Hello Dear Reader Well what to tell you about the Desert? Firstly it is not a Desert as you may think. It is not soft sand rolling dunes, the sand here is quite hard more like a beach within the tide mark. Some of the guys on site did joke that we were on a beach, it was warm and sandy, it was just a 500km walk to the sea. Secondly there is nothing as far as the eye can see. Ok this is not strictly true, there were a number of oil/gas plants in the area where I was working and they can often be seen belching out smoke and flames from flares or sludge pits. Thirdly and this links to the there is nothing for miles comment. There is a distinct problem with looking out upon the Desert, and that is it plays tricks on your eyes. I [...]

Hello Dear Reader So having braved crazy driving and enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere of the souq, it was time to head to the desert to actually do some work. However I did have enough time before heading to the airport for my flight to walk down to the beach and dip my toes in the med it had to be done really I can now say I have dipped my toes in the med on both sides of it. So we arrive at the airport, now this was not the international airport with I had flown into from London, this was an internal airport for flights within Libya, or to Algeria or Tunisia. I was to take a chartered flight owned by one of the oil companies and I was told if you asked your flying to Area 103. All thought this trip was only to be about 2 hours [...]

Hello Dear Reader Image by (: Kiff via Flickr We I am currently sat in my room with the Air Conditioning on trying to cool down, while I read reports on twitter and the news about how snow is falling in the UK. As I have previously mentioned I have travelled to Libya for about 3 weeks with work. We are supporting the General Company for Gas Transportation and Distribution in the construction of a 190km pipeline across the Libyan Desert. We are in a place called Area 103 which is about 60km west of the town of Jalu the push pin below is and approximation of where we are. View Larger Map I started the week in Tripoli, flying in on a Sunday and being collected from the Airport. I have walked though many airports and seen people standing with signs and always thought it would be nice to [...]