22/11/11 Port Gentil revisited

 

22 November, 2011

Well, I’m in Port Gentil again, and this time I got a day off with nothing to do so could do a little exploring and walking around town. I took a few more pics (not too many – locals don’t seem too thrilled about being photographed all the time) as I walked along the waterfront, and then back along the “main street”.

Annoyingly, a stray dog started following me as I walked along the waterfront. A fairly young puppy that was very boisterous and just wanted to play. I didn’t want to encourage him, so just walked, hoping he’d lose interest. But he followed me on what must have been a 2km walk. At one point three other dogs joined us. And then we walked past a traffic circle and four dogs lying around on the circle started barking. Hackles went up on mine and I thought I was going to be caught in a dog fight right in the middle of the street with a dog that must have looked to everyone else like mine. Fortunately the fighting didn’t erupt and instead I walked on with 8 dogs in tow – all heavily addicted to crack (their own, thankfully).

Port Gentil’s version of a “park”. A row of bushes and plants…	..with a pathway of sand behind..

I walked past the President’s Residence. Whole block with his walled-in house in it. Very big, one giant block building, and painted the most revolting bright green and yellow. I didn’t know if taking photos of it was acceptable, so chickened out. Don’t need to end up in prison a few days before I leave! But I’ll get a pic of it from the air when I’m next out – really is quite a siff colour scheme.

A completed and painted pirogue	The guy in action with his axe

Saw a guy chopping a massive tree log into the boats they use here (pirogues). Typical tropical island hollowed out tree trunk. Was quite impressive to see the separate compartments cut into it, presumable for strength.

Assemblage of three platforms in the bay. Helipads all over them!	Hmm, “Centre de Santé” – I’m not so sure….!

I saw the massive logs they have chained together that stretch out into the bay in a wide circle, and are used to “fence” timber logs in before going into the mill. They must cut down trees seasonally, since I haven’t seen the “fences” with any trunks in them at all. This one pic shows how relatively close an oil platform is from the town. Its actually three platforms close together.

Maybe not quite so pretty…	This one looks quite acceptable

Walked past a number of little eateries. Some very pleasant looking, that if I had money I might pop into. Some not quite so much…. I get CFA15000 credit for each meal (about USD30 – but things are very cheap here!) when I’m in town  Apparently, however, they have to be used at the one restaurant, which is very nice but I wouldn’t mind mixing it up a little, especially today that I can. So I walked past the others, took a couple of pics, and then found myself back in my road.

Very pleasant restaurant called Le Nautilus	Ah, desert….! They don’t play games here!

I’m now back in my room, and will shortly be searching my computer for a movie to watch this afternoon…. So tired of CNN news which never seems to change, and here they only have SKY, which is marginally better, but equally repetitive. Last night I watched Hugh Grant giving his evidence in the News Of the World case, and they’ve played it over and over….

Front entrance to my hotel Hirondele from the street	I forget I’m on the equator, and many of the satellites are almost directly overhead. I think the one angled one is probably pointing at a satellite over France

 

21/11/11 Final Thoughts…

 

21 November, 2011

Well, I’m getting towards the end of my tour, really looking forward to going home now, am ticking the days off on the calendar… (ok, I have been doing that since November the 1st!) and wishing I could pack all my stuff up now!!

The machine had an MPI a couple of days ago (service), so I spent two nights in town, hanging with the engineer, who like practically all good engineers drinks like a fish in the evenings! But a great guy and the machine is all greased up where it should be (I helped him through the MPI which was good to watch and learn from).

HeliUnion at Port Gentil…. aaahh….	Crazy how many sunken wrecks there are all along the coast and in the bay!

And now I am flying out my last few days in Onal, watching the weather slowly get worse. Apparently the rainy season starts in early December, for almost 6 months, it seems! Has been a fair bit of rain, although today, oddly enough, it was hazy as hell but bright and sunny. And bloody hot!! The games room I was sitting in in Coucal, waiting for the return flight had the aircon set to 17o and it was still sweltering inside!

There’s a young guy who’s still at school, apparently, who is working at M&P for three months, and he comes around each day after his shift in Coucal to “chat”. Problem is he can’t speak English, so we have to get by on my French, so we chat for a bit and end up playing Foozball.

I really like the people here! They are so friendly and genuine. I was so distrusting of everyone when I arrived. But things don’t get stolen, people aren’t attacked. Its crazy. Driving to the airport from the hotel one morning we drove past a kit bag and a tripod leaning against a wall. On one of the main streets! No-one around. And it was still there when we came back past it 10 minutes later (dropping someone off first). Its sad how automatically we expect theft and aggression from locals, and therefore that we’ve grown so accustomed to it back home.

