Living on Mars

I got back to the B&B today and squeezed shampoo into my hair. I lathered absent-mindedly before using the same hand to place the shampoo-bottle on the shower floor.

Blood dripped from my hand.

I was mildly alarmed. There was no sign of pain on my head, hand, or arm. Pain that would be indicative of a laceration. I lathered some more and rinsed and it seemed as if someone had scalped me.

Such is the dust on Sishen Iron Ore Mine. Don’t go there with long hair. Don’t go there if you are a bull — it will enrage you.

It’s been a long two days in the Northern Cape. The first day was long because I had to get up before 5am, and drive for 6.5 hours to get there — and then still wander around a mine for a bit.

The second day was long because Sishen Mine is huge. The pit alone is about 15km long and 5 km wide. it feels like we drove around the whole dam thing, but I fear we only really got to see a small portion of it — and that was just the morning.
Then in the afternoon we had a look at the plant. It’s the biggest processing plant I’ve ever seen. Throughput is lots. Not sure I’m allowed to say how much lots is, but the tons per hour entering the process is in the 1000s.
I’m used to gold plants — they’re not as big.

As an aside, I’m also struggling to keep to vegetarianism in this place. I don’t think I can get enough protein here that isn’t animal, and also not die (or at least become seriously malnourished).

Ah well. Perhaps there will be more on this tomorrow (but realistically Thursday is a better chance since I’m also going to the mine at night tomorrow).