What happened to October?

?Life's been a bit hectic lately and it seems to be getting harder and harder to post every month.  And this has been a particularly interesting month, not always in a good way.

As discussed last post, I spent my two weeks away from Canga being rather ill with a nasty flu type thing.  One of those weeks was working in the London office passing it on down there.  The wonderful thing was getting to catch up with Marge, the lady I met in Sicily under tragic circumstances after her husband passed away during the night in the apartment next to mine.

Then it was back to Canga again.  The first week was very sad, as two colleagues close to me passed away in two days.  This actually increased by 50% the number of people close to me in my life who have died, and this was the first time I'd seen them so close before their death.  The latter I was the last person he talked to.

On to cheerier subjects, here are some photos from a trip I took by helicopter to Kérouané last rotation.  The first shows the helicopter perched rather precariously on top of a mountain that we'd dropped on to to check out a radio tower.

 

While we were there, we found a little friend... the wildlife in this place is astounding sometimes, but this little scorpion is one to avoid I think. 

In Kérouané, once out of the Rio Tinto compound and exploring the town about, we found the river and with it the local river crossing service.  Apparently these guys have no jobs, and so they barge people from one side to the other as a way to both do the community a service and fill their days.  Lovely.

One of them kindly offered us a trip up and down the river.  It was even more spectacular and tranquil than it looks.

 

Then it was back to Canga, seen here from the air.

That was last rotation, this rotation as I said has been a bit different. No matter, out on Friday and off to Brisbane the following week! Can't wait to go home for the first time in 5 years.