley
This is the famous Big Hole, which is not the oldest diamond mine but is right down town Kimberley.
They have had the sense to make a visitor center where one can go and see it from close. This visitor center also has a very good museum with everything related to diamonds: from the theory of kimberlites (for the non-geologists) to an exhibit with thousands of real diamonds showing all naturally occurring shapes and colours found. It was a great spot which nicely made up for an otherwise hellish town. Though, to be fair, I should say that I met some really nice people in Kimberley and went out for a drink with some of the locals at the motel where I stayed. One of the old guys, who was the carpenter doing the renovations at the motel, took me round town the nest morning showing me the old De Beers office, the diamond sorting center etc.
People in South Africa (mostly outside big towns) are usually very friendly.
Yep! 2722 kilograms of diamonds came out of this kimberlite alone. And it is not the best. De Beers best diamond mine so far is near Mesina (You may remember I went to Mesina on my trip to see the Limpopo). It is the richest and has the best diamonds so far, but it is still active and visiting it is not an option.
They have had the sense to make a visitor center where one can go and see it from close. This visitor center also has a very good museum with everything related to diamonds: from the theory of kimberlites (for the non-geologists) to an exhibit with thousands of real diamonds showing all naturally occurring shapes and colours found. It was a great spot which nicely made up for an otherwise hellish town. Though, to be fair, I should say that I met some really nice people in Kimberley and went out for a drink with some of the locals at the motel where I stayed. One of the old guys, who was the carpenter doing the renovations at the motel, took me round town the nest morning showing me the old De Beers office, the diamond sorting center etc.
People in South Africa (mostly outside big towns) are usually very friendly.
Yep! 2722 kilograms of diamonds came out of this kimberlite alone. And it is not the best. De Beers best diamond mine so far is near Mesina (You may remember I went to Mesina on my trip to see the Limpopo). It is the richest and has the best diamonds so far, but it is still active and visiting it is not an option.
more random photos from north western South Africa
A typical view of the wind mill with its water tank. You see a lot of those.
Where I bought mangoes for breakfast just outside Welkom (a gold mining town). Note: people drive on the left hand side of the road in South Africa, in Mozambique and in Namibia.
Sheep farm with the typical wind mill. For what ever reason I really like this photo. Some days it was hard to make any headways driving. I would stop every few hundred metres to take another photo or just stand outside and look at the view. It seems that the views changed drastically from one perspective to the next.
Just a view I liked on the way back from Port Nolloth.
Another small town.
Where I bought mangoes for breakfast just outside Welkom (a gold mining town). Note: people drive on the left hand side of the road in South Africa, in Mozambique and in Namibia.
Sheep farm with the typical wind mill. For what ever reason I really like this photo. Some days it was hard to make any headways driving. I would stop every few hundred metres to take another photo or just stand outside and look at the view. It seems that the views changed drastically from one perspective to the next.
Just a view I liked on the way back from Port Nolloth.
Another small town.
some random photos from north western South Africa
A small town called Concordia, also a fairly typical view of a small town in this area.
Part of the road going through the Kalahari. The most amazing thing about the 200 kilometres I drove cutting through the edge of the Kalahari was how varied it was. Those two hundred kilometres could be considered flat or more realistically be seen as a succession of shallow valleys after shallow valley. And each valley looked different from the other. There was the wide flat bottomed valley with now vegetated red sand dunes. There was the wide flat bottomed valley with little but pale yellow grass (the one in the photo).There was the narrow valley with black rocks, red soil and pale yellow grass. Then the narrow valley which had the tall cacti and dark green bushes. Every single valley had some characteristic that rendered it unique. It made the drive very interesting. Each valley was under 10 kilometre wide. It was an excellent day.
The Orange River which brings diamonds to the west coast and life to its valley. A river in the part of the world is a miracle. I stayed one day and one night at the spot in the photo. It was wonderful.
Just a sign for a farm by the side of the road.
After miles and miles of flat fields somehow this small mesa seemed amazing at the time.
Part of the road going through the Kalahari. The most amazing thing about the 200 kilometres I drove cutting through the edge of the Kalahari was how varied it was. Those two hundred kilometres could be considered flat or more realistically be seen as a succession of shallow valleys after shallow valley. And each valley looked different from the other. There was the wide flat bottomed valley with now vegetated red sand dunes. There was the wide flat bottomed valley with little but pale yellow grass (the one in the photo).There was the narrow valley with black rocks, red soil and pale yellow grass. Then the narrow valley which had the tall cacti and dark green bushes. Every single valley had some characteristic that rendered it unique. It made the drive very interesting. Each valley was under 10 kilometre wide. It was an excellent day.
