I've just spent an interesting week in Senegal, looking at some more ground that we might get involved in. After arriving back in Mali on the Monday, I had a night in our new villa (thanks Dom) and then flew out on Tuesday morning bound for Dakar, the capital of Senegal. I didn't know too much about it, just remembering that we wanted to visit while on Taina.

The 1:30min flight on Air Senegal was nice, basic but comfortable. Then arrived in the airport which is basically on the water front so we get a nice view of the coast as we came in. Not a bad way to arrive! We staying in the Hotel de la Mer, just 1 block back from the sea. Was so nice to be based there, with the smells and sounds of the Atlantic wafting though. Not even the noise of the generator (Senegal has a major problem with power outages) could take away from the nice location. Even there is a lot of semi-built buildings due to poor repair and the booming market I think, the city strikes me much more favourable than Bamako. Just seems cleaner and more prosperous.

After meeting up with Dom who had spent the weekend here with Andea, we headed out to site some 850km away and close to the Mali border. Seems a little crazy that we had flown to Dakar, then driven nearly 12 hours to site as it is only 6-8 hrs from Bamako but we were not sure of the access across the border so went with this long route. Plus it allowed us to see Dakar, meet the head office people of the company, and get a feel for the city. The drive was worth it anyway to have a look at the landscape and get a feel for the country. A bit dryer than southern Mali, it is well cultivated and eagerly waiting for the rains to come. We spent a couple of days at the exploration site, then headed back for Dakar and Bamako. Part of the operation there is an alluvial mine, with the processing plant pictured here.

I'm now back in Paris having finished another stint and waiting on AME to decide on what the futures holds. They have hired a new Exploration manager who will direct the work in the way that he likes. Hopefully there will be more work down there for me, but we never know.

Em had a great idea while I was away. We were both hankering for a view and taste of the ocean, so a trip to Honfleur and Etretat was put onto the menu. We headed down to Dourdan to borrow the car...again...and headed off on Saturday morning.
Honfleur was the first stop. The outlet of the Seine, it's no Port Waikato! There's a beautiful little harbour and lots of cute restaurants and shops to enjoy, even with all the tourists there. The day was hot and clear as we walked around to get a view onto the water and the cite of Le Harve.
After a night spent in a very forgetable hotel we headed to the coast and up to Etretat. Pretty much the French equivalent of Dover the limestone cliffs are spectacular and the village is friendly and cute. We wandered around the cliffs to get a view back onto the main beach, then down to take a brief (and very brief it was too!) dip in the water.

June is nearly passed and I can't believe it's half way through the year! Another 4 weeks have been spent down in Mali, mostly in Bamako this time, and I have just the 1 more trip down there before the end of my contract. It's certainly a different life in Bamako, not needing to get up at 5:30 to get out to the drill rig, no rice and goat stew for lunch. We've been staying at The Sleeping Camel, a nice little hostel run by an Australian guy. I've not seen so much rugby since I left NZ...awesome!

Work has been ticking along, this month with a couple of trips into Guinea to check out the ground there. Although it has been a little behind the rest of West Africa when it comes to mineral development it is starting to get it's act together. There are 3 gold mines in the northern part, plus diamond mines closer down to the Sierra Leone border, and still has plenty left to offer I'm sure.

Close to the Mali border the ground is much the same as Mali, dry and dusty at this time of the year. The people are the same also, coming from the Maliki tribe. Further south the landscape changes, getting higher and with a change in climate to a tropical one. The temp dropped 10deg from Mali and the humidity increased by heaps! Made it nice when doing nothing, but as soon as we started walking the sweats started. And we had a good walk around. Looked at a few local alluvial workings and geology in general, was great to get a good look at another area. The people here are (like Mali) really friendly and loved to have their photo taken, standing completely still when you produce a camera. The little kids get so excited when they see their image on the screen, so cute.

There are plenty of workings all around.
Market day
Robin (geo) and Yacoub (worker)
There still is plenty of water around
...and plenty of dust

This last month has seen me head to new pastures and start a short contracting job with African Mining & Exploration in Mali. I didn't know much about Mali before I arrived but have found it to be a beautiful country, with lovely people always ready with a smile. Especially the children who get a kick out of a return wave from a tubabu (white person). It's a pretty funny sight and sound to have a group of kids running around waving at you all the while shouting out "tubabu, tubabu".
We are based in a village 75km south-west of Bamako with a beautiful backdrop of sandstone cliffs (sorry no pictures as yet) and we work another 40min further on. The lanscape is different to the places in Cote d'Ivoire I worked, being a little dryer and therefore dustier. La saison de chaleur has arrived now bringing with it days of +40deg and a hot dry wind, but luckily for me I like the heat so while it's not comfortable it is bearable. The worst thing is the sweat flys that enjoy the little nooks and crannys of your face, and now that I am getting old (and qualifing for the vets team I'm told) I seem to have a few more of these than I used to have!
I haven't been very good with photos so far, but here are a few to give you an idea.

