Port Harcourt (II)

Piet went to Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with three collegues for a project he is working on currently. It was the second time he visited (see post of 27 April 2016), and little had changed. It was nice to meet up with friends and the social part of the trip was definitely the best. Port Harcourt remained a chaotic, dirty city, heaving with people, motorbikes and Nigerian tuk-tuks, making the Shell camp a peaceful oasis. The main difference was the air quality, which has deteriorated significantly and is a real concern for the people living there. This is apparently caused by the nearby local refinery, forest fires, and military action against illegal oil theft, resulting in a lot of soot in the air. Piet and his colleagues were lucky, as the raining season had just started, and the air was relatively fresh.

Transport was still with mini buses and armed escort, with limited opportunity to take some pictures. Some impressions are shown below. On the way back they landed in a typical Nigerian scene: an electrical problem had caused an issue with the runway lights a few days earlier, and in the end the Air France pilot refused to take off in the evening. There was a lot of confusion, and near midnight they were put in hotel in town, and finally the flight left 10 AM the next day. As a consequence Piet was home Saturday evening late, to start his City-Piet-City half marathon the next day. This was not an ideal preparation, but he managed to finish in 1 hr 54 min, in a personal record (although it was his second half marathon only!).

A horse in the Shell camp, the Port Harcourt Residential Area

The local shop in the Shell camp

Port Harcourt, on the way to the airport

Lot's of little markets on the street

Street scene

All pictures were taken from the mini bus

 It is very lively in Port Harcourt

Piet passing the 10 km point near our house

Libreville

Piet added another African country to his list; he had to visit Gabon last week. Shell has been present for almost 60 years in Gabon, but late 2017 sold all of its oil fields to another company. The offshore exploration blocks, part of Piet's responsibility, are now the only Shell assets. The new Shell office is manned with a Gabonese administrative assistant only, and all the work is done from The Hague. Piet had to go for a few meetings with the Ministry, in the capital Libreville. This is a safe and uninspiring city on the Atlantic coast. In the evenings Piet managed a few short walks along the beach (see pictures below), with many small streams flowing sewage and other waste into the ocean. So it was not strange that nobody was swimming!

The meetings were in French, and Piet benefitted from all his time spend in France. But his geological education hasn't really prepared him to negotiate legal text in French! With the Shell lawyer on call from The Hague they managed, and he left with the signed agreement he came for in the first place. And he had to manage a lot of patience....

Playing football on Libreville beach

View from the Shell office

View towards Libreville

It looks idyllic!

Snow and rain

After Christmas we went for a week to France for a break after a busy period for all of us, and to do some skiing. In the end only Paula came along, as Dorien had to finish a university project on 'steel and concrete', and had planned a survival race. Also Lars was busy with a work-related project. Paula needed a break from a very intense 4 months on the board of Proteus, and initially slept 12 hours a night in The Hague. This was followed by a relaxing week with bit of skiing, reading and no responsibilities. Unfortunately Mary had to decide to skip the skiing, as she is still recovering from her Achilles problems, and spent the days reading, doing easy walks, and taking care of some outstanding indoor tasks in the house.

When we arrived there was a thick layer of fresh snow in the village, accompagnied with beautiful weather. The next 2 days it snowed a lot; Piet and Paula went skiing on Alpe d'Huez. In the resort they were playing catch-up to keep the slopes in shape, as the fresh snow kept covering the pistes. Paula also met up with her friend Tim, who was staying in a nearby village. Then the weather changed dramatically: the wind picked up, the temperature rose, and it started raining heavily. The result was that the resort was closed for 1.5 day, there were many land- and mudslides in the region, and we took a forced break from skiing. 

Once the resort was open the snow conditions had deteriorated somewhat, but as there was so much snow beforehand it was still fine to ski. Especially the last day, which we got as a bonus to compensate for the resort closure was great, with blue skies, near-zero temperatures and no wind.

After a smooth drive we arrived back in The Netherlands, and heard on the car radio that Dorien and friends made national news: at the survival race they participated it was very cold, especially due to the strong easterly wind, and many people suffered from hypothermia, Dorien among them. She fell in one of the streams they had to cross, was wet up to her neck, and had to abandon to get warmed up again. Luckily all was well in the end, but the race managed to get onto the 8 PM news on television!

 Fresh snow in the valley on our arrival

Village horse Swallow is happy to see us

The entry road to our village during the rains: do not cross!

View on Marmotte 1, Alpe d'Huez

Arrival at Alpette from Montfrais

Paula on the Olympique piste

The last day, at the Herpie skilift

Our village in winter sun


Bonus pictures: Beau on the beach, during Christmas


Walking back to the stable

Lars and Dorien at the Slopend winter training weekend

Another milestone

The family reached another milestone: Paula completed her Batchelor of Applied Earth Sciences, and we all attended the ceremony at the University where she received her certificate, with cum laude. Paula is currently in a gap year, and has a full time job on the board of her rowing club Proteus, being responsible for all the material. She hasn't decided yet what she will do for her Master program, but there is still time.

All students had to present a very short overview of their final project, demonstrating the width of the BSc program. Mary's parents were also present, and afterwards we did a tour of Delft, starting at Dorien's new room, at crawling distance from her faculty. She then showed the obstacle course of her survival club Slopend, where she is one of the trainers now. The afternoon was completed with a grand tour of Proteus by Paula. As board member she has access to everything, and especially the number, size and costs of the boats were impressive. In the evening the girls had their own social engagements, so all the 'old' people' drove back to The Hague to start their own celebrations.

