November 2011: Flights north and south

This month has been very busy with a lot of road travel around the Top Rnd to mines in Jabiru and around Pine Creek. But the flying continues. I has a couple of days down in Alice Springs again; this time   having to explain the rules to a recalcitrant client. But this week  on the 24th I made a visit to a mine out on the Tiwi Islands, a very special place about 20-25 minutes flying across the Arafura Sea to the north of Darwin.
The flights were unusual as they were the first in piston engined aircraft, not only for this year but for a while. SInce my son started flying jets for his work piston time has been limited and the propellor planes for work have usually been  turbo props.
Still on the way out we had 3 pax and a pilot in a Piper PA31/A1 Navajo. As we were preparing to leave Darwin we had to wait for other ground traffic which included this odd sight of a Piper Chieftain taxying with no engine cowlings on

.........and then  we saw this famous old DC3 (VH_MMA) which saw service in WW2 and is having a major overhaul, hence the lack of wings...............

....................and then this TAP (Portugal) Airbus 340  (CS-TOM) which is looking very grubby in an old all-white colour sheme, a far cry from the vibrant red green and white of its former life.....

Anyway after the delays we were  finally off to work and after about 20 minutes we found ourselves  flying over a mixture of  gum tree forest and forest plantations to land on a gravel strip called Jessie Creek

We had  busy day which included driving arund a lot on the island we were on (Melville Island)  using gravel roads and seeing wild water buffalo as we moved from site to site.

The day was very hot and we did a fair bit of walking around  but it is the build up to the wet season so the humidity was high and lots of water to drink was the order of the day. Soon it was time to head home.

Back at the strip we found  our return trip was changed to a Cessna 210 - single engined aircraft......

On the way back we saw a typical  build up storm cell heading across the harbour and then a major storm approaching Darwin........

We had to wait for a Jetstar Airbus 320 to go past and land

...........and then we were home.

A longish day  but a lot of interesting work and  a reminder of the "joys" of piston engined flight!

October 29-31: Country 93 - Timor Leste

A long weekend away to visit friends fron Vienna days who have been living and working in Timor Leste - not more than 65 minutes away by Air North Embraer 170 jet. The trip brings  the number of countries ticked off on my list to 93 with this being number 59 on the list of places only visited for holidays.
I flew off at 0630 on a humid Darwin morning  and reached Timor at  about 0730 local time. The trip was uneventful and the plane was barely 30% full.

September and October 2011

A number of flights to visit mines for work of which more anon when I get around to sorting out the pictures.

22-24 September; Freiberg, Dresden and Singapore

I had been expected to do the tour of the Wismut mines on Thursday but as it was going to be much th same as the tour we did in May from Gera I decided to miss it. Instead, after a leisurely breakfast Russ, Alex, Oleg and I  joined up to drive with Alex to Dresden where we had a meeting with Stefanie Hurst the head of radiation protection at the saxony Environment Ministry. That ended  at about lunchtime so we strolled around the old part of Dresden and had lunch before Oleg went for his train to Berlin and  Alex  drove Russ out to Leipzig Airport for his trip back to Vienna. A and  I then tried to find a hotel and ended up in the motel on the autobarn at Dresdenr Tor as all the hotels were full. The Pope was in Leipzig and so the overspill of tourists and pilgrims had fillled both cities!
Still the motel was fine and cheap enough.
next morning Alex and I went on a bit of sightseeing in Dresden  as I had never been inside the Frauenkirche. That was fantastic, we also took in a few of the other sites before meeting up with Stefanie for a farewell coffee after lunch and then i was of to Dresden airport with Alex.
Like Leipzig Dresden airport has  row upon row of last minute travel agents'offices offering cheap holidys to everywhere - seems a bit too last minute even for my planning style.
The airport is small but it worked OK and the Lufthansa Senator lounge was OK. the flight to Frankfurt was only 45 minutes or so in a B737-300 and then the usual marathon walk across FRA to get to the flight for SIN. NO upgrade and the plane was packed but we left on time and  all was well. I had seat 1K right at the front which is interesting. When we landed at SIN we pulled up at the gate and then teh APU failed and the cew had to wait fro ground power to be connectede before they could open the doors  and let us off. the ususal trail through immingation and customs and collecting one's luggage as you cannot interline bags onto Jetstar. Still I know the system and the route from T3 to t1 using the train and then the checkin for Jetstar. So now I am in the QANTAS first Class lounge with the good satay and lovely shrimp sarnies before the 4.5 hours horror ride  on Jetstar with my knees up around my ears that will put me back home into Darwin at 0430 Sunday morning