Before I forget a big congrats to the BRFC lads who topped the table this year, gaining automatic promotion for next year.

Xmas and New Years celebrations have come and gone and a good time was had by all. Xmas was spent in Dourdan with Em's family and the in-laws of her brother. Jill was away in NZ so the bulk of the cooking fell on Em's shoulders, and she cooked up a storm! Luckily for me I got a virus the week before which saw me off to hospital for tests with malaria like symptoms and over the course of a couple of days lost some weight. So the excess food we ate on the 24th and 25th just filled me out again.

We had a couple of days of snow so Dourdan looked lovely, from inside looking out!

We came back to Paris on the 31st and spent the night at Em's buddies place, Geraldine and Emeric. Was a lovely evening of snacks, wine and dancing and a nice way to see in the new year.

Now we are back into the routine week. Em's back at work and I'm looking for work. A friend, Juliet, is here this week so we are getting around the sites also. Up the Eiffel Tower yesterday and off to the Musee D'Orsay to look at some paintings today. It's still freezing cold, but summer is not far away now.

Winter has definitly hit with the temperatures dropping below 0 at night and not even climbing above 0 for the past 2 days. And it looks like getting worse over the next couple of days. We had a covering of snow on Sunday night in the city, but much more out in the country-side and that's continued through the week.

I'm not sure what this means for the winter ahead, but it's not looking like good news for a rugby season part way in. I have joined the British Rugby Football Club of Paris, an ex-pats team made of people from all over the world but mostly Britain and France. It's a great club to play for, having a history that goes back to 1923. So far we have managed to win 4 from 5 games with another couple of wins in "friendly" matches, although we have yet to play to our potential I reckon. It's hard with many new faces including an almost entirely new backline. Doesn't make for a lot of cohesion at times!

We train once per week, on Tuesday. Unfortunately due to ground availablity we are training on the outskirts of Paris, meaning about a 45min trip by metro, then 10min car ride. As we start around 8:30pm I don't get back home til after 11pm, pretty late compared to NZ standards. The facilities are pretty good, although now that the weather is rough the ground is not holding up well and in fact all trainings and the game this week have been cancelled.

Apart from the games the club is great to be part of. A really friendly bunch of guys who are all passionate about rugby, whether that be northern or southern hemisphere. All the guys know so much about the Super14 and NPC it's a little embarressing as in NZ we don't follow so much what happens elsewhere. Was lots of fun over the last month with the NZ-SA-Aust contingent up here, lots of tests to watch and jokes to be passed around. I'm glad the AB's managed a clean-sweep!

Here's a couple of photos of game against Antony we played 2 weeks ago, won 22-10 by us. Also some photos of the Jardin du Luxemborg.

On Armistice Day Emma and I managed to get out of Paris, driving down into the Loire Valley to take in a chateau or 2. Unfortunatley we didn't have the best of luck with the weather, it didn't stop raining once, but at least that meant the crowds weren't too bad. And the open fires in Chambord made a lovely touch.

We stopped at Chateau de Chambord, a 16th century hunting lodge for King Louis then moved on to the village of Blois. 2 fantastic stops, the buildings were simply amazing.

By the time we were cold and wet we figured it was time to drop the car back at Jill and Patrick's so headed home. It will be nice to head back there with some nicer weather.

We had a great time in Egypt, flying into Luxor then taking a boat up the Nile for a couple of days, eventually stopping at the Aswan Dam, site of the first cataract from Wilbur Smith's Egyptian novels.

The river was everything we expected and more. So beautiful once we got out of Luxor and full of life on the banks. Every now and then there would be a minerette or temple to bring us to the side of the boat to look.

We were part of a French tour, guided by Achmad, an Egyptian man who had alot of knowledge and some good stories of the sites. Unfortunatly for me they were all in French as this was a French tour, so I missed some of what was said. Emma, bless her, was really good at translating so I could get some of the gist. We were with 2 other couples, nice people, so it wasn't a problem to visit all the locations with this group.

After Aswan we took an overnight train down to Cairo where we spent 2 days visiting. It's funny how time changes perceptions. The Cairo museum seemed much smaller than in '93, but was still very cool...and full of people! But that's Cairo and you take the good with the bad.

