Swans and spiders

After a week in Brisbane, it was time to fly over to Perth. A few Perth facts for you, it has about 1.5 million people, sits on the Swan river (where black swans were first found) and averages about 8 hrs of daylight per DAY (3,200 annually)... We got to Perth and it was in the middle of a heat snap, 35 days of over 30 degrees Celsius (about 86F) including at night...

So yeah, it was hot. We stayed a few blocks away from work and got back into the habit of going to work, going to the gym, dinner then sleeping. So nothing really exciting. Perth is a nice city with a beautiful river, plenty of shopping and beaches just a short ride away. The second week we were heading out to the mine site, however the weekend we were planning on visiting the beach or Rottnest island (more beaches and stuff). Saturday I went around town a bit and met up with Martin (my colleague) that evening in Fremantle at Little Creatures. Freo is a beach suburb and a bit more free spirited. Little Creatures is a famous microbrewery on the water that offers great sunset views too.

Sunday we were going to go to Rottnest but Martin went without me. It turns out that a pinching pain in my foot turned ugly and was later deemed a staph infection of a possible spider bite. I got it evaluated Sunday but was told I should have no problem visiting the mine...

Early Monday we flew out to the mine (commercial, the workers fly in/out every few days depending on the schedule, most do 12 hour shifts). The mine is way out in the middle of nowhere. The stacks rising from the plant are the tallest things in the landscape for several hours drive, maybe longer. We did our work, and toured the site. However wearing steel toed boots with a swollen, infected foot was painful. It felt like it was getting worse so I had the mine doctor look at it. I was recommended to go back to Perth as it was worsening and seek additional medical advice.

Before I get into that, let me describe the mine. It is a huge open pit operation. It is a very complicated and detailed process. The workers all live in a village that consist of trailer like housing with a mess hall, swimming pool, gym, Internet cafe and other amenities to make it live able. Its not all that bad. The food was pretty good. It felt kind of like being at summer camp but where your daily activity was mining, blasting (we saw 22 tons explode...) or operating some machinery. I can see how people like it.

Anyway so I went back to Perth and saw a different doctor. They gave me stronger antibiotics and wished me well. We finished up our work and caught a Friday flight towards Singapore en route to Manila...