17/4/12 - A day out!!

 

As many of you know, I have been sitting in a hotel room in Port Gentil for the last 15 days without a minute’s flying. Some of you have expressed sympathy for my predicament, and others have quite rightly pointed out that I’m feeling sorry for myself and must just grow a pair and suck it up. Thanks

The brief (and I have to keep it brief) story is that the local government has decided to no longer give temporary operating licences out to foreign operators to fly in Gabon. Instead, a company must register locally. To register locally, a company must own at least one locally registered aircraft. And naturally a ton of money is needed to pay for all the paperwork etc etc. Everything has been done on our side, we have assured the Gabonese CAA that we will re-register the helicopter in Gabon AND purchase an aircraft which will also be registered in Gabon. But still we sit waiting for the paperwork and operating licence to be signed off by them.

Other companies have actually bought smaller Gabonese registered planes, parked them on the apron and forgotten about them, just to get their operating licences. There is a rumour going round that a competing company has paid off someone in the CAA to stall our application as they’re after our contract. But the end result is that I have been stuck in the hotel with little to do.

Communication towers outside my room. That tower was waving like mad the last big storm we had here	An average road around Port Gentil
Road in the more industrial area where all the oil companies are – would expect them to have awesome roads!	One of the main roads in PG
Not easy to see the corrugations and potholes – tar roads not much better in places	Typical taxi in Gabon. Blue stripe up bonnet, over roof, down boot. And falling apart

Since I have no car and this place is even more expensive than Dubai (!!!!) I haven’t gone anywhere further than I can safely walk – which is really down to the industrial waterfront at the end of my road. A nice enough walk, but the sparkle of excitement wanes after the fourth walk along the same route.

So it was with tremendous excitement that I managed to organise someone to drive me around a bit today to show me the end of the peninsula of land that Port Gentil sits on. Mostly open swampland (there is sooo much water – and apparently they’re having a dry rainy season), but a golf course hidden amongst some trees and just a lot of open beach.

A life on the ocean waves…	Roadsides are rubbish dumps – this one for vehicles – middle of nowhere
Beautiful beaches up the peninsula	Very old, hollow lighthouse

At the end of the peninsula is a Total oil refinery and a small dirt town, mostly of shacks and small houses. A very old, rusty and surely soon-to-collapse lighthouse sits on the beach nearby. We pulled over to walk down onto the sand to where a bunch of fishermen in a large wooden dugout were pulling in their nets. There was quite a lot of activity as they had caught fish and their women were sitting on the sand with the fish in large metal bowls being sold. The sand is very white, and very fine-grained and actually squeaks when you walk on it – similar to walking on snow but higher pitched. Apparently this is due to the grains being small, dry (wet sand is lubricated) and round, so the pressure from one’s feet squashes the grains against each other, causing them to squeak (as is also the story with snow).

Fishermen pulling the nets up onto their boat, hopeful for fish	Crowds gathered around the women selling the fish
Everything caught from tiny fish	To larger versions of the same
Selling from metal bowls	Bunching all the nets up after they’ve been pulled in

At another beach area on a point of land is an old hotel called Nenga Bembe which hasn’t been open for many years and is all run down. But what an awesome setting! The beach is literally RIGHT next to the hotel. The old swimming pool is still there, although half hanging off the edge of the embankment onto the beach, and filled with sludge and rubbish. I couldn’t easily see why it had closed. No fire damage or anything visible. Just thought it was in a great location.

Nenga Bembe Hotel – not looking so hot anymore	The beach right in front of the hotel (visible on the right)
Panorama from swimming pool to sea	Open air bandstand next to the old hotel. This is used regularly apparently

On the way back I took a few pics of the average street in Port Gentil. I tried to get a pic of the mammoth potholes in the roads, but couldn’t get a decent shot. The vast majority of vehicles in Gabon are SUVs or 4x4s, except for the taxis which are all very knackered, old and run-down sedans. But the roads are so bad and potholes so large that regularly the SUVs have to slow right down and creep forward through the minefield of holes. Makes for interesting driving!

A few video clips of driving. I particularly love the intersection at the top of our road where everyone turning left (remember they drive on the right side of the road) has to peel off to the RIGHT, then stop at a set of traffic lights in the middle of the intersection before crossing across to the left. The one clip shows us pulling to the right and stopping, and then I pan the camera to the left to show where we’re aiming to go. The second is travelling down the road to the hotel. On the right we pass the restaurant I eat at every night, and right after it an open-air 2nd hand car lot with a bright yellow Hummer that has been there since I first came to Gabon.

Pull to the right to turn to the left	Down my street to the hotel. Le Nautilus (restaurant I eat at) flashes past just before bright yellow Hummer

Finally I took a pic and video from l’Hirondelle Hotel showing where I’m staying and the building that’s going on 3m away from my room. They’re building 24 new rooms, so its soon to become a very large hotel!

Walking from my room towards the street, I show the front facade of the hotel	The construction going on every day from my room

I love the quality of scaffold! Very European health and safety, with handrail, danger tape and secure legs. A far cry from the scaffolding you see in SA!