Here are a couple photos from the trip. You will notice that Romy has a large belly. She was heavily pregnant and did so well at getting around all the sites. There's a couple more photos on facebook also.

Thanks very much to Patrick and Jill who shouted Emma and Daniel (plus lucky hangers-on Romy and I) to a week in Egypt as a celebration of various birthdays and wedding anniversaires.

The last week has seen Emma and I in New York, her for a conference at (of all places) the Bronx Zoo, and me the lucky recipient of a free hotel room. For some reason we were booked in at a small town 45min out of the city, Tarrytown, on the banks of the Hudson. Not even in the town but out in the hotel part, a 5min taxi into town. But in the end this turned out to be a great place to stay as it was very green, beautiful and cute.

Just a short walk from Tarrytown is the town of Sleepy Hollow. Yes it is from the book, being the place that the story of the headless horseman is set. It's a nice little place now, and has a couple of cool things to do, like the graveyard and church, the oldest in America. The Philips Manor was interesting to see, kept up as a "working" example of what life was like back in the 17th century. But for me the highlight was the Rockefeller Estate built as a summer retreat by the famous family. While the family still lives there it is open to the public for tours and has an amazing collection of modern art well placed amoung the rooms, grounds and golf course. I'm not much of an appreciator (it took me a year to visit the Louvre) but I loved this place. I think that mixture of art placed in nature made it special for me.

The US Open was on while we were in town and while Emma was busy doing her conference stuff I managed a day at the Arthur Ashe stadium, watching some of the best strut their stuff. 3 games in a day was worth the $60 and as they all went to max I really got the best. Being only the first round I didn't get to see great match-ups, but still got to see Jancovich-Halpa, Djokovich-Troicki and Sharapova-Groth. And man it was hot!

At the end of the week, once Emma had finshed her work we were able to move into NY city and have a good look around. I couldn't get over the size of the place, just so big and tall. All the buildings tower above. It was pretty cool to wander around a city that we see so much of on the TV and in movies, to go past ground-zero, to take the ferry across to Staten Island, past the Statue. So many places and experiences that we know of, to visit was so much fun. Although I must say I was dissapointed a little by Central Park. Too many people I guess, but I thought that the park in Munich was much nicer.

All in all I was very lucky to have the chance to visit. Thank you Consumer Goods Forum!!

The last weekend has seen Grandpa and Jenny join us in our flat. To enjoy some of the sites of Paris and to experience a bit of the culture here. Saturday was spent walking around the central area, looking at the Louvre, the Jardin de Tuleries and some of the other buidlings close to the Seine, followed by a river cruise to take in the sites. This is a great way to see Paris, and keeps us off the busy streets also!

On Sunday we visited the Louvre, taking in a few of the exhibits including the Egyptian and Greek (highlight being the Venus de Milo), before coming across the Mona Lisa amongst all the paintings. Although I had heard that this was going to be a dissapointment due to the crowds and the picture itself, I got a kick out of seeing it (her?). And the crowds weren't too bad. The day finished off with an exhibit on the archaeology of Saudi Arabia. Really cool, it has now become a place on my vist list.



These 2 days involved lots of time on our feet and while G'pa was holding up really well we figured a less active day would be a good plan. We thought about the bus tour of the sites, but didn't like the 29euro fee so went for the Scottish/Dutch option and took the public buses. Turned out to be a good idea as we got to see lots of the sites, including the Arc de Triomphe, without parting with our precious money. Along the way we visited a couple of gardins so we were all happy.

On the Tuesday these 2 intrepid journiers flew back to Germany to see out the rest of their trip.Thanks very much for coming to see us Grandpa and Jenny, was great to have you!

We've now completed a move into a new flat, Rue Cyrano de Bergerac in the 18th (no our landlord doesn't have a large nose). It's a 1 bd place, with separate lounge and kitchen on the north side of the Butte Monmarte, where the Sacre Coeur is. Nice and close to Emma's work it also just happens to be close to a couple of nice little bars and cafe's...very convienent! It has some issue, namely no power in half the house, but we are working through that and at least we have a reduction in rent until the issues are solved.

Here are a couple of photos of the place, although they don't do it justice. Forgive the temporary look, we are on the search for some furniture at the moment. We are the flat on the 1st floor with the window open, and on the left side corner as
we look down the rue.

Grand Place, Town Hall

Brussels is home to many cartoons and have great painted sides of buildings. You prob can't see it, but in the doorway behind the girl is a caped man with a dagger...why?

