Mild Mongolia

Ok, so going to Mongolia in the middle of winter isn't mild as such, more like bloody freezing. When you look at a temperature forecast and see the warm day is from -17 to -29 degrees (Celsius for my international friends), you know you’re in for a bit of a shock.

So leaving Perth on another balmy 30 degree day to begin the double (yay for business class) leg to Beijing via Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Airlines.  The stopover in KL was brief and then upon reaching Beijing after a few hours sleep it was about trying to find ways to occupy nearly 6 hours until the next flight. With no wi-fi unless you have a Chinese mobile number or want to pay the extravagant Australian mobile company roaming fees, it’s not all fun and net surfing. Unfortunately as the next leg was on Air China and only economy (oh boo hoo I hear you say), no use of the airline lounge either. Fortunately on this trip to site I had a travel buddy (thanks Verne) which certainly helped ease the boredom of the 24 hour trip to Mongolia. So a wander around, feeling a little chilly (only -10 in Beijing at time of landing, but figuring it was good acclimatisation for later that day) and a coffee break later and it was time to board the flight to Ulaanbaatar.

We landed in UB, picked up the bags and then proceeded to put on extra jackets and beanies before even leaving the airport terminal. Then it was meeting the driver who would take us to the Corporate Hotel where the night would be spent. After checking in, a quick afternoons walk around the city centre involved a couple of stops in the nearest stores to help warm up a bit. It would take two minutes for any exposed (and not so exposed) body parts to feel numb again, so half a dozen shops were entered for browsing and more importantly, reheating purposes. Once back at the hotel there was some relaxation time before dinner and bed.

The defined pickup time the next morning of 5am wasn’t such a big problem. The biggest issue was opening the door of the hotel to exit the building as the pressure difference when stepping outside to -30 degrees was a little more substantial than expected. After the flight check-in, the flight to the Oyu Tolgoi mine site from Ulaanbaatar was quite relaxing. The view of the sunrise and the landscape was incredible and the breakfast was certainly interesting. But it was eaten regardless.

The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine is located in southern Mongolia in the Gobi Desert. It will be Mongolia’s largest copper and gold mine and one of the largest in the world upon its completion. It started commercial production in 2013. Oyu Tolgoi LLC is a partnership between the Government of Mongolia, which owns 34%, and Turquoise Hill Resources, which owns 66%. The Oyu Tolgoi operation consists of open-pit and underground mines, a processing plant and supporting infrastructure.  It produces high-grade copper and gold concentrates. The open-pit mine will be a large tonnage operation expecting to move over 100 million tonnes of dirt per annum using traditional shovel and truck fleets.

My job on site was to help the geology department change over to using our software, with particular attention to implementing a full grade control process on site. This process takes the drilling results, working with the data to figure out what is actually in the ground (high grade dirt, low grade, waste, etc) and then after classification, pass this information on to the surveyors to mark it out in the pit and to the engineers so they can plan how best to order the mining of the dirt. It’s a reasonably simple process, but getting it wrong means you’re literally throwing away gold (and copper at Oyu Tolgoi).

Tuesday night had a light snowfall. This made a nice change to it being cold and clear. A little snow always adds something pleasant to the chilly days. So waking up on Wednesday there was some minor snow cover, and the crunch underfoot was a little different to normal. The only reason the snow slowly disappeared from the ground over the next few days was the wind and bright sun shiny day. The temperatures continued to hold around the -5 to -20 range throughout the fortnight on site.

The second week on site was more about the training of new (and existing) users in both MineSight and particularly the MSAxis utilities. The production geology group on site hadn’t been exposed to MineSight other than a training course a few months previously. As these users would also be now working in close collaboration with the Ore Control engineers in the MineSight Grade Control project, it was important for them to understand and be comfortable with the software and the specific utilities within.

As the trip wound down on the last day (yeah right, things never wind down on the last day), we found an opportunity to go and have a quick look at the pit and the stockpile area of the mine. Due to the vast space available, the mining complex covers a large area, with camps, processing facilities, ware houses, store yards, the pit and the various stockpiles being spread out.

It was good to see how the actual process takes place on the ground compared to the computer version of mining. Then it was time to thank everyone on site for their help, have one last night of sleep and prepare for the even longer trip back home.

