BK's global road.

"Yeah G’day guys,

Hope you’re travelling well and managed to reap what you have sown (in the metaphorical sense only).

Arrived back in sunny yet thankfully cooler Capetown last Wednesday and have just spent the last 3 days cragging at some quartzite cliffs next to a swamp a couple of hours from Capetown.

Successfully (I think) managed to reintegrate back into civilisation last Wednesday after 6+ weeks in Oman ... flew back to Capetown via Muscat, Dubai and Johannesburg from Fahud in the desert...more or less a 20 hour trip, but fairly happy to be somewhere cooler and slightly greener and less sandy and with a whole lot more of the fairer sex.

Although our brief desert encounter was a positive exchange of mutual knowledge, Anne the kiwi geophysicist was the only chick amongst 200 odd blokes including 40 odd mosquito swatting expats.

6 weeks seems about a good time frame to test your level of sanity in the Middle East but realistically Oman is a fantastic country, Muscat is a mind bogglingly spectacular city and the Omani’s have great reputation for being a friendly bunch.

Gulf oil platform, Jesus complex.
Desert home, seismic survey, Oman.

My Arabic nickname of 'Hamlud ' (i.e. the fast camel, supposedly used as a term of endearment for racing camels in the Gulf) managed to stick for the whole trip in Jebel Fahud and so I’ll run with that for a while.

Seems like a good price for a quality racing camel is about 2000 Omani rials or $8000 Australian.

Not sure if I’ll invest in one just yet. Importing frankincense seems like a better option and not that hard as it turns out.

Will be heading back to the desert on the 7th of Dec for another 6 weeks including Xmas which sounds exotic but really translates into a rare day off and being stuck in a remote sandy desert camp with a load of Brits drinking cheap beer and playing cricket (sounds like Xmas on Bondi beach now that I think of it).

Of course I’ll continue my unrelenting barrage of abuse at the Poms in an all out push to convince them that the royals are a complete waste of time.  They'll learn eventually.

Completely destroyed a pair of $300 boots in the 6 weeks and have started trying to sort out something a tad more durable. Check out the La Sportiva website and get an eyeball on the 'rockworker' a custom made access boots that would cut the mustard in a swanky Brunswick st cafe any day but perhaps not with the high brow crew that you hang out with.

Limestone scree is like walking on serrated bread knives. I think the record for destroying a pair was held by one of the Brits at around 7 days.

Gulf platform, sans Jesus.

Being given a new twin cab Hilux at the start of the gig complete with desert flags and satellite tracking units was more a less a red rag to a bull and since then the complete barrage of known tests has been applied by the boys away from the watchful eye of the client (who incidentally owns the 100 of these things that are on site) and during the period when the vehicle satellite tracking unit has been mysteriously switched off....

Seems these sturdy wagons are the way forward and even the way upwards in a physical sense if one particular test is anything to go by. The wagons are decked out with awesome roll cages, the whole seismic survey is about a third complete with the possibility of another similar project coming up on a more mountainous Jebel system about a hundred km away.

Sounds like it will involve being flown in to location by Huey helicopter and using explosives to generate seismic waves ... (both this Jebel system and the one we are working on presently are mentioned in Wilfred Thesiger's classic desert novels about crossing the Empty Quarter of Arabia)...

Muslim month of Ramadan (no eating / drinking /playing music during daylight ) just finished as I was leaving supervising delirious Arabs around limestone cliffs in 45 degree heat has its interesting moments...

 

I am well paid for this.

I’ve met some fantastic crew including a Pommie bloke my age that has done a few of the old bicycle touring jaunts as well and sailed across the Atlantic.

Turns out his uncle is the First Sea lord of the British navy (i.e. he commands the whole fleet) his auntie used to go with Eric Shipton the Himalayan explorer before he was killed and he has an army type mate who apparently has a snuff box fashioned from the hoof of Napoleon’s horse.

Sounds like a load of horse shit I know but apparently 100% ridgy didge. Will has just flagged his job with a Taiwanese shipping company in London to become a plasterer.

A classic bloke and as mad as a cut snake.Meanwhile I’m trying to organise myself here in Capetown. Thinking of reviving the old epic motorbike trip pipedream with a Brit mate riding from Capetown to London on an old BMW motorbike...shaft driven motorbikes are the definite way forward and I wont be having any of that 'broken chain link chaos in the friggin savannah plains of Eritrea now.I hope you’re kicking goals, BK”

World's biggest building wrap, FT Tower in Hong Kong.