Bonus

It's a high stakes juggling game . . . . Imagine a clown juggling with chainsaws. He's balanced on a plank of wood which in turn is balanced sideways on a beer barrel. The clown has half a dozen little yappy yorkshire terriers nipping at his ankles. One is wearing a little waistcoat with "no maintenance for years" written on it, one is wearing a little waistcoat with "we are the townships - don't you dare switch us off!!!" written on it, another one is wearing a little waistcoat with "we are the municipalities - talk to the hand!" written on it . . . Also, the clown is blindfolded and has people shooting at him with super-soakers . . . . That's possibly an average day at ESKOM . . . . . :-)

The pipework does get a bit crazy at times . . . . .

These (not very clear) pics were taken on top of the Boiler - above the 72m level. You can see that the whole Boiler hangs on steel rods from massive steel girders (so that it can expand when it heats up)

This pic, I took it from the top of the 273m chiminey stack, shows more "car-port style" sheeting and the 4 safety valve outlet pipes on each boiler roof.

Yep. Essentially a very large car-port!

Boiler Pressure . . . .

One of the Boiler Safety Valves . . . .

A 600MW Turbine/Generator set

One of the 3x 20kV Breakers . . .

Actually hearing a Unit "trip" is quite a thing . . . . I heard plenty back in the day when I worked at Matla Power Station. It can be for a variety of reasons, but generally the very short chain of events goes like this: 1) A fault develops somewhere along the line. 2) Within milliseconds of a fault developing, the 3x 20kV gas-blast Brown Boveri Generator Output Circuit Breakers, situated on the 10 meter level just below whichever is the relevant Generator, all trip. The operation of these breakers, which are understandably huge - is an immense "bang" so loud you'll easliy hear it from anywhere in the kilometer long Turbine Hall (16 meter level) over the general noise of the power station. 3) With the breakers now "open-circuit", the Alsthom-Atlantique Generator stops producing electricity. Removing the