The last blog I published doesn't seem to want to show a 360 degree video I made of the sunset in Malakal, so I thought I would see if it loads and folk can see it here.... let me know if you can't!! It is just to show how flat and featureless the land is up there, yet how stunning it is in the barrenness of it, with the strip of life that is the Nile running through it. Comments to see if the video works are much appreciated! [View Full Entry]

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I've spent quite a few blogs now on the travelling part of the job, how much I have been lucky enough to see and travel through, so I thought it time to put together a bit of a photo collage and a movie of the machines in motion, doing what they do and clearing mines. The videos, if you can download them are well worth watching, especially the one of the big machine actually detonating an anti-tank mine, it did a fair bit of damage, but then that's kind of what it was designed for! If you listen carefully you can [View Full Entry]

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A week later I was back in Kampala, the truck, trailer and Hilux all sorted out, the purchasing had been done, all things from tyres to oil, pumps to fridges. So it was time to wait, the much promised paperwork from the URA (Ugandan Revenue Authority), which was due Friday then Saturday, then it rolled on to Monday, then Tuesday.... well this is Africa, never take for writ what is promised I had loaded the truck on Saturday morning, got a few last things together on Monday, then waited... and waited... and waited, the paperwork finally arrived at 10 on Wednesday [View Full Entry]

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All change, after the last river crossing, which was just a normal drive down (albeit with the Boss from the UK HQ in the cab) we got to KK and found the truck had spat the dummy about 100 meters before we got to camp it had decided a gearbox seal was no longer going to work and was merrily pumping oil all over the floor, not a good sign! Being as the truck has the only crane on it for the areas and is a vital support truck, that was me not going back to Juba, the only logical choice [View Full Entry]

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So one lunch time the truck just turns up out of the blue from the project in the south, the driver has a list of stuff the project needs including 4000 litres of diesel in drums and doesn want to drive the truck back because of "the crossing" Although I knew the convoy had arrived at the camp down near Kajo Keji, I had no idea what conditions were like or the road between Juba and there, we had reports that a hired truck had been stuck in the mud for 3 days trying to get down there, but the MAN [View Full Entry]

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I wasn't going the full length with this convoy, I would be following the guys down to the border, making sure there were no hassles or major problems at the border, then turning round and heading back to Juba. Because the roads are so bad, the convoy was going to have to head south out of Yei town, at the Congolese border at Morobo the road turns south east, right along the border to the town of Oraba, where the convoy would cross into Uganda, following down to Koboko before heading across to Yumbe and Moyo where they would re-enter back [View Full Entry]

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So am at the end of the second month and it has been an adventure, it has been incredibly busy. OK, so a bit later than 2 months, but has been stupid busy again... After the trip to Malakal in the north it was time to start on the 2 machines in the south, so a quick day drive down the road to a town called Yei, south west of Juba, 160 kms, only takes 6 hours, the road isn't great, it was apparently better than last year when it took even longer. So myself and one of the mechanics from [View Full Entry]

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Well it sounded like fun and the toys are big So i have changed career yet again (well more gone back to something I have done before) from the offshore world of submarines to the world of machines that are designed to run over, chew up and blow up landmines, of both the Anti-Personnel and the Anti-Tank varieties, as well as allsorts of other goodies that they come across when doing something called BAC work (stands for Battle Area Clearance... the demining world suffers horribly from far too many acronyms, AP, AT, DA's, BAC, LOD, blah, blah sometimes it takes longer [View Full Entry]

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Slowing down, calming down and blowing bubbles..... After the totally hectic dash to get to the plane, fly through what remained of the night and get to Kenya, to hop on another plane quick smart to head to Dar (having completely forgotten there are direct flights to Zanzibar, which would have saved $150 or so in flights) then a taxi transfer to Terminal 1 for a ZanAir flight to Chake-Chake in Pemba, I had enough time to breathe, grab a delicious bowl of beans and rice at the little cafe down the road and find out that I had enough time [View Full Entry]

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Best laid plans of mice and men... So after completing what will probably be my last offshore trip for a while, which was actually my most interesting to date, doing lots of flying and fixing lots of in-depth stuff that was very interesting. Getting out was another story entirely. Because Omar Bongo died, suddenly the Air Gabon route through Libreville was no longer safe.... the fact that quite a few of us had been flying Air Gabon (deemed safer than South African Airways or Ethiopian Airways by SS7 incidentally, despite it being an exceptionally ancient 2 aircraft fleet...) often simply because [View Full Entry]

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