Warthog
Justyn Lane Joined: October 30th 2008
Logged in: December 13th 2011
Logged in: December 13th 2011
After surviving Sudan and then a bit of time in civilization, Tanzania is where we are off to now, moving house, country, starting a new job/role and having a baby, we decided not to do things by halves!!
Travel Blog Posts
The unexpected picture...
Although my blog will still cover our travel.... it will also be a narrative (if I can find the time) on the journey we will start to undertake as parents, being joined along for this journey by Kate and an ever growing bump! The 4th of July This was the day we found out..... A day late and Kate had felt very sick on the motorbike on the way down to Sussex... there is never a "right" time for children, we think you are just blessed with that moment. There was disbelief and absolute joy, the first person Kate told was Trish, a work colleague who had been through a similar experience and the first person I told was a random stranger, a guy that ran a burger van near Basingstoke, but I just wanted to ... read more
First view of the Scillies
The Isles of Scilly, Tresco The first trip we did after finding out the news of the big trip was to share the news with Katie's family, they have been going to the Scilly Isles for years and Kate thought (well not immediately) that it would be a good place to break the news to her Mum and Dad, I had never been before and had only spent a few hours meeting them up to that point, so it was with trepidation that I booked a helicopter flight across to the islands for a long weekend. The plan was for me to cook a supper and we would pop a bottle of bubbly and break the news, Kate's sister already knew, so it would the be a bit of a celebration (well we hoped!) The ... read more
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!... read more
A cleared DA in Kaji Keli
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 hear a piece of shrapnel whizzing and bouncing off the armoured vehicle the guys are sat in, oh and excuse the language!! The machine was completing clearing a line up to the other machine that ... read more
All loaded
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 morning, so it was hit the road by 11, off out of Kampala, negotiating the morning traffic, that is bad through the morning, lunchtime, afternoon and evening...as anyone who has driven in Kampala will testify ... read more
In Moyo town
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 was that I was heading to Kampala in Uganda to try and find spares and workshop facilities, the long way round, past a place that a couple of the drivers knew about, that might have ... read more
The road to Kaji Keji
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 had come up a road that hadn been used for a while and basically a good 30 kms of it ran through minefields, it had been dozed and graded, both passes had found mines, but ... read more
Fischer's Tower
I still had a few days left before heading back to Sudan and even on my own I was determined to make the most of it, so next stop was Hell's Gate National Park, very aptly named for the geothermal activity that belches plumes of steam from the earth. There are now two power stations in the park, although noticeable with large pipes and bits of machinery in 2 places in the park it is surprisingly unobtrusive during the day. I came in through the Elsa gate from Naivasha direction, was made to feel very welcome by the park officials and given a pretty good photocopy map of the layout and various tracks in the park. The best thing though, you can walk out in Hell's gate, without the need for a ranger, armed or not! ... read more
View out over Lake Naivasha
The other half of "escape from Sudan!" After a bit of a delay getting out of the airport after flying back from Pemba, it was out into the Nairobi night, late on a Sunday, heading into Karen for a place to stay with friends and the start of the other half of my leave before heading back to Juba. The plan was to borrow a Toyota 4x4 Prado from some friends, Phil and Cynthia from Malawi who were now living and working in Nairobi and head off and explore some of Kenya, a country I had not seen anything of except the road up from Arusha and a few days in the capital in 2008. I wanted to walk, so the Aberdares and Hells Gate National Parks were on the agenda along with hopefully a trip ... read more
Sunset on Pemba
Switching off after 3 months South Sudan Oh to escape after 3 months trying to get stuff going, it was a pleasure to get on the plane out of Juba on the morning of 14th November and make it to Nairobi. Picked up from the airport by a good friend and driven to a lovely house in Karen, to eat good cheese and sit in civility surrounded by a green garden with flowers and trees full of birds, so very different from my tent in a dusty yard in Juba. I had one night in Nairobi before going back to the airport in the morning to meet my dive buddy who was flying in from the UK, before boarding a Precision Air flight for Zanzibar and then after a few hours wait another flight to paradise ... read more
