We started out from Arlanda International airport outside of Stockholm on the 17th of August. From there we flew to Addis Abeba via Rome, had a change of flight in Addis and flew from there via Nairobi to Kilimanjaro International.

At Kilimanjaro International we were picked up and driven to Karibu Home our first place to sleep. I was put in the Kilimanjaro room which I shared with Caroline, Emma and Hamid.

Karibu Home is quite a nice oasis, but I’m not sure I’ve ever found the way there if I had to drive there my self

Nice rooms and a great pool. We were a bit unlucky with the water pressure so having a shower wasn’t the easiest. But this is Africa. We got good food, but I guess they wasn’t prepared for hungry Scandinavians because we kept running out of some food so that the last in the line didn’t always get much.

And there was the case of the famous potatoes.

On of the dinners served was fish, which was great but we all wondered if the potatoes were missing. But the staff told us that there wasn’t supposed to be potatoes. Fair enough.

But then after we all had our fish and salad on of the waiters came with a huge pot of, you guess, potatoes.

So we had potatoes for dessert

Day 3 – 19th of August

Today we got up to have breakfast at  0800, which was server at 0900. Africa time, something we just had to learn. I guess people live by “pole pole” which means slowly or take it slow. And of course Hakuna Matata

We then got to meet our guide for the Kilimanjaro expedition and had a briefing on what was going to happen on the mountain.

Then we set out in the four hour drive to the Ngorongoro crater. We came to the parks outer gate just before 1800 and just in time to get into the park that afternoon. On the craters rim we spent the night in the Simba A camp sites and we had Zebras grazing around tour tents that night.

Day 4 – 20th of August – The Safari

We got up before first light so that we could be ready to drive into the park at 0600 when the park opened for visitors. We were of course a bit late, even if we were up and ready in good time.

When we first started out we hardly saw any animals at all, but I guess this is the time of day were you might be able to witness a hunt. The closes we came to that was watching an hyena eating in the distance.

We drove around and I got to see three of the big five. The first was the Elephant, then we got to see two male lions walking right past our car and to a waterhole to drink. After a long drink they came back and laid down to rest in the shadow of some threes. And of course we saw the buffalo.

And we saw a lot of other birds, animals and a lot of bugs, annoying flying bugs that clung to our vehicle and flew up all around us as soon as we stopped. Really annoying. But not dangerous the guide kept telling us.

We also did a stop where we could get out of the car and stretch our legs. While waiting there an big elephant  came by and seemed to want to have a drink in the little lake we stopped by. But I guess that the amount of people scared it away so it just went past us.

In the afternoone we went back to Simba A for lunch and the we started on the trip back to Karibu Home. I was great to get back there and to be able to get rid of the dust and grime with a dip in the pool

Smart me wore my white Pink Caravan T-shirt on the safari so both the t-shirt and trousers eventually found their way to a dustbin. No chance at all to get it clean

Then it was time to to split the luggage. One bag whit the stuff we needed for the Kilimanjaro walk and another that was shipped right to the hotel were we would go after coming down from the mountain.

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It’s been a great few weeks with a lot of relaxing and hard work. Not necessarily in that order. I’ll sit down when I get back and do some proper posts on how the trip went.

In general it went good. I got to see lions and elephants. Reached Gilman’s Point at 5685 m and slept on the beaches of Zanzibar.

And I won a 2000 SEK gift card, so I guess there’s going to be more Pink Caravan travels for me in the future.

Stockholm has been great so far today, lots of walking in the sun, have to go check if I’m burned now. And then out again to se what happens at night.

I took over 300 pictures and this is what came of it.

Not a lot but better than nothing

It was a shame that everyone wasn’t able to make it but we that came had a really good time. Great fish from the lake on the BBQ, nice warm weather and good beverages.

And I guess,  for me at least, the three and a halves hour bike ride from home was worth it.

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Yesterday the officers from FIG Follo and the IG in Follo spent the day with Eivind Ask who held an excellent lecture in how oil spill cleanups should be handled. I think he did a great job, even if he had to compress what usually is a two day lecture into one.