I did one flight to Lambarene again, and this time was shown from the air where Schweitzer’s hospital is, but the weather was so bad I couldn’t mess around trying to take pics, but next trip I’ll get a shot of that. But this is Lambarene airport. Practically derelict. I looked through the offices and departure lounge and they’re all empty. I did think this large billboard was amusing, though. Right on the apron facing the aircraft – I think is the president with someone else. So random.

“Go on, give us a kiss…”

So in a few days I’ll be on the plane at 23h30, a 5 hour flight to JHB, arriving at 05:10 local time (that’s like 4am for me). And I don’t sleep on planes! Then a flight down to Durban. If I don’t fall asleep waiting for it…. Lets hope not.

13/11/11 Bad Weather and Bad Lands

 

13 November, 2011

Well today has been a bit of a crap day, all-in-all. I got back to the hotel last night to discover the internet was down. Very uncool! And I was very motivated to get online. I found out the whole of Port Gentil was without internet. Being a weekend, the problem was unlikely to rectify itself until Monday, so I had to accept that I wouldn’t be causing any online mayhem.

Then last night it poured with rain. I mean POURED with rain. Sounded awesome, but when I got up this morning to fly to Banio 2 again and it was STILL raining I knew the day was not going to go to plan. My driver, Patrick, arrived and took me to the airport so I could get a weather report, which confirmed my fears. Low cloud and rain on and off all day. So the driver (who is a very excited and friendly guy) took me into town for an hour or so since we decided to wait a couple of hours before calling it off. I had two pax who were equally not delighted to have to wait another day to get going.

Outside the market looking inconspicuous	Mmm, what’s for dinner?

The driver clearly owns a local pub, because he took me into what I felt was the dodgy part of town (and for Port Gentil, that’s saying something!) but was clearly actually a social district. We parked next to an open-air market which, due to the rain, was fairly deserted. Apparently over the weekend it is usually heaving with people. At least it gave me an opportunity for a couple of pics. However, photographing a woman with a machete, hacking at a block of meat is not appreciated here and I was chastised “tres forte” and had to beat a hasty retreat.

Inside the market looking stupid	Anyone for steak? Hacked to your specifications…

Patrick’s little pub was down a small alleyway which contained a number of similar rooms, all individual businesses offering everything from hairdressing to tailoring, to arcade games and bars. He explained that in Gabon, all bars have to be closed at 22h00 every night. Nightclubs have no restrictions, but bars like his are carefully controlled, so we could only have a softdrink. Since we were essentially waiting for the rain to stop, I felt it was probably a good idea to stay off the Stroh Rum and local Witblitz.

Patrick’s “No Complex Bar” entrance	The alleyway of little shops

After the Coke, with the rain still not really letting up, I called it off and was taken back to the hotel. I had just gotten into a movie when the Logistics Manager (who decides on all my flights everyday) called to say that Banio2 was clear and would I give it another go. So I agreed, even though I knew the weather would be crap along the way; at least I was along the coastline.

Pretty much the extent of the bar	Not quite like the arcade I remember as a child. Playstations in padlocked boxes.

So we loaded up and took off, flying as quickly as possible and avoiding clouds as much as possible (the cloud base I shall keep to myself to spare my boss and my parents any extra stress). When we arrived at Banio2 it was raining hard, the mist was patchy and no-one was answering the radio on approach. I wanted to explain that I needed to refuel and get airborne as quickly as possible. No-one was around when I landed (which has never happened) and no-one came running as I shut down. The pax and I had to walk the gear up to the camp before we saw someone casually saunter out of a cabin. I was stressing about the weather getting worse, and a 2.5 hour flight back to Port Gentil, followed by me trying to get back to Onal tonight, when I asked where the hell everyone was. Blank stares. So I might have had a little bit of a wobbly….. And now my toys…. are……. just…..out…..of……reach……

One of the guys who turned up could speak English and explained that they were all told I wasn’t coming anymore and thus weren’t expecting me. The guy I was supposed to take back to Port Gentil had gone elsewhere to work, so everything was a bit of a cock up. And so it has come to pass that I will be sleeping in one of the cabins that I felt so sorry for the inmates of Banio2 having to live in.

This is smaller than my container in Onal, and has two bedrooms with a bunk bed in each AND communal shower and toilet!