The Instrument Museum was well worth the wet trip!

In a weekend that saw the worst storm in 10 years through western Europe, we thought a holiday in Brussels would be a good idea! To be fair, Em came up with this idea a couple of weeks ago and the weather wasn't that bad, and it didn't really detract from the place. What a beautiful old town! Can't say much for the rest of Brussels, but the area we were in was just fantastic. Centered around the 'Grand Place' with tonnes of history to go with Belgium's new position in the centre of the European Union, Brussels was the perfect place for a weekend away.

We arrived on Friday night after arriving at the Gard du Nord in Paris to be told our train was cancelled due to the accident a couple of weeks ago. We had 2 options, to either wait for the next train at 5pm, or travel via Lille (France) and Gent(Belgium). Either would have us there only 2 hours later than normal, so wasn't really a big deal. We decided on the long way round and had a nice trip through the farms of northern France and Belgium. It's pretty wet and miserable at this time of year!

We arrived in Brussels to rain, something that was to keep us company for the entire weekend. We quickly found our hotel and ventured out for a look around. Cobbled streets and little cute buildings was the first impression, followed by the long forgotten overwhelmingness that is a smoker's pub (thanks to the lawmakers for changing the rules in NZ, France and other places!!). Luckily not all places are like this, especially restaurants. We made a search for Moulle Frites, a local delicacy of mussels and fries and found plenty of places that served this, all around the princley sum of 20euros. Considering we get the same in Paris for 15euros I was a bit miffed, I mean the stuff comes from Belgium! But we swallowed our pride and got stuck in, washing it all down with some lovely beer.

The next day we headed out to visit a few museums, and made our way through the Beer Museum, the Chocolate Museum plus the Brussels Musuem so thought we were definitly in need of refreshments. The owners of the Delerium Cafe, makers of the Delerium Tremense (voted best beer in the world a couple of years ago) kindly helped out. And a nice drop it is to!

Well satied and very tired (11% beer...phew!)we retired, looking forward to another couple of museums on Sunday. Unfortunatly this was when Brussels coped the worst of the weather, and we managed to get wet and cold getting to the first on our list, the Instrument Museum (first time I had used the headphones on loan and it was well worth it). We had also found out that the train back had been cancelled also, so we had to catch a different one. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour we snuggled up into a warm pub and had tomatoe soup before heading to the train station to catch the earlier rather than the later. As the seats were first come, first served due to the cancellations this was a good idea. In our cabin there would have been 10 people sitting on the ground.

So all in all a great weekend. Was nice to get away for a few days and see something a little different. I didn't really have an opinion on the Belgish(?) before we came here and still don't really. They seem nice, a little restrained and plain after the French, but very helpful. Will have to come back for a better visit one day, it's only 90 min from Paris after all. Takes almost as long to get to Dourdan!

The last couple of days in Paris has been great, getting to see the city when all is chilly and grey. Not everyone's cup of tea I know, but I always like a change from sunny days. I guess it provides a good contrast to work in the Ivory Coast.

The first night we spent in Paris this time, we went with Emma's parents, Jill and Patrick to the Grand Palais to see the "Jour de Fete's". We had thought it was a exhibit of carnival's but turned out to be the real thing. After a very wee traffic jam and a chilly walk we entered to see hundred's of people riding the various wacky rides, or shooting balloons, or just buying food. It was fun to see! So we had a wander around, won a radio at the airgun game, and finished it all off with a hot wine.

Hi All, hope this Xmas blog finds you all well, with a full belly and satisfied smile on your face. I'm sitting in a flat on Blvd Saint Michel waiting for Emma to return from work so we can meet up with a friend for a drink. It's freezing out there!! But all the same, nice to be in Paris in winter, still lots of tourists around!

The last Cote D'Ivoire stint was fun, interesting as usual. I've moved into the Bonikro Mine to be based there as we explore close to the mine. This means a very different work environment for me, flashing lights, short-wave radios, HUGE trucks and cafeteria meals. The change of pace and work is good I think. Certainly I'm finding it new, bright and shiny! Will see how I feel after 6 months of having to show my ID card at the gate.

Working near Bonikro means I am living in the town of Oume. Nothing like Yamousoukro, it is fairly small but with most things that you need. The biggest down side is that there is not much to do after work as the facilities here are not great. And unlike Yama, the street lights aren't good enough to run by. Luckily we have satellite TV from South Africa, so get the cricket and rugby.

Have run out of inspiration at the moment for more writing, so will add some pictures and viola!!
Bonikro Mine The uniform...
Love to you all