Then today we got together with the rest of the FIG and IG and headed down to Sjursøya. Sjursøya is a peninsula just southwest of the center of Oslo and contains a large terminal for fuel oil distribution. Which means it’s a prime spot for oil leaks, and I guess a possible site for a gigantic fireball. I guess we were lucky that there were no fuel trains at the depot when the runaway cargo train hit  on the 24th of March [1]

But today it was all quiet and the weather was great. I’ve even managed to get a divide where my beret has been all day

At first the fire chief took us to have a look at the larger mounted oil spill booms that are on a winch drum ready to be pulled out swiftly to prevent any oil leaks from the terminal or cargo ship to  escape into the Oslo fjord.

Then we divided up and started going thou some of the equipment that we might come in contact with if we get called out.

The FIG started out with the Vacuna 1000 system. The Vacuna system is a system for sucking up oil from the shorelines. It’s based around a air pump that can be configured either to blow bark onto the oil spill or to suck up oil, water and bark from the same place.

Bark is blown onto the oil in order to make it less sticky and easier to get at, either by using the suction part of the pump or more commonly, by hand. There’s no use trying to hide it, getting oil from the shores is grueling, backbreaking, tedious manual labor. The pump will work great if the oil is still in pools or floating on water, but as soon as it hits the rock you’ll have to get down and dirty.

The bark also helps nature work a bit faster when it comes to breaking down leftover oil. Getting all the oil from a spill out of the ground is impossible, but if we get most of it out nature will eventually do the rest.

After the Vacuna we went and had a look at the different oil spill booms that are in use. The equipment we went thou is made for calm waters mostly. There are bigger booms but I don’t think we’ll ever see those in the Oslo fjord.

The smallest were one time use booms that actually soak up oil from the water and is the retrieved and disposed of like the rest of the oil that is collected.

The other type is a type that is stored as 25m lengths that might be connected together to for long links.

The last type is a boom that comes “flat packed”. It got a spring loaded air chamber with a one way air valve, when it’s packed it’s rolled tightly and all the air chambers are deflated. To deploy you’ll drop the whole coil into the sea and the pick up the end and start pulling it out. As you unwind the coil the springs in the air chamber is sucking air unto the top part which acts as the booms floating device.

Quite an ingenious contraption. Just make sure you don’t tow it in a to shallow arch, since it might then suck air into the chamber and sink

To get it back up you’ll have to have a purpose built packing machine. As you drag the boom from the sea you’ll put all the valves in an open position and the machine will wind it neatly into a coil ready to be deployed again later. But of course if it’s been in contact with oil you’ll have to unwind it again, clean it and then rewind it later. Lots of work. I guess that’s why we didn’t get to try out any of those.

Then we went on to the more hand on stuff, looking at the equipment used to scoop up oil manually and fill up Big Bags. The Big Bags are large plastic lined bags that is used to collect oil. Then at a later stage these can be floated to a bout, picked up with a truck or airlifted to some waste disposal plants.

We also went trough how to set up a forward depot with clean and dirty zones where the people doing the dirty work can come and change into clean outfits without con terminating a larger area.

Then we went to lunch, always the best part

After lunch we went and ha a look at the sea skimmer. This is a mechanical device that floats in the water and has some system for collection oil. The one we have has a series of vertical rotating discs powered by a hydraulic pump. The oil will stick to the disc and be scraped of into a container and from there pumped up and sent to be disposed of. The whole setup looks extremely simple, but according to our instructor it is working very well for recovering floating oil.

At the end we had a little competition / exercise where 6 of our squad members went through some of the things we learned that day. Our team was set to connect up the Vacuna and blow some more bark before we reverted the system and sucked i all back into the suction tank. And when that tank was “full” it was emptied over into a holding tank again by reversing the system.

I wasn’t a part of that team but I think they did well. I guess everyone learned quite a few things today, and it’s nice to do something else for a change

And here are some pictures I took today, have fun.

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Today I had such a  incident. I was walking on Aker Brygge when there was a sudden rainstorm, so I took cover under a small landing and since I didn’t know how long the rain would last I got my book out.

And then suddenly a woman comes across the plaza and asks me what book I’m reading. She was a publisher and she and some friends had been watching me from the other side trying to decide if I was a tourist reading a travel guide or someone else reading fiction.

I’m still wondering who won the bet

And my the way I was reading “Gone for good” by Harlan Coben. And I guess that’s the reason why I’ve yet to go to bed. Just had to keep reading.