The English speaking guy (who’s name is “Juvenile” because everyone says he looks so young) was so nice, and so apologetic about it all, explaining that they really weren’t expecting me, that he helped me gather my toys back up and resign myself to the fact that I was going to be sleeping here tonight. In compensation he took me to show me the oil well they’re busy pumping from. He explained that they pump it up, send it to a separator which separates the oil from the gas. The gas they either burn off or run a generator with it, while the crude oil is heated and then pumped along a pipe to a tanker offshore which is regularly replaced once filled with oil from a number of wells in the area. Its actually quite a simple setup once the well has been drilled and prepared.

Wingnut in a hardhat. This is the oil platform!	The separator taking the gas from the crude oil

Lets hope I get out of here tomorrow so I can reconnect with the outside world that I’m looking forward to seeing in 10 days…. ;-)

Addendum: I have got to be honest here and admit that I have had a complete turn around about having to stay in Banio2. It is pretty uncomfortable, dirty and smelly, but the guys are very friendly and I have just spent the evening having a very amusing conversation with Juvenile about children, families, studying and languages. He married his school sweetheart 10 years ago and now has 1 kid. He reckons at absolute most he’ll have 3 kids. “Because,” he says, “kids cost you money!” He says he doesn’t understand why some men don’t think about the future and only live in the now, but he wants a good life, and so doesn’t want many kids. Plus, apparently its Gabonese tradition that you “marry your wife’s parents too”. I laughed. He actually had me in hysterics explaining how you sometimes don’t like your wife’s parents, but they are around and you have to take care of them too. “First you get in trouble with your wife, then her parents, and then your parents are also giving you troubles!” I asked if, after 10 years with his wife, and marrying her straight after school, he still loves her and thinks she’s a good woman and he said, “Of course! She is my life!”

He spent some time in Cape Town learning English before coming back to Gabon. So everything bad is “kak”. He was in Cape Town during the Xenophobia violence that broke out and said that he stayed in his house for two weeks without leaving because he was scared of being identified as a foreigner. He even paid a lot more money to stay in a much nicer area than the local townships, purely from a safety point of view. He said a friend of his, who was trying to save as much money as possible, stayed in Kayalitsha, and was hunted down at one point and beaten and eventually died. Crazy stuff! He said when he had to go into town to his English class again, he used to travel in on the train, terrified that someone would try to talk to him. He eventually left South Africa earlier than planned because his wife said she was worrying about him too much and he must get out before something bad happened to him.

He told me I must stop saying French is hard, because if I say its hard it will be. Wise words. And all I have to do is put more effort in and I can learn French. (Jeez, think he’s been talking to MY parents!) He notes that Gabon doesn’t have aggression and violence because there are only 1.5 million people in the whole country. Which I think is pretty true. Many Gabonese are worse off than many SAns, but there’s no aggression and a high crime rate etc. And very little violence. They really are very friendly and open people. I’m glad I met Juvenile and was able to enjoy an evening chatting with him.

12/11/11 Banio2 revisited…

 

12 November, 2011

Today was the revisiting of Banio2. This camp is about 30mins flight north of the border with Congo. Its 2.5 hours flying time from Port Gentil, but a pleasant flight. It is exhausting, however, if you haven’t slept very well the night before and you get a 30min refuel break before heading all the way back to Port Gentil. I literally had to sing rude songs to myself the whole way back to keep myself from falling asleep. Surprised at how well I still remember all the Kevin Bloody Wilson lyrics I learned at school & varsity…

Apparently it is Autumn in Gabon. But only some of the trees know this.	The mist/steam/cloud which develops immediately after rain passes

This is where I saw all the elephants last time, and managed to get a quick shot of a few as they bolted for cover. I always thought that the elephants I usually fly over in game parks run because they remember the last time they heard a helicopter, they woke up with a vicious hangover. But these guys ran like hell too! Guess its the vibration they don’t like (they are all about vibrations after all).

What the coastline looks like. Plenty lagoons since there’s no topography	Elephants charging for the treeline

Passing a number of lakes on the way I noted just how many homesteads there were LITERALLY in the middle of nowhere. I have often marvelled at how the South African rural dwellers manage to survive so far from roads etc, but these guys are HUNDREDS of kilometres from any roads! Predominantly located around the numerous lakes, so presume fish is a staple diet. If any of them are vegans they’re going to be miserable! (and skinny!)

Banlio2 from the air. The helipad area is almost the same size!	Awesome helipad of wood, though

Banio2 is a shithole. It is a tiny camp which looks like its in Mozambique, rather than an equatorial country. I feel sorry for the passengers I drop off there. I couldn’t live there for a month at a time. Apparently it is also pumping oil, this little camp is within about 2-3km of the coast, but that means nothing because there is nothing around it for many kilometres in any direction…

This water bladder provides water for the camp (other than drinking water which is bottled)	Banio 2 camp – like a resort in Mozambique

 

11/11/11 Remember, remember the 11th of November… (2011)

 

11 November, 2011

 

So, the world didn’t end (again), we’re all still doing what we were the day before… Thankfully my day was a little busier than the day before. So much so that the machine is going to need to go in for MPI (a service) very shortly.

