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).
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| 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.
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| “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.
Exciting to have you coming home. Can't wait to hear from you. If the rainy season is only beginning, I wonder how much you will fly in your next month there. What can we think of to keep you entertained on the off days?
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