Paula in the lecture hall, waiting for the start of the ceremony

 Paula presenting a short overview of her final project

Paula and her grandparents in the maintenance room at Proteus

Gardening, cycling and wine: autumn holiday in France

Piet and Mary went for a week to the house in France, for their traditional autumn break. They had no big plans, and just wanted a week to relax and get the house and garden ready for the winter. The weather was nice, sunny and a bit cold, but good enough to work in the garden and for a few bike rides. As Mary is still suffering from her achilles tendons they didn't go for any hikes, but she was able to walk around the garden with her noisy tools. Piet managed to cycle up Alpe d'Huez, but noticed that being 6 weeks off the bike doesn't help!

Around the house the main projects of this summer were finished by one of our neighbours, the owner of a large construction company. The cables and wall anchors were placed in the barn to complete the stabilisation project. In addition the gate, that was brought over from Egypt, was finally installed. Due to the weight of this gate separate concrete pillars had to be constructed, but now there is an entry that matches the rest of the house.

Also a tradition by now is to catch up with Frits, one of Piet's old friends from university, who is always in southern France in October to stock up on his wines. This time the village of Mazan was the meeting point, and after visiting 3 wine houses (Fondreche, Pigeade and Amadieu) they landed at Les Florets, a nice hotel in the Dentelles de Montmirail, in Gigondas. The remainder of the day was spend on the terrace, and finished off with an excellent dinner. The next day Piet and Mary left Frits to buy some more wine, and drove slowly back along some scenic roads, to screen the area for nice villages and hiking opportunities for the next visit.
The highlights of the week were the absence of an alarm clock, internet and the opportunity to read books and newspapers at leisure, and of course drinking a nice glass of red wine in the evening!

Mary sitting on our new wall

The new gate - finally!

Mazan

View on Mont Ventoux from Mazan

Frits and Piet are discussing wine at Fondreche, Mazan

Gigondas, winery Pierre Amadieu

Piet and Frits are discussing the worlds' problems at Les Florets

La Garde-Adhemar, one of the many beautiful villages in the Rhone valley

La Garde-Adhemar

Getting ready for the last bike ride

Geel and Poppel

The last month Piet and Mary went to Belgium twice, to watch two cycling races of nephew Max. He is racing almost every weekend in the Junior (17-18 year) category, generally a distance of some 80 kilometers, with an average speed far above 40 km/hour! The races are held in villages in the region, with a loop of around 5 km, which has the advantage that you see them pass many times. The speed these boys develop is pretty impressive, and Max has been doing well throughout the year. He is also by far the fastest of the family in France, and Piet can only follow when Max does a recovery ride.

The other advantage of the short loops is that you can walk around, and take pictures at different locations. Below an impression of the races in Geel and Poppel.

Geel: cycling though farmland; the cows don't care

Max (green-black) chasing the first group

The last lap in Geel

Max rounding a corner in Poppel

 Max finishing 11th in Poppel

The Max van Balkom fan club: Marc, Piet Bart and Jeroen

Summer holidays (III)

During the last part of the summer holidays Piet went home for a second time to work, and the girls and friends continued their outdoor activities. Unfortunately Dorien's hiking trip had to be cut short due to illness, and they returned to the house to do several smaller trips and activities instead. When Paula's friends left she joined Dorien's group, and also worked several evenings in La Romanche as waitress. Finally they ended up with just Lars for a last week, also slowing down their activities. Using the house as base for outdoor activities was a huge success, and no doubt the same will happen in the next few years.

When Piet returned to France he had half a day overlap with Paula, who went back to join another group for a 5 day hike in Norway. Taking it easy is not in her DNA, and now she is almost fully mobile again she is catching up on lost time.

Mary has suffered with both her achilles tendons, and was not able to do any hikes during the summer. It luckily didn't hamper her work in the garden, and she spend many hours working on the horse pastures, which included the garden of our neighbours. 

Piet did his only hike with Dorien and Lars into a nearby valley that we hadn't explored before. The next day they left to work on their new mini-apartments, and to join the intro days for Delft University.

The last few days were spend reading, in the garden and on the bike. Piet did a final mountainbike ride, when disaster struck. On any easy trail he hit a rock or hole, and crashed heavily on his left shoulder. It was immediate clear that something was wrong, but being in the middle of nowhere there was no other option to carefully cycle down until he got hold of Mary. After visits to the local doctor, pharmacy and emergency unit at Grenoble University Hospital it was clear that his collarbone was dislocated, but the recommendation was to keep his arm in  sling and visit the hospital in The Hague soonest. The next few days were spend reading, whilst Mary finished off in the garden, cleared away our tools, cleaned the house and finally drove home with Beau, without the option to share the driving. All went well, and Beau found a freshly grown lawn in our front and back garden, allowing him to ease back into his town life.

In the end Piet's diagnosis was confirmed, and it was decided not to operate, despite a few small fractures in the dislocated end. He will have a one hand-life for the next month or so, with Mary in a supporting role (think shoelaces!).

Mary training with Beau

The Tour de France peloton on Col de la Croix de Fer

Dorien and Mary on Quinaille and Beau

In the Sarenne

Dorien and Lars enjoying a leisurely ride

Vallon des Etages

Lars and Dorien in Vallon des Etages