I did my usual trip to Coucal to take 2 pax there, 1 back. Then in the afternoon I flew to Coucal AGAIN, taking another 1. Why he couldn’t make it onto the morning flight (I can take up to 5 pax) I don’t know, but as far as getting to fly goes, I don’t care!

In action….	My best friend – VERY nice GPS

Amusing moment when I got to Coucal, having not had a cup of coffee yet. For those that don’t know me very well, this is imperative to ensure sensible conversation and operational co-ordination. I asked in the canteen if they would mind if I made a cup. No problem, help yourself. I face the coffee table. No mugs. Ask for a mug and he points at the table as if I’m an idiot. All there are on the table are cereal bowls. Yes, he nods as if to a small child, there you go!

I promised myself just one cup of coffee a day…	Coucal’s canteen – much smaller than ours

So with my bowl of coffee in one hand (burning the crap out of me) I retire to wake up. The safety guy finds me (he’s new) and asks me to explain how he must wave the ping-pong bats to direct me to land. This, for anything other than a Boeing, where the pilot can’t observe the whole aircraft, is much like the car guards in South Africa which expertly direct you to your parking spot, as if they would never trust you to do it on your own.

I went through the four basic commands; come towards me, stop, go up/down, shut down. Oh, and move left/right. They love that one. I can barely keep the bloody machine in a 1m square area, and they tirelessly direct you a little bit left, then a little bit right, then back to the left, trying to land you EXACTLY in the centre of the pad. Which is 20 x 20m.

Anyway, I laughed at myself because I didn’t have the vocab to explain it properly to him (the hand gestures just weren’t working) and I noticed that I’d say something like, “…est c’est pour plus droit, en moenie... bliksem…!” As I struggled more for French words, I used Afrikaans words instead. I guess to my brain there’s English and then “Foreign”… and they only like it when I talk foreign…

Just before I took off I found an injured bird on the pad by the chopper. I’d been there an hour, so doubt I’d hit him while landing, but he was breathing very heavily and not moving. I moved him into the grass before starting, but I doubt he made it. What is it with me and dying birds!?!

Up my nose…	Below my feet…

I finally set off in the afternoon to Port Gentil again!!! Yay!! Just after I’d decided to blog instead, I now had the chance to upload all my pics onto FB!

8/11/11 A Rumble in the Jungle

 

8 November, 2011

 

You could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet in the tiny patch of grass I'd been forced to land in. But I didn't have any pins.

There weren't even birds chirping, I observed, as I surveyed the bush around me. Heavy rain had cut me off and I'd had to land in a small opening in the bush with no cell signal. I was also having trouble raising the Helipad Officer at Onal on the satellite phone to tell him why I wasn't back yet.

 

The bad weather looming up ahead as I fly through sunshine

I had attempted to make a run to Coucal, all of 40nm (70 odd kms). The first 35 from Onal had been trouble-free. Sun shining, clouds high. But as I got closer to Coucal the cloud dropped lower and lower and eventually, just 4nm from the pad I ran up against a wall of heavy rain. So heavy I couldn't see more than about 100m into it. No-one flies into a

 

heavy downpour in this part of the world!

I tried flying along the face of the rain for 5 minutes, but it was a wall that ran about 30km in each direction. I gave up, turned back to Onal, and radioed Coucal to tell them I wasn't coming. I could hear the irritation in the French Camp Chief's voice. The cloud was high over Coucal. What was my problem?! Coucal was in a valley, and with my limited French I didn't feel that I could adequately explain Orographic Relief and its effect on local climatology, particularly cloud development to him, so I simply said in my best French, "Rain everywhere, cloud down. Very bad. I am going to Onal!" He got the message.

Landed at a desolate spot in the bush

However, two-thirds of the way back to Onal I radioed ahead and heard that it was bucketing down in Onal too! I couldn't get back and didn't have enough fuel to hang around waiting for the rain to pass. I had to hurry and find somewhere to put down. So I flew back along the hidden pipeline, to a pump house with a simple helipad nearby and landed. Not a soul (well, human soul) around.

