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.