Freiberg: 21 September - UMREG 2011

Today was the day for our annual UMREG meeting; the Uranium Mining & Remediation Exchange  the day was very long but really good workwise. We had to start early with a lot of presentations to fit in and I was chairign for about two thords of the dy - but not speaking this time. At 0845 I began the opening session which was the triumvirate of myself, Alex Jakubick and Don Metzler - the executive committee. Then we had an opening speech from the Head of WISMUT and then the technical papers came one after until we finished about 1800. Time for Russ Edge and I to slink away for a quiet beer and then off to the old training mine for the committee dinner with all the UMH and UMREG helpers as well as the international programme committee members.

Freiberg: 19 and 20 September

The  flight from Munich to Dresden was in a CRJ 700 and I met another conferernce attendee on the way and we managed to negotiate the railway from the airport to Dresden main station safely and then just managed to buy our tickest for the expressi to Freiberg  in time to catch the train with less than one minute to spare. So on  a very grey Sunday afternoon we arrived in a very wet and rainy Freiberg. There were 5 other people waiting for  THE taxi on duty but when it came we found we were all going to the same conference but different hotels but we fitted 7 people and bags on board and off we went.
I am stayin in my usual place heet the Hotel Am Obermarkt - pretty central, comfortable and cheap enough with a great buffet breakfast and good staff. Soon enough I was off on the 20 minute stroll to the Univeristy (in the rain) for the registraion and  reception for the conference. Lots of old mates around and a few drinks and sandwiches and suddenly it was time to be  back in bed - I was tired I decided!
Yesterday (Monday) I was away early to meet more old chums before speaking in the opening plenary session of the meeting.
Today (Tuesday) I have been chairing a session all day on the uranium mining renaissance and this evening I willbe at teh poster session - again with old mates and a few drinks and sandwiches....
Tomorrow more old mates will be around when we have our special meeting of UMREG (the Uranium Mining & Remediation Exchange Group). It will be good to catch up with so many old friends from the industry.

September 17-18: Darwin to Munich

Well there we were again - back at the airport in Darwin. This time it was to make the triennial trip to  Freiberg, Germany for the Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology Conference, #6 in the series and I only missed #1 so far.
The trip began with ethe usual graggy flight on Jetstar, that awful low -cost subsidiary that will one day be all QANTAS has if the pesent CEO there has his way. Talk about dumbing down... The cabin crew have such average english that it is hard to grasp what they are on aboouot most of the time. Food and drink (even water) cost extra and the seats are very small and close together.  Also you cannot interline bagage unless you pay extra and then only onto a QANTAS flight. Not a real airline in the words of the staff themselves
Still it is only 4.5 hours to the sanity of Singapore Changi airport. This time I was transerring to Lufhansa and a flight to Munich with, again, a first class upgrade after all those points. 
the aircraft was an Airbus 340-300  with only 8 seats in First ansd we were only 6 passengers so it was very nice indeed. Greta service, good food and excellent wints; but the seat was not as good as in the B-747 of JUly's flight where we got two seats each! Still I got a good sleep and I am now sittimg in Munich waiting for 5 hours to catch the next flight to Dresden. Then a train to Freiberg and hope to be in the hotel Am Obermarkt (my usual haunt in Freiberg) by 1700 to go to the reception and registration for the meeting at 1800.

Still travelling: August 2011

Well it has been pretty hectic since rthe rteurn from UK and I am still on aeroplanes.
Work has taken me to Alice Springs (again) as well as Gove and Groote Eylandt on mine inspections. And then it was off to Uk fro a week to look after my father for a couple of days and meet up with son Michael before we both headed off to Suffolk for  the wedding of his cousin/my nephew.
The weather fro the wedding was fantastic and as we had all atken over a lovely old country hotel it was a really great occasion.  Sadly I had to rush off on the next morning to head back to  Darwin and arrived back on Monday at 0430 - jusat enough time to collect bags, clear customs, geta cab home, shower and chnage and b at a downtoen hotel to join up with other Chief Inspectors of Mines from Australasia to go underground at a gold mine about 150 km south of Darwin. Another site visit on Tuesday; meeings all day Wednesday then an 0530 start Thursday to go to  Jabiru for more meetings over 2 days (and a social golf competition).
Now a week at the office with only one field trip then next weekend I am  back to Freiberg, Germany for a uranium mining conference and the last of my "european dates" for this year.

