31/10/11 Onal Camp

 

31 October, 2011

 

The canteen in Onal

Aaagh, having picture uploading problems!! (this is why I have created the blog).

On a positive note, meals have steadily improved from the dried fish, green gunk of a few days ago. Calamari (fresh and local) for lunch and soussises Toulouse for dinner last night. With green beans. Feeling so healthy. Also found the laundry, so my crusty undies can finally be washed... (ha ha) and the gym, which has some fun equipment. Might even give that a go if really bored!

 

A fridge full of bottled water - we don't drink any other water.

Since I've been here, every morning has begun with flying at around 8.30, so this morning I rushed up to the pad at 7.45 to get the chopper ready and no-one was there. At 8.15 the ground co-ordinator still hadn't pitched so I guess there's no flying today. Clearly I have been spoiled the first few mornings with plenty flying and now I'm settling into the much quieter regular days...

 

My container, small but comfortable

So now impatiently waiting for lunch. Breakfast is at 5-6.30 strictly! (the French know how to be strict on rules - on my first day I was sternly informed that I had to go back to my room and change out of my flightsuit and into t-shirt and shorts to go to lunch, because they didn't allow work clothes in the dining room. This is obviously for the workforce in filthy overalls, but they've made it a blanket rule.) So no chance I'll be eating breakfast then, not when my working day only begins at 8.30!! Note to self to bring a ton of breakfast bars on next tour...

Looking back from bathroom to front door.

Bathroom with just enough space to sit side-saddle on the toilet!

It absolutely poured with rain most of last night which was awesome. Rain pelting into the aluminium roof of the container put me to sleep very quickly. Don't know if they get proper thunderstorms here or not... Have only heard heavy rain showers... Niiiice.

Hell, after this container I'm going to rattle around my house! Think I might just move everything into the spare room and live there...

 

Still flyable, but cloud base not looking good...

Right, after a day of doing nothing, I get a call "d'urgence"! I rush up to the pad to meet the medic who needs to be flown to Coucal (the other well 30mins flying time away I fly to basically every day). Someone is very sick and he has to get there now. Resisting the urge to say, "Let's go, Q!" (family joke there) I jump in and we take off. I must have weaved around (granted VERY slow weaving) 4 large rain showers. Clouds were very low and ominous and in this terrain you literally can't go into cloud for anything. So I landed on one of the pipeline roads (maybe the ONLY pipeline road) the medic made a phonecall (it amazes me that cell coverage is so good through this area when 90% of it is uninhabited-guess the mining sites all have huge cell masts). We decided to turn around and zig-zag back home. Landed as the wind started pumping and the rain arrived just after we had put the tie-downs and covers on. I feel crap for the poor guy who apparently has fever and is really sick, because he won't see the medic until tomorrow morning earliest.

Ok, since you're all dying to know ill tell you.. After about 18 years of avoiding all gyms I finally dragged my ass over to the camp gym. 20mins on the machine like x-country skiing where the feet move in time to the moving arms... I call it The Decimator because it ate up a whole 300 calories!!! I'm well on my way to being the sort of build that makes Ronnie weak at the knees (barf!) Ok, no chance of that, and I may need to be carried to the chopper tomorrow or request a housecall from the medic, but it's a bit of a start...

Right, off to dinner to eat 8 raw eggs, two whole chickens, a kilogram of rice and a 500g steak, like all my other hard-core, bodybuilding buddies do... I'll try get a pic of me in my spandex gym gear with leg warmers, but my legs move so fast they are just a blur!!

I am just so impressed with the pride the chef here shows in his work. He's Gabonese (if that's the right term), rather than France French, and he's cooking for miners in the most isolated place you could imagine, and yet we get a menu and pastries every morning, noon and night (I'm guessing about the morning bit) and he makes chocolate éclairs, and fruit salad in little bowls where he has cut an apple into a funky shape to create a design. Last night the pastries had little chocolate sticks and cream placed to create a pastry that looked like a swan! It's kinda sad that I'm so impressed with someone who takes pride in his work, even if it is in the bush rather than a hotel, because it means I'm used to food in canteen environments that is slopped together and practically thrown at you with as much indifference and as little effort as possible. Is that weird? I have to take my camera to dinner...