 

 

Hiding behind the chopper. In the bush beyond, King Kong's younger brother scratches his arse menacingly

The bushes 30m away from me rustled as they do in the movies before the screaming cheerleader gets taken out by an axe-wielding psycho in a mask. I think I would have preferred trying my luck with the psycho, because from the edge of the jungle and the bush, I heard a half-growl, half bark. I can only assume it was made by the offspring of the monster that lived under my bed as a child, and the lady who ran the laundry with an iron fist at school... And it sounded hungry. I know there are gorillas all over the jungle, and I remembered a crappy movie I saw recently where a guy ends up in the arms of a gorilla and is only able to keep it calm by continuing to sing the song, "I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you". All I could think was that I don't know all the words to the song!!!!

 

The Fly Of Death! Two million eyes glaring contemptuously at me!

Finally, after what felt like forever, I managed to get hold of Onal on the satellite phone and was told I could come. I leapt into the chopper, fired it up, and took off. Almost as I cleared the tree line, a fly, which had obviously flown in while the door was open, flew up from behind the dash and started to attack the front windscreen, narrowly missing my ducking and diving head with each attack. This fly was unlike any other fly I have ever seen! It was about an inch long to start with! It had two huge, bright green pods, each with a million eyes. And it was annoyed that I was taking it away from its peeps. I know it was just a fly, but I swear it had fangs. And as I stared at it with mounting horror, one of the pods of a million eyes changed colour from green to black.... It was winking at me!!! With reflexes that one only has during periods of peak stress, I managed to flick it out of my side window and return to Onal in safety.

 

Not a lot of space between tree tops and cloud base

I still had to get back to Coucal to fetch the guys I'd left there this morning, so after refuelling I took off again for the low cloud and rain. Like all true stories, this doesn't have a funny ending, but I did have to squeeze myself out over the trees around Coucal below a 50 foot cloud base to get home. Quite the little experience. And, as if to confirm that my fears in the little clearing were not hysterical, the guy next to me on the way back pointed to an intersection in the mining road below me and said, "That piece of road we call 'Place of the Gorilla'". Apparently he had seen one himself at that intersection just a few weeks before....

So how was your day?

7/11/11 A 9/11 Mention

 

7 November, 2011

 

Well I've just had an interesting conversation. The fixed-wing pilot is in the camp for the day (apparently they fly an average of 5 hours a day!! Lucky bastards!) and he's a black Tanzanian who apparently now lives in the States. His wife and kids are in DC (say Hi to them, Tig!) and he hasn't seen them in a year! (a tangent, but poor guy!)

Anyway, he was telling me that he was enrolled at one of the training schools that the 9/11 hijackers trained at, and personally knew one of the pilots that flew into the WTC. How weird is that!? He said it stuffed his training prospects up properly, of course. The school was closed for a year or so, and him being a foreigner, was unable to continue his flight training for nearly 3 years!

What's even more crazy is that he was working for FEDEX at the time, and was contracted to the Pentagon, and was actually driving to the Pentagon on the morning of 9/11, was only 3 minutes away from arriving and going into the building when he saw the plane fly over his head and then heard the boom and saw the smoke! He said he got on scene faster than any of the emergency vehicles! Incredible story!

And that's my news. This is the 3rd day now I haven't been flying - I'm now starting to hear stories of pilots sitting all month without flying and leaving in annoyance - thankfully that hasn't happened to me, but I'm also not exactly being flown off my feet. Anyway, I said I'd do 2 trips and take it from there, so I will do that and then see what's out there...

Hope everyone is having an awesome MONDAY!!!! bwaaahaaahaaa!!!!!

5/11/11 A Bit More Around the Camp

 

5 November, 2011

 

Little swifts/swallows hiding under the tin roof from the heat	This bugger is about 25cm wide! Bugs are big in Gabon.

I've just learned that the ants in Gabon are ANGRY!! Even the tiny little black ants that are found all over the world. We took the rain cover off the chopper, left it folded on the pad for an hour, then when I picked it up, there were a million ants clustered underneath it. They obviously went crazy, scattering in all directions, but I saw that most of them were carrying eggs, so obviously moving house. The ones with the eggs all moved under the skid to hide, while those not carrying eggs (I assume the soldiers) came at me. But not just milled around my feet, I moved over 5m away and they all rushed at me! Not following each other in the way we're all used to seeing ants move,but almost as a wave. I've never known ants of that size to chase someone over such a distance.

A workshop right up against the jungle on the edge of Onal Camp	Workshop area for the large crane trucks - quite novel...

Normally they seem to lose where you are as soon as you're a meter or so away. But these kept aiming for me, not matter where I walked to on the helipad. Very interesting...Well, I thought so... Give me a break... Nothing else is happening today...

Many of these trucks do all the heavy lifting, container movements, etc.	Seriously?! I know I'm a short-arse, but the housekeeper is taking the piss!!