July 22: Back to Europe

Friday 22 July and I am back at Darwin Airport.  Not work this time although I was herelast week as I had to go to Alice Springs for a couple of days  last week to meet up with my local staff member and see a few of the problem sites she has to regulate environmentally, mostly sand and gravel extraction operations. The weather was very cold and  it actually rained both Tuesday when we were out in the field and a lot on wednesday when i was walking out to the aeroplane to fly back to Darwin - no air bridges at Alice Springs airport!

Anyway The ttogether rip to Uk is so I can attend mt father's 97th birthday party on 24th. The lunch is on Sunday although his birthday is Monday so that my sister's children  and partners can be there too. So  children,, grandchildren (well, most of them as my Michael will be back in Australia) and now a great grandchild will all be there for lunch. 
I will be flying three sctors to get there; the awful Jetstar Asia from Darwin to Singapore - no choice of carrier so one has to endure 4 hours of cramped  travel on a low service, high cost, no frills  no pleasure carrier to Singapore. Then it will be Lufthanse Business Class form Singapore to Frankfurt and another Lufthansa on to London. Then I willl collect a Hertz car at Heathrowand drive down to  meet up with Clare at the south coast house of my friends Tim and Wendy  only 30 minutes from where my father lives with my sister and her husband. Tim and Wendy are the couple I travelled around Finland and Norway with in May this year.

BACK IN HARNESS: June 2011

Well, I am back at work now in a new job and I was thinking as an executive in this agency I might do less travel. Well it is not international but I am travelling. Since returning from Perth I have had to make  3 mine visits. two have involved overnight stays  and the third was a lot of driving. One involved a 60 minute flight to a mine I had not seen before and that was interesting. We arrived at sunset and as this is the dry seaason the sky was brilliant orange as we headed off into the mine village for induction and dinner. Then a day's work before flying back to Darwin in the late afternoon.
The other two mines so far have been sites I was familiar with from my 17 years working here before I went off to Vienna in 2004.
When we are on these missions we may be conducting audits against environmental criteria, carrying out routine inspections or, more rarely, investigating accidents and incidents. So there will be no details  here as we could be collecting evidence.
Another mine trip will be coming up before long I am sure................... watch this space

June 7-10: Perth - and a new car!

No, not Scotland but a domestic flight to Western Australia for the Annual Uranium Mining Conference of the AusIMM. A chance to catch up with the latest developments in the industry and meet up with a lot of old friends and former colleagues. Most people seemed to be aware of my new job and  there were lots of well-wishers which was very flattering.
The weather was great, if a little colder than Darwin in the morning, but the afternoons were glorious and the sunsets almost as good as Darwin. The flights were both with QANTAS and went OK.
The big news was that whilst I was in Perth my son Michael and his girlfriend were driving my new car up from Armidale, NSW to Darwin - about 3500km.    They took 3.5 days and arrived 6 pm Friday after I was back. A quick beer to watch sunset at the Darwin Sailing Club where I have been able to resurrect my membership; then a superb dinner at Char Restaurant before putting them on the 0045 flight to Sydney! M had to get back to work and a big party and Billie was in a netball tournament in Sydney going straight from the airport to the first match!
Michael caught a flight to Port Mcquarie and then flew a Cessna 310 up to Armidale with the owner (the guy who sold me the car!)
All in all a very busy week

