Back to the beach

After two aborted starts (a week’s delay in operations and an expired visa) I finally got myself on an Emirates flight to Dubai and then onto Jeddah. So much of relief. I didn’t even mind the fact that I had a 6 hour layover in JHB on the way out… I hit the Slow Lounge, threw my bags in one of the little VIP chill rooms (with a TV and small bed), ate and drank as much as I could, and reclined until my flight departure at 19h10.

An uncomfortable night on the plane, as expected (when will Fugro realise I’m worth Business Class?!), a brief hour in Dubai airport before boarding my first A380!! Great excitement until I realised that during my online adventures I had managed to secure myself a row of three seats right over the wing!! Which is the size of a soccer field, so no view for me! Dammit! I did, however, get to play with all the shiny buttons of the in flight entertainment, and as most of you would imagine, that no doubt had more allure to me than a view of miles and miles of sand.

A380, baby!! Lower level	All shiny new and very wide
I can see Felix Baumgartner hanging from a balloon from here!

Thankfully I was checked into a small hotel in Jeddah when I arrived mid-morning before being taken back to the airport to board an internal flight to Gassim/Qassim (depending on which sign you read). Most towns have very variable spellings – no doubt because its translated from Arabic. The bonus about this flight, however, was that I had been given a Business Class ticket as presumably that was all that was left. So straight into the Business Class lounge I raced where I once again ate and …. well, just ate as much as I could before the 1 hour flight.

Sneaky photo of other larny Business Class passengers	I did some damage to that buffet
Boxes of gear near the helis, looking towards mine	Main road into mine – our containers are just to the right of the truck

The flight was followed by a 2 hour drive (at night – by a fearless and suicidal – read Saudi – driver) to one camp where I spent the night and was only fetched at 7pm the following evening to be taken to the camp we’re flying from. What a trip! Apparently I had just missed the serious rains where almost everything flooded (so much so that I was informed that the new evacuation plan was to try to get across a small stream – which apparently would wash you away during a heavy rain – and fly the choppers up to higher ground. Hmm… I see a problem. Still, the very flat terrain we are in hopefully would mean that it floods everywhere and therefore not too high. We’ll see.

Have fuel tanker, will fly!	Couldn’t find out what these are, but they’re everywhere
Mud cracks in the powder sand	There was a massive area that flooded – and there isn’t much of a catchment area nearby…

Our small containers have been positioned literally RIGHT outside the security fence of the active mine, but we eat in the mine’s canteen. The food is surprisingly better than the last camp. While there is still plenty rice and a “limitlessss” amount of chicken, there is also more of a selection and yesterday I had an awesome chicken stew-type thing. Much better!

Main entrance to mine – with mosque front and centre	Our containers with aircon, small bathrooms and dust
No photographs!	Condiments. Fish flavoured sauce – seriously!?

Breakfast is at 5am (yawn!) where after we pre-flight, fire up and head out to the survey areas. Our fuel caches are usually very remote (if they’re too close to people fuel pumps etc. get stolen – even in Saudi, can you believe it?!) although they do need to be near a large enough road for our truck to reach us with drums of fuel. I found our current one (pics below) and was particularly proud of it as its in a bowl and hidden from everyone! I expect to see the Mars Rover at any moment…

“There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere”	A well constructed fuel cache
Nothing for miles around – and yet car tracks EVERYWHERE throughout the desert

Afternoons are pretty much paperwork moments (so much computer “paperwork”) and movies. One afternoon in my container I felt the wind start howling outside. The extractor fan in my en suite (excuse me!) began spinning in the wrong direction and all the cold air from my aircon was blown out under the front door. I opened the door and saw what I photographed in the first pic below. Within 5 mins the container was rocking and I opened the door again, got both eyes filled with sand and snapped the second picture! A massive thunderstorm followed – which thankfully wasn’t big enough to wash us away (I wasn’t going to attempt fording any raging streams in that weather!) and then all was calm, and hot, again.

Looks a bit hazy out there today…	What the hell?! I was getting sand in my eyes sitting in my room
You can’t see the exfoliating sand layer on my soap