The Orange River which brings diamonds to the west coast and life to its valley. A river in the part of the world is a miracle. I stayed one day and one night at the spot in the photo. It was wonderful.
Just a sign for a farm by the side of the road.
After miles and miles of flat fields somehow this small mesa seemed amazing at the time.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
on the the way to Calvinia
I'm a little under the weather today. I have an incredible head ache that makes the French guillotine look like an attractive prospect, anything to get this head off my shoulder! But I thought I would post one of the pictures I took on my way to Calvinia on the R27. Between Vanrhynsdorp and Nieuwoudtville the R27 goes up the escarpment onto the Bokkeveldberge and this is the view you get when you look from it to the West.
In case you are lost as to where all this is, it is in western South Africa just between the Western Cape Province and the Northern Cape Province. Technically what you are looking at here is the plains of the Western Cape and the ridge of the Bokkeveldberge which is in the Northern Cape Province since the escarpment is exactly the boundary between the two provinces.
It is a beautiful view, as usual it is hard to do it justice in photos.
Imagine yourself standing there with the sun already warm (it is about 8:00am) but the air still reasonably cool. The smell is the smell of the desert with a very light breeze. This plain goes for as far as the eye can see to the North (to the right) and the ridges break it in the South. And this all view came as a bit of a surprised since you had never realized before that the so called escarpment here was actually true to its name and was a cliff that would offer you a view.
In case you are lost as to where all this is, it is in western South Africa just between the Western Cape Province and the Northern Cape Province. Technically what you are looking at here is the plains of the Western Cape and the ridge of the Bokkeveldberge which is in the Northern Cape Province since the escarpment is exactly the boundary between the two provinces.It is a beautiful view, as usual it is hard to do it justice in photos.
Imagine yourself standing there with the sun already warm (it is about 8:00am) but the air still reasonably cool. The smell is the smell of the desert with a very light breeze. This plain goes for as far as the eye can see to the North (to the right) and the ridges break it in the South. And this all view came as a bit of a surprised since you had never realized before that the so called escarpment here was actually true to its name and was a cliff that would offer you a view.
Monday, February 04, 2008
actual update
By the way, I am home for 6 days. I am just back from a short road trip in north western South Africa. I had a great time, I took quite a few pictures. I'll blog about this later, right now the internet is way too slow and anyway I need to sleep.
I'm going back to work in South Africa but probably for the last time this saturday.
The client company cannot decide whether to continue drilling or not, but I should imagine that it will be over really soon.
I'm going back to work in South Africa but probably for the last time this saturday.
The client company cannot decide whether to continue drilling or not, but I should imagine that it will be over really soon.
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
I have to admit that I nearly gave up on the book many times. I had such a hard time getting into it. At first I loved the fact that the book was written by a Nigerian author since I was coming out of two books I had really enjoyed by Achebe, another Nigerian author. And I loved that the main character was Azuro, an abiku child, a spirit child who is born and dead many times from the same parents and always tempted to die again to go back to its spirit world. This was also something that had been present in the previous books from Nigeria I had read, but then there was so much about the visions of the spirits in this world by Azuro, it was described in such details that what others had read and admired as a colourful descriptions of visions came across to me as an easy on going descriptions designed to shock: “monsters” with three heads, red eyes etc etc etc. I found it boring! Sorry, but it was just boring regardless of how imaginative, colourful, different and unexpected the world he described were. They just did not bring me to see anything that I either wanted to see, or wanted to avoid. I was just bored by them. But as I had finally decided to give up the book and admit defeat Azuro descriptions of what happened to him when he nearly died made sense. In this context his descriptions of the spirit world made sense to me. Then the father somehow, and not by some trick of “anything is possible in the spirit world” but by what felt like a genuinely possible set of circumstances, Azuro’s father becomes an important character in the novel and I found myself wanting to find out more about the story. By the time I realized that I was reading the book again I was a hundred page from the end of the book. And I really enjoyed the last third of the book. Call me simple, but I like books that tell me something, a story, facts that I either wanted to know or did not know I wanted to know, but something else than words written all together to startle and show what can be done with words. The
Having enjoyed the last third so much I thought maybe it was because I was in a different head space, or maybe I was finally getting into the style of the book so I immediately restarted the book from the beginning but once again I couldn’t get into it past the first few pages.
So my verdict stays: too much shaft, not enough wheat!
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