27-28-29-30 May: Adieu to Europe

I am presently in the QANTAS lounge at Singapore's Changi Airport awaiting my flight on the dreaded Jetstar to Darwin in about 3 hours time. This will be the last leg of my three sector flight to Darwin from Vienna.
I will try to bring the blog up to date once I am back in Darwin, but in essence the conference/symposium in Gera went well and I gave the final paper of the event which seemed to go down quite well as I pointed out that while uranium mining  may not be sustainable in that once you have dug a hole it stays dug but there is no need  nowadays to  accept that the land is no longer useful.
After the event closed  we walked to the local "schloss/castle" for a BBQ which as   a bit upset by wind and rain but there was pianist in one of the old rooms who played to entertain us.
On the Friday we had an excursion to see waste rock dump remediation in the area around Schlema where I have been visiting for a number of  times before. Then it was off to Dresden for the night  with my old mate Alex to have dinner with another old friend from the Saxony Environment Department. A good meal in the shadow of the wonderfully reconstructed Frauenkirche.
Saturday dawned early as we set off at 0515 for the drive to Vienna in the rain. 6 hours of not a lot of fun for Alex but we made it with plenty of coffee stops and even managed to avoid the worst of the traffic on the Prague ring road.
Saturday afternoon was the official handover of my apartment - pretty sad after nearly 7 years  there  - I will miss the place a lot.
Saturday evening we went out of town to Langensersdorf to have a nice supper with American friends and colleagues Russ and Karen before a return to Vienna and my last night at the flat. Alex headed off to his hotel and we said farewell.
Sunday was a rush of last minute cleaning up and then  off to lunch with my very dear friends James and Elizabeth at their apartment in the 5th district of Vienna - a very traditional Viennese meal. Then James kindly ran me out to the airport for the start of my journey away from Vienna and back to Darwin.
I will add pictures once I am back in Oz.

May 25th: The Wismut Symposium - Day 1

The conference was held out at the old motor car factory in the adjacent town of Ronneberg. Returning to the hall there was a trip back  in time as I have been here several times in the past 12 years.

The conference went well with a great opening fanfare from ten traditional miners band, or at least three of them

The meeting went well and at 1815 we headed back to the hotel - only to be met by the full miners' brass band and the guild's guard of honour

and then when we finally got into the hotel there were two people on stilts  giving each participant a bottle of special miners\' schnapps

and beyond them await staff with free drinks as a prelude to the evening reception  and a jazz band

.......another long evening coming up.................................................

May 24th: Tromso (Norway) to Gera (Germany)

 Before the day's business I have added my picture ( to compare with  and validate TIM'S) of that White Eagle from the North Cape sortie...

 A very impressive bird.

Still back to today. A sad day as it saw my departure from Tromso and my separation from  the Baltic Rim Expedition. Both Tim and Wendy bravely came out at 0530 on a bright but fresh morning to wave me good bye

Tim and  Wendy at 0530  -   to make sure I was leaving!

 as the airport bus headed out of town - another journey through those tunnels with roundabouts!

The expedition has been a wonderful time and we had driven about (well Tim did) 3000 km since I joined up in Helsinki. We have had some great meals, and some very expensive ones, also seen some fantastic scenery and wild life as well as interesting sites and sights. We could see some of the other cars in the local car park so it seems everyone made it back from the North cape to Tromso OK either by ferry or by road as we did.
The airport was moderately busy but it all went well and I was soon the B373-600 of SAS to Oslo. My first trip on SAS I believe and it was OK.  The flight was over snow covered hills and mountains  until quite close to Oslo. Then  a quick change at Oslo airport with barely enough time to go to the loo and check email in the lounge before the  short trip to Copenhagen.  Another B737 a 700 model  this time and  we were all too soon in the airport.Again a  short transit time - most of which was taken up with the long walk from one terminal to the other.  Also time for a quick chat on the telephone  with an old friend Grethe a local doctor. Those who read the blog  (if there are any) may recall that I used to work in Swaziland with Grethe's husband Jes many years ago and they came to Vienna last year and we all went to see Carmen at the Opera. Jes was away in Sweden on business but it turns out he too is about to change jobs.
Then the last lap was an MD 82 to Berlin - a short flight with no problems and the weather getting brighter all the time.
The big relief in Berlin was seeing my bag had arrived in one piece. Then I took the local bus from outside the terminal to the main station.

