Hello, I have just returned from spending the weekend with David Twist and his Wife Helena on their farm. I met David at the office in Pretoria on Friday, managing to survive the SA highway by myself i'm pleased to say! It was then a 3 hour drive down to the farm and we arrived in the dark so I had no idea of the surrounding scenery. However, being a little exhausted from the weeks field work, I was happy enough to see the bed that I was spending the weekend in! The farm house is situated on the edge of [View Full Entry]

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Hello, Well it's back to work again but this time I'm staying in South Africa. I will be working on another Nickel project near the town of Koster in the North West. Similar to what I should have been doing down in Bon Accord in the first two weeks I was out here, I will be working with the very high tech SQUID system. The actual geophysics is the same as the ElectroMagnetic work I was helping with in Tanzania but the equipment is that bit more fancy (it has to be filled with helium to keep it at a brisk [View Full Entry]

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Translates to 'On the' 'hill', the setting for South Africa's largest (i think) music festival, and a much deserved hell of a good time! :) After my last blog I jumped straight into a car and we headed out to the festival site, picking up Roberts sister Stef on route. It was only a 2 hour drive with 5 of us, plus luggage, all crammed into a not so very spacious Vauxhall Corsa! But we got there ok, and arrived to a very well organised and idyllic camp site set up by Roberts friends. Although having arrived in the dark I [View Full Entry]

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I am back in civilization once more! :) I returned from Tanzania yesterday evening of two days of rather stressful and hectic travel. After finishing the Mag. work on time (despite set backs and extra days of travel - well organised I think you could say!) I had a day off at the Isimilo lodge in Mwanza, I was waiting for Richard Hornsey and Gavin Selfe to arrive the next day before I left. Gavin is the senior Geophysicist that David Twist put me in touch with in January and is one of the main contributors to me being out here [View Full Entry]

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If the last two sites for the Magnetic work were given 'assault course' names, the hill climb and the water harzard is what they would be! These were the last two areas we had to do for this work, both within 5 km of each other on the same license. The first was a good 5km from the road, and consequently took 2 hours to get within 1000m of it trying to pick our way down rough tracks and dry streams in the pick up. So even before we began work we had to hike up and over a very steep [View Full Entry]

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This is a state of mind that was not familiar to me before I arrived in Tanzania. I first encountered it with Greg Maude, the Australian who was doing the EM work in Rulenge, and have often wondered if I would ever aquire such a state of mind. Today was my coming of age... The patience of a geophysicist has to be able to withstand numerous major set backs and twice as many minor annoyances whilst remaining in a reasonable and logical frame of mind, ie. not flipping loosing it! So today, we have 16 lines to complete on the current [View Full Entry]

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There are 3 factors that go into defining the term Luxury, all 3 need to be present for it to be complete luxury otherwise you're only getting a slightly sweet deal, these are: Electricity, mains and 24 hour Hot water from a tap A flushing toilet, not dug into the floor And right now, I have all 3!! :D happy joe! I have left the Twiga Beach Lodge (TBL) and I didn't look back :) We completed the survey there on Monday 21st and left on the 22nd to spend a day in Mwanza town (Mwanza also being the region I [View Full Entry]

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Hello again, Well fancy this, I have a day off! We really pushed the survey yesterday and finshed 9 km of magnetics readings and walked a total of 12 km! So as a reward we're taking it easy at the lodge today, I am currently sitting outside under a veranda watching the world go by and drinking a beer! (a Kilimanjaro, and yes, they are all largers) So we left the Sunshine De Motel on the 13th, leaving the relative luxury of mains electricity behind us in Kahama and headed NW to the small town of Katoro. We have set up [View Full Entry]

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Hello again, Well i'm all finished in Rulenge now, we drove back to Mwanza and the Tanzanian office on tuesday - another very dusty long drive. I am now sitting in the Sunshine Motel in Kahama using a GPRS connection that is surprisingly good here. That is one thing I have found about Tanz., they may not have tar roads everywhere, or hot water where they have hot water taps but they have fantastic phone reception in the most remote places! So I had a day in Mwanza, not a day off however as Robert and myself were preparing for the [View Full Entry]

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Hey again, The bosses have left now so i'm going to be making the most of this super fancy satellite connection whilst I can! :) Thankyou for all your comments, it's nice to know there's a world going on out there! In answer to some of your questions; no there is not a land line phone here unfortunately, I will be staying in Tanz. for the duration of July and most of August I think so the phone card won't work i'm afraid (exchange it for a tanzanian one? - there may be a phone in the town, i'll enquire), yes [View Full Entry]

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