Just went downstairs to get my laundry and had a look at the sky and just needed to go take some photos. And all was well and good until the ant attacks

Here are the one that actually came out rather decent.

Where people get out no matter if the rain is pouring or we got a bit of snow in the air. People dress up, are happy and celebrate our independence day.

I’ve hopefully been able to get up by now and is heading into town dressed in my marching band uniform and with my trombone ready.

Or at least that’s the plan.

And for those that don’t know it. Her is the lyrics for the Norwegian National hymn if you come across some Norwegians abroad. I know this one played a lot in Sydney when I was there

Ja vi elsker.

1.
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet,
med de tusen hjem.
Elsker, elsker det og tenker
på vår far og mor
og den saganatt som senker
drømme på vår jord.
Og den saganatt som senker,
senker drømme på vår jord.

2.
Dette landet Harald berget
med sin kjemperad,
dette landet Håkon verget
medens Øyvind kvad;
Olav på det landet malte
korset med sitt blod,
fra dets høye Sverre talte
Roma midt imot.

3.
Bønder sine økser brynte
hvor en hær dro frem,
Tordenskiold langs kysten lynte,
så den lystes hjem.
Kvinner selv stod opp og strede
som de vare menn;
andre kunne bare grede,
men det kom igjen!

4.
Visstnok var vi ikke mange,
men vi strakk dog til,
da vi prøvdes noen gange,
og det stod på spill;
ti vi heller landet brente
enn det kom til fall;
husker bare hva som hendte
ned på Fredrikshald![3]

5.
Hårde tider har vi døyet,
ble til sist forstøtt;
men i verste nød blåøyet
frihet ble oss født.
Det gav faderkraft å bære
hungersnød og krig,
det gav døden selv sin ære –
og det gav forlik.

6.
Fienden sitt våpen kastet,
opp visiret for,
vi med undren mot ham hastet,
ti han var vår bror.
Drevne frem på stand av skammen
gikk vi søderpå;
nu vi står tre brødre sammen,
og skal sådan stå!

7.
Norske mann i hus og hytte,
takk din store Gud!
Landet ville han beskytte,
skjønt det mørkt så ut.
Alt hva fedrene har kjempet,
mødrene har grett,
har den Herre stille lempet
så vi vant vår rett.

8.
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet,
med de tusen hjem.
Og som fedres kamp har hevet
det av nød til seir,
også vi, når det blir krevet,
for dets fred slår leir.

And another song that you might get to hear

Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått (Norway in red, white and blue )

Hvor hen du går i li og i fjell,
en vinterdag, en sommerkveld blant fjord og fossevell.
Fra eng og mo med furutrær,
fra havets bryn med fiskevær og til de hvite skjær.
Møter du landet i trefarget drakt,
svøpt i et gjenskinn av flaggets fargeprakt.
Se, en hvitstammet bjerk oppi heien
rammer stripen av blåklokker inn.
Mot den rødmalte stuen ved veien,
det er flagget som vaier i vind.
Ja, så hvitt som det hvite er sneen,
og det røde har kveldssolen fått,
Og det blå ga sin farge til breen,
Det er Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått!

En vårdag i en solskinnstund
på benken i Studenterlund der sitter han og hun
To unge nyutsprungne russ,
to ganske nylig tente bluss i tyve grader pluss.
Hun er som en gryende forsommerdag,
som farves av gjenskinnet fra det norske flagg.
Ja, så hvitt som det hvite er kjolen
og så rødt som det rø hennes kinn.
Hennes øyne er blå som fiolen,
hun er flagget som vaier i vind.
Han har freidig og hvitlugget panne,
og en lue i rødt har han fått.
Med en lyseblå tiltro til landet,
står vår ungdom i rødt, hvitt og blått!

De kjempet både hun og han!
Nå lyser seirens baunebrann, utover Norges land.
Mot himlen stiger flagg ved flagg
som tusen gledesbål i dag, for alle vunne slag.
Det knitrer som før over hytte og slott,
et flammende merke i rødt og hvitt og blått.
Som en regnbuens tegn under skyen,
skal det evig i fremtiden stå.
Se, det glitrer på ny over byen,
i det røde og hvite og blå.
La det runge fra gaten og torget,
over landet som nordmenn har fått:
Du er vårt, du er vårt, gamle Norge!
Vi vil kle deg i rødt, hvitt og blått!