 It was quick and easy to buy a train ticket for the 2.5 hours journey to Gera and the next train left within 30 minutes so it all worked very well.
Soon I was looking out at the flat north German plain...........

as we sped to Leipzig where the train terminated. It seemed odd to see silver birch trees covered in leave s after the trees in Northern Norway for the preceding few days. In Leipzig  I connected to a local express  on the adjacent platform for  the 65 minutes ride to Gera. After Leipzig  I could see the rolling hills of Saxony and Thuringia

 and even recognised a few of the place names as former uranium production sites from previous visits.
At Gera it was the same old taxi ride around the one way system to get to the Novatel  Hotel , my base until Saturday morning. Once checked in  for the hotel  I checked in for the conference and we were issued fancy name tags that clip to your coat with a magnet system. Sadly the hotel has card keys (using magnetic stripes) and so soon we were all queuing up at the desk to  get the cards reprogrammed and promising to keep them  the keys and badges apart and away from credit cards too!
Many old friends and colleagues are here and it was like old pals week as we all drifted around the opening reception. Seems everyone knows I am off to a new job next week and wanted to wish me good luck, which was very nice.

May 23rd: Tromso

Last night Tim and Wendy stayed up until midnight and drove out to a nearby hill top to see the midnight sun - they did call me but I had already  gone to bed so I was a big wuss and said no. So..............Here is the picture I did not take.................

I am really mad I did not go with them now!

Anyway we met up after breakfast on a day that was a little grey and with odd spots of rain. My day had already begun poorly with no hot water in the bathrooms on our floor and the hotel   [Clarion Hotel Bryggen]  did not seem too concerned but  several of us customers from the 5th floor were less than amused.

Anyway I met up with Tim and Wendy who had bailed out of the hotel to the one opposite yesterday when the room offered in my hotel had been below  standard.  We decided to go out of town to a small island called  Hakoy which is little way away in the Tromso Fjord.

Another one of the charming old houses in Tromso

 The drive went past the airport where you have to drive onto the island where the airport is then in a small tunel under the runway threshold to get to the terminal at the other side.

On the way we passed this oildrilling platform which is fully weather protected to work in the Arctic

Hakoy is small and reached by a single lane bridge.

 The site of the memorial where the pocket battleship was sunk by RAF bombs  in November 1944 is very unassuming. A simple  plaque on a piece of the 10 cm thick deck plating .

The site overlooks the location wher the ship overturned. There are a few metal objects around the beach,,,,,,,,,,,,,

........... but the main visible item is an old frame that was used in the salvage operations when the ship was broken up after the war.

The location is very quiet apart from the calls of many water birds.

We saw several diffferent species there.

Glaucous Gulls

Oyster Catcher

Arctic Tern

 We had heard of some other relics and a museum but a drive to the end of the road revealed nothing of that sort - but we did see two groups of  MOOSE, 3 animals in each group!

These were the first we had seen on the trip. Others had seen one moose but we had a long session watching these magnificent creatures at the forest fringe.

After a lot of moose pictures and more bird pictures we returned to Tromso. The route was unusual as we used the network of tunnels under the city in the hills .

 Very unusual to be driving in a tunnel and see not one but two roundabouts!

When we came out of the tunnel we were at the museum from the night before and saw the Norwegian navy minesweepers  sailing away after their visit to Tromso.

After  a return to the hotel we went off to the city's oldest pub (founded 1928 apparently - where did they drink before that I wonder) for  a local beer and a plate of meat and vegetable stew for lunch.

The meal was good and set us up for the afternoon. Wendy went off to see the  old cathedral while Tim and I went off to ride the cable car to the hill  overlooking  the town. 

 At an elevation of 1380 feet the views of the city,  the airport and the surrounding countryside were truly awesome.

And of course ships came and went all the time.......................

While we were walking around a text on my phone remnded me about the flights tomorrow and I was soon  checked in   - modern technology at work.

After our descent I went into the Arctic Cathedral  whihc has a modern and massive stained glass window

 - the place is plain but beautiful inside.

 The atmosphere was  superb as a dancer practised her choreography at the altar while an organist  played Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring and The Prelude. I was finding it hard to pull myself away from the place.

After that it was back to the hotel to try and catch up on a few chores.

In the evening Wendy, Tim and I had a very good meal at a restaurant which us the best in town - Emmas -  and it certainly did not disappoint.  This was the "last supper" as my flight will be at 0645 in the morning.  As I leave so the other 4 cars should arrive at 2400 hours tonight. Sadly it is very rainy with lots of low cloud so there will be no midnight sun tonight.