The final mission - for now! Gabon: 30 April to 8 May

Well my time at the IAEA  has finally drawn to an end but there was one last mission. To run a training course  in Gabon. But as it was to be about mine remediation we were to be located out in the countryside at Franceville  rather than the capital, Libreville.
The  flights began on Saturday morning rather early with the usual trek by cab to Vienna  Airport for the Austrian flight to Frankfurt. Once there it was a surprise to find that the 7+ hour flight to Libreville was to be a Lufthansa flight but with a small Boeing 737 Business Jet the BBJ2.  The plane had 32 Business class seats of a modern pattern and about 30 economy class seats at the back. In the front cabin we had only 6 passengers!    The plane was operated by a Swiss company called Privat Air and the crew all wore charcoal grey retro 70's style uniforms - the ladies had pencil skirts and little caps ansd looked very chic and quite cute. The service was great and the daylight flight over Africa was surprisingly smooth  .
I was met at the airport and taken to a small hotel for the night and to await the other two lecturers before we flew on to Franceville the next day.
Sunday morning dawned with the pretty dull view from my room  of the rooftops of  a suburban area but there were egrets roosting in the trees.

The others weer found and we set off to the airport to take the NRT flight. At the airport we met many of our "students" from all over Africa, about 20 of them . The plane was a rather old Embraer 120 Brasilia turborprop witha lot of hours on the clock from the look of it.  When we got to Franceville I was sorry to see that the old airport was being pulled down ( I have been twice before)  and the terminal is now an old cargo shed with no facilities to speak of and quite a walk from the apron; but the luggage was there too. Into a couple of cars and a small bus and we set off on the drive of about 30 minutes to the city. Up and down  in the undulating countryside and lots of villages and interesting. So  we made it and finally ended up at the Hotel Poubara, Franceville which was to be home for the next  week.
The hotel is a resort and  has seen better days but it was adequate for our needs. The lecture room was spacious and the air-con worked; meals were expensive and pretty ordinary but the local beer was cheap.
The work went well and we were able to take ina site visit to the remediated former uranium mines at Mounana which included a visit to the old mine at OKLO where the only natural uranium  fission reactors in the world were discovered years ago. All safe under water and concrete now but still a famous site - almost a place of  pilgrimage for uranium geologists.

Saturday we had a day off  as there were no planes out of the airport. Our hosts toook us to see a small hydro-electric plant where there is also a very old rope bridge made of natural material and a new hydro-scheme  being built with Chinese assistance.

Sunday dawnws a bit cloudy but by the time we  weer at the airport a major storm broke and we estimated 50+ mm of rain in less than an hour. One plane came just before the rain and flew away very quickly. Our plane and one other  were circling above and we were concerned that we might not get away.   But in the end they were able to land both planes and we all ended up in Libreville. My connection was within a few hours so I said farewell to the others  who headed into town to await flights the next day. The BBJ2 came back and with 10 people in the front cabin this time we set off on the  overnight  flight back to Frankfurt.  We had some delay as a few passengers were held back by the police for a while.  For our arrival it was a beautiful bright sunny morning in Frankfurt and then it was time for the rush across the airport to catch the Austrian flight to Vienna and the end of the last mission. Mission over.

So that was the end of the last contract in Vienna  -
Since 1 July 2004 ,whilst I have been in Vienna I carried out 73 missions ,  I have been on 480 flights (for business and pleasure)  using 52 carriers on 45 types of aeroplane and visited 45 countries for work.

Now I am off to do something else - back  in Australia and starting on June 1st. More details to follow...

 But first I will be joining some old friends for part of their drive around the Baltic. Check it out on their blog

http://www.aroundthebaltic.blogspot.com/

I will join them in Helsinki on Sunday 15th May for about a week.