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| Google Earth image showing Mozambique |
We spent about 11 days in Nampula and it was amazing. I had never done such true geological research work before and was absorbed in the process. We stayed in small camping lodges since research funding doesn't just pop out of volcanoes. The weather was extremely humid and hot and it took me a few days to adjust.
One of the first quarries we visited was within walking distance from our camp. The quarry was simply a very large outcrop of gneiss which had been excavated into steep sloping sides. We spent the morning looking at the whole area and then choose two spots about 4 m by 7 m for me to map in detail. By that time the sun was beating down and by some weird Murphy's law I was mapping in the centre of the quarry with the sun being reflected directly to me from all sides of the quarry walls. I had diligently put on sunblock and was wearing a large-brimmed hat, but I burnt right through my shirt and was lobster pink for quite a couple of days afterward. Also, I was halfway through my final mapping block when suddenly I was completed soaked. The clouds had gathered in seconds and it was pouring buckets of rain. We could do nothing but wait for it to dissipate. Within minutes it was back to searing heat and my hat was drooping over my eyes from all the rain.
The project was great. I learned the intricacies of planned and detailed field work, preparing and analysing samples, and the difference between first reporting data objectively and then drawing interpretations from it. The write-up was quite something else and I've never had so many drafts as what I had with that project.
What did help was playing Counter-Strike with my geology classmates during many an all-nighter in the computer labs :-).
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