Puff Adder

You know, I am doing this for a living.  No kidding. 

So I'm up at 6:30 am, have a nice omelette, then go flying.  I've got the new guy on base, a very fine Italian fellow who has never flown offshore before, sitting beside me as I indoctrinate him to the world of International offshore oil exploration.  He's got tons of African experience, so the conversations are entertaining to say the least.  Then back to our hotel for a quick avocado and prawn lunch, then off to the beach for some snorkelling and yet more pictures of clown fish.  One brazen Clarke Clown, in his deep maroon colouring, is a tad put off by my presence, so he bravely charges at the pale skinned mazungu standing over his claimed anemone, camera in hand.  I'm impressed with his bravado, but as he leaves the safety of his anemone, another predator, I think a Stripedfin Ronquil, bursts out of somewhere and clamps onto the clownfish!  Now I'm torn between the thought that the clownfish's demise is my fault as I'm the reason he's left the safety of his anemone, and capturing some pretty awesome National Geographic photos, but luckily somehow the clownfish makes it back to his anemone, and the ronquil gives up and heads off.  I didn't get any shots.

Then I go mountain biking.  It seems the cashew factory gets out at sixteen hundred, as we thread our way through hundreds of local gals in brightly coloured kangas headed home.  We smile and get a slight Tour de France vibe as the girls cheer us on happily and run alongside our bikes, yelling Swahili greetings and flashing friendly smiles.  It warms my heart.  As we head deeper into the rural hills, we pass fields of fire as farmer's burn for future crops.  I guess the snakes don't much appreciate the burning fields, and we pass a four foot long Puff Adder crossing the road, doing his best to escape.  It's thee most deadliest snake in all of Africa.  I don't get any photos but it's impressive.

Eventually we find ourselves back at the Laso View Hotel in Mtwara, legs burning but happy, having passed through numerous small villages and responding to countless Swahili greetings.

It really is a hard life.....

Baobab Church

Sony NEX-7 underwater camera settings; 30mm 1:2.8 lens, Aperture priority at 2.8, -.7 stop exposure compensation, white balance set for cloudy, ISO locked at 100.  Seems to be working!

 

I had on my swimsuit, ipad in hand, for the Sunday traditional poolside lunch at the Old Boma in Mikindani, but I had to give it a miss.  We have a new arrival on base, and I've been tasked with running him through emergency after emergency and IFR approaches and what-ever other skills he requires to operate commercially here, and to be quite honest, I'm having a blast!  As I sipped an instant coffee outside in a plastic deck chair at the airport, waiting for the helicopter to be prepped for our sortie, I could hear a rural church, actually not much more than a gathering under a huge baobab tree, singing gospel.  The unmistakable Swahili-African voices carried through the swaying trees and it was quite simply, beautiful. 

Last night we headed out over the Indian Ocean for rig deck landings at night, and with no wind and no moon, he had his hands full, but we got it done.  I had really missed the instructing and am happy to be back at it again.  It's been a long transition from the Super Pumas and S61s to the AW139, but I'm pretty much there now.  More time on type would be nice but it only comes with time.  I certainly can't complain about missing a day at the Boma, we are here to work after all.....

 

Back to work...

There's very little to write about these days.  I've been hitting the trails hard with my mountain bike, my tricked out early-nineties triple-butted Easton frame, recently spray painted flat black, full XTR and Race Face, as the weather has been phenomenal, dry and windy with daytime temperatures in the high twenties.  Smoking along foot hardened single track with laughing kids yelling "Good Morning!"  irrespective of the time of day, dodging goats and chickens and local bikers loaded well beyond all reasoning.  I've been having fun.  The SAR bird has been unserviceable, as getting parts into the more remote regions of Tanzania is a struggle, so my SAR training keeps getting pushed back, and the rig has moved in quite close to base again, so the short hops are over far too quickly.  I do miss the two hundred miles legs out into the miserable weather of the North Atlantic.  I think I do miss being at home as well, but I am here, so best make the most of it.  I lost my underwater camera in Mombasa last year so purchased a Digitech underwater bag for my NEX7, and I've been experimenting with settings.  Not quite there yet but it's coming.....

On the road again....

In the Toronto Maple Leaf lounge, enroute Zurich then DAR es Salaam, for a gin and tonic on the rooftop bar of the Holiday Inn, breathtaking East Africa gals flashing those smiles, those smiles, sweet Jesus, and a few hours sleep then the hop down to Mtwara.  The novelty of heading to Africa just isn't wearing out.

My good old Norco Java, with its tight geometry, damn I love that bike, torn down and stuffed into a hockey bag, is checked straight through to DAR without incurring any extra fees.  Amazing what a smile can accomplish.

Still struggling with where I'd rather be.  Guess I'll just enjoy both lives I'm living.