This meant a flight from site back to Ulaanbaatar, 5 hours sitting around the UB airport, a flight to Beijing and 8 hours sitting there. Remember, if you’re flying with Malaysian Airlines, check-in is only 2 hours before scheduled departure, so a long wait with baggage after heading through immigration is required. I did manage to find the most unhelpful airport restaurant in the world within the terminal though so the already frustrating wait became that much more fun. Then it was a comfortable seat for the flight to Kuala Lumpur, a brief stopover and back in the plane to finally get back to Perth on the Monday afternoon. It’s a strange travel arrangement when out of the 30-ish hours, half of them are spent in airports waiting for that next flight. But hey, it’s what we do.

Albany Half Triathlon 2014

Well, it's not really a half triathlon. I mean, how do you halve three disciplines? It actually refers to the length of the triathlon, meaning it's a half ironman, or a 70.3 distance triathlon. Only the word ironman can't be used in the name of the triathlon unless it's run by the ironman corporation. Anyway, it involves a 1.9km swim, 90km on the bike and a 21.1km run to finish off.

So why did this event appeal to me? Well as I try to add a new experience to my life each year, I find an event that requires a little effort on my behalf. For 2013 the aim was to add a half ironman to the list of achievements. With my work schedule I aimed to compete in the Mandurah half in November. It seemed like a good idea as I hoped to have the marathon legs from the City to Surf even in August still useful. But I missed entering early enough to book a spot.  Well, without utilising a foreign address anyway. So the WA Country Builders Albany Half was the next event available that would be feasible to enter http://www.albanyhalf.com.au/ . That it would be in the first weekend of 2014 (January 4th) was close enough to 2013 to be my 2013 achievement. 

So after booking myself in back in June, the training really started to pick up in October. A little bit of knee pain (I think I'm getting old) and a visit to The Running Centre to help improve my running style (which has definantly helped, thanks Marc). Heck, I even went out and purchased a wetsuit. Expensive, but I hoped that I might even use it again. Then after being pretty happy with my cycling and running training, I finally hopped in the pool a month before the event.

Having not swum for 6 months, the "she'll be right" attitude kicked in. After 1500m I called it a day, had a reasonable pedal home and all was good. The morning after upon reaching for my towel, "ping", can't move my head and a good dose off neck and shoulder pain. I did manage to see a physio that day and was advised not to do any cycling running or swimming for a couple of days. Not what you need to hear four weeks out from a physical event.

So rather gently a week later I hopped on the bike for an hour without too much pain. Just the obligatory stiff neck. Excellent, I can deal with that. Let's add in some running again which was good. It's amazing how restricted life can feel when you're not allowed to exercise for a week. And then after two weeks I thought I should do another swim just to make sure nothing was going to fail again. Phew, 2100m and no extra pain. So I was confident I had a chance of doing this. 

Now let's bring in Christmas and New Years and almost some self control when it comes to the delicacies on offer and my four weeks prior to my first 70.3 triathlon was certainly not one from the book of good. But off we go anyway. 

Drive down to Albany on the Thursday to allow a day and a half of walking and stretching and carbing up. And Friday afternoon spent going over all the kit required for the following days activity. During the mid afternoon the bike was taken down to the triathlon registration area to be submitted into the transition zone for the night.

And there were certainly some beautiful bikes there. I was one of the minority without a time trial bike and an even smaller minority without time trial bars. But I knew my bike and was comfortable with it anyway, but a little bike envy never hurt anyone. Then back home and quadruple check and then some with the kit bag for Saturday. Shoes, check, cycling gear, check, food goodies, check, everything else, check.

So early Saturday morning and it was time to get dressed and do something new. Check all the gear again, have some brekky and in to the triathlon transition area to set up my gear and try and relax. Once that was done it was time to try and wrestle on the wetsuit, listen to the briefing, put on the swimming cap and goggles and wander down to the start line on the beach. Maybe even ponder what the rest of the morning was all about.

The elite athletes, male and female, are started at 0630 with the general "athletes" starting at 0634 and the teams at 0700. I'm not sure why the elites need the headstart (well aside from not having to mingle with the generics like myself), but they get one anyway. Not that I could make them look bad even if I tried. But the siren goes, the elites run, splash and swim into the distance and then "booooop", it's our turn. Splash splash splash and swim.

Out onto the triangular swim course on a beautiful flat oceaned day. The Middleton Beach leg was a lot easier than I expected. This may have been helped by doing two laps with a quick sand dash in the middle of it. And also by swimming in salt water and having a wetsuit so I didn't have to lug my normal weight around.

Then out of the water for the second time and into the transition zone. Having not done a triathlon transition before it took a few minutes for me to emerge minus the wetsuit, but with a bike and cleats and a few edibles instead. For anyone who's watched professionals doing this, it's a thirty second thing, not my three minute thirty second thing.

