Sunday, July 8, 2007

wow we have had a bit of a post drought!! ive been very busy in the field so i have an excuse.

now to a bit of catch up... I said in a previous post that im currently working for a consultancy called Umvoto, based in Muizenberg, Cape Town. They basically specialize in anything to do with ground water or the environment in general.

ive been in the field for them twice so far and am going to head out to Oudtsoorn to help supervise some drilling. The first bit of field work involved a lot of 4x4ing (of which i previously had dangerously little experience) and trekking around the mountains pretty much avoiding paths of any kind. The reason for all this madness was to get water samples for a study on the brandvlei spring which surfaces near where we took the samples. the water comes out at like 40 degrees C which means it has circulated to a depth of a bout 2km DOWN! quite a way for the water to travel :) There is some kind of structural control on the spring.

anyway here are some pics

This pic is of one of the more timid parts of the 4x4 trails. im not lying when i say these trails were REALLY scary to drive on. Oh well, whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger :) This is especially the case in this example as i now have a rudimentary understanding of 4x4 driving :)


At this point in the trail we decided to walk :) i could definitely see us getting stuck!


Finally some of the views were really amazing
More info and pics on my experiences in Namaqualand and the ass crack of a town called kliprand :)

keep well