Might be offline for a few Weeks

[Gary Fowler]

A few more photos of some local baboon population that drove out the monkeys from a large cavern which they used for shelter. A photo from 1/2 mile away of a 5500 KG AMFO rock blast ( we had about 3 per week)

 

[k0ua]

Gary, glad to see you made it back safe and sound!

James K0UA

 

[Gary Fowler]

Thanks James. It was an interesting 8 weeks. Luckily the job wasn't too demanding which left plenty of time for exploring. The country is pretty stable at least in the Lobito area so we were free to roam the area and see the sights. The jobsite itself is over 13 kms in length x width of over 10 and traverses from sea level to 280 meters in elevation with two plateau levels. I made a 2 hour drive to the Catembela river dam site which is where they will be running a 30" water pipeline to supply water to the refinery when it is built. That is going to be a task as they want to bury it and the ground is all rock varying from granite at the dam site to limestone near the ocean. Photo of dam.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Also some photos of the upper end of the river where the contractors are currently hauling dust control water which is about an hour drive from site.

 

[Xfaxman]

:welcome: home! Thanks for the pictures.

I also am trying to get caught up on neglected chores like mowing and weedeating, which are bit out of control even with me being here! :laughing:

Got more pictures?

 

[TSO]

Great shots Gary! Looks like a nice climate. Did everything go smoothly? Any wild stories to keep us entertained?

 

[daugen]

wow, Gary welcome home and glad you're back in one piece and no diseases. Those pics are amazing.
the one of the monkeys looking down was pretty creepy...
That's quite an infrastructure improvement, what or who is funding it?
Drew

 

[farmgirl19]

Welcome home! Glad to hear that you survived! Of course, with so much work to do here, you might wish you were back over there!

Neat pics!

 

[creekbend]

Welcome back. I enjoyed the pictures.

 

[Gary Fowler]

wow, Gary welcome home and glad you're back in one piece and no diseases. Those pics are amazing.
the one of the monkeys looking down was pretty creepy...
That's quite an infrastructure improvement, what or who is funding it?Drew

This is a Sonaref (government owned) project. They are real penny pinchers and always seem to be late in paying for the work done. IIRC the first stage of this project is building the 2 access roads, a 1500 man camp facility, a 13 km public road reroute and a marine off-loading facility which will be 1.2 km long by 800 meters out into the ocean. Second stage which has not been released is leveling the land for the refinery and running the 25 km water pipeline. Total cost about 6 billion USD and 3 years work for just the infra-structure and site prep work. I don't have cost for the actual refinery build but likely about the same money as infra-structure cost.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Great shots Gary! Looks like a nice climate. Did everything go smoothly? Any wild stories to keep us entertained?

Nothing too wild, but we did find some bodies in the plateau. A few months before I got there they found 2 soldier that had been shot in the head and left unburied. They got the authorities out and removed the bones for proper burial.
While I was there we found 6 more partial buried in a mass grave(photos). Looks like these were as late a 1998 as per dated concrete in the vicinity.
About the only other excitement was the 5 foot cobra that was found crawling around on of the office sites and killed (no photo of that) and the large cat tracks and snake tracks fond in the loose dust of the work site. No idea of the type of cat but prints looked to about the size of an American bobcat. Snake tracks were prevalent and some very large at about 4" wide on the belly so likely a big boa constrictor. We did have a large on frequenting the gate guards at night for a while that they claimed was 6 meters long but after we cleared all the brush and grass for 100 feet around the tents the snake wasn't seen again. Several Secretary birds were seen in the area and they keep the small snakes in check (check these out on Google). I have distant photo of one that was over 4 feet tall (photo) . To put into perspective the size, the grass was more than knee high which was not even up to the birds body.

 

[oldballs]

Hi Gary, didn't know that you were gone.:ashamed: But, now that I think of it, haven't seen you informative posts for some time. Cheers, Mike

 

[Carl_NH]

Glad you made it back Gary and thanks for all the photos and updates along the way.

Not to exciting, just a few bodies, bones, and 20' Boa constrictors and big birds that eat the 'small snakes" I would think that's enough to stay close to camp!

Well, I am sure you are happy to be home and with family on this holiday too!

Carl

 

[Gary Fowler]

It is always good to be back home. My daughter from Denver came to spend a few days with us and she has been keeping the visiting grandson busy. She took him on a short hike this morning while I was readying the boat for a cruise tomorrow and now he is passed out in the bedroom. 15 year olds just don't have the stamina that I did when his age.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I found another interesting photo here. This marine off loading facility is being built by a Chinese company (CHEC= Chinese Harbor Engineering Company)for loading iron ore onto ships whenever Angola completes the railroad into it. The entire surface is hand laid with 3"x5" paver brick. Of course they brought these in from China by the shipload and also imported all the cement from China. There is a cement factory not 100 meters from the marine facility. Also all built with Chinese labor which is typical of the Chinese companies when they do work. They don't benefit the local economy much if any.