Bike in hand, run along some grass, around the base of one of the pines with exposed roots for a minor challenge, then to the transition exit line where you must now board your bike. Then it's straight up and over Mount Clarence before passing around the bottom of Albany and out of town. It's a lot easier to share a joke a kilometre into the ride than it is 88km later heading back past the same place.

The cycling route follows the Lower Denmark Road west before the turnaround at the 45km mark. The ride itself is reasonably flat, but the headwind keeps the speed a little slower than wished for on the way out. The upside to this is you get a good tailwind for the second half of the ride. Thank goodness for that. Back over the hill and into the transition area to swap the cleats for runners.

Excellent, on time so far and only a half marathon to go, being two laps out to Emu Point and back. Out to Emu Point is "flat", meaning small rolling hills of half to a metre or so in height. Not so bad for the first out leg, before some flat near the turn and a return almost half way back the same route. Then a left hand bend takes the runners over a sand dune (soft running) and down to the beach for some flat forgiving running.

Then up off the beach and up the boardwalk before turning, running back past the transition area and on for lap two. This was a struggle for me. A little bit of walking, then a decreasing jogged distance between walking and a lot of verbal self encouragement and name calling to myself. More name calling to be honest. But two hours later the last step was completed and across the line with a self clap of completion.

My aim for the event was to finish in 6 hours. I was hoping for about 45 minutes swimming, 3 hours cycling and 2 hours running. With a few minutes for transitions and error margin. But according to the timer on my ankle, I swam 39:26, cycled 3:04:58, and ran 2:00:38. So the running was the only one I was honestly a little disappointed with. But when the transitions were added in I still managed a 5:51:06, so no complaints there. It was nice to achieve a time I was happy with with my prior four weeks, but I was happier to have achieved something beyond my previous experiences.

For those who want something to do, this even is brilliant. It's well run, and only having to deal with 200 individuals and another 40 teams makes it free of the clutter of Busselton and Mandurah. The winner finished in 4:01:25 and the time cutoff is 7 hours 30. But believe me, there were some who finished beyond the time in order to accomplish something for themselves. I've already booked in for the (January 10th) 2015 event.

Now to do another couple before trying the full ironman.

Celebration of the Motorcar - sports cars, classic cars, prestige cars and unique cars

The 2013 Celebration of the Motorcar at the Cottesloe Civic Centre in support of Bridging Communities ( www.bridgingcommunities.com.au ) was a display of 130 invited vehicles showing off a broad range of the history of motorcars in general, never mind Western Australia. The 2013 event had three feature displays, 100 years of Aston Martin, including the oldest Aston in Australia from 1923. There were a couple of DB models (2/4, 4, 6) and the 2013 Vanquish.

50 years of the Porsche 911, including the oldest one in WA and two different production cars released in Australia just 3 days previously.

And 50 years of Bolwell, with every Bolwell car model on display together for the first time. And the model names for the most part are easy to remember, Bolwell Mark 4, 5, 6, 7, Nagari (8), Ikara and (new) Nagari.

This even has been run by Paul Blank from Automotive Events Management since 1993. Below is the 1925 Amilcar and the lavish Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

Cars that hadn't been put into the area on the Saturday afternoon were lined up before 830 in the morning with all the cars to be displayed organised and in position prior to 10am with the public being allowed in from 1030. Cars included the rare Facel Vega, the exuberant Plymouth Superbird Roadrunner, Alfa Romeo Montreal and the polished aluminum Jaguar XK which is the oldest of its kind in Australia.

Awards were presented about 315 prior to the show concluding. The judging can't have been easy in order to select the cars that took out the trophies.
The winner of the Pre-War Class (presented by Autosculpt Miniatures) was the 1923 Aston Martin Grand Prix car of Peter and Robin Briggs.

The Post-War Sports Car class (by Clockwork Print) was taken out by the 1958 Chevrolet Corvette of Mark Bojanjac.

The Post-War Saloon class (by The Ultimate Grand Prix Experience) was taken by the 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham owned by Ross Morgan.

And finally, the Peter and Robin Briggs Peoples Choice award went to the 2012  McLaren MP4-12C.

The collection of cars on display was amazing and while I have only put a few up (obviously with a slight favoritism to the Bolwells given my club association), I will follow in time with some more images of the event. Below however is the first Bentley to compete in the Le Mans 24-hour in 1923, an original AC Cobra, the only Ford GT in WA, the beautiful Packard Hawk, the only one of its kind in Australia, and a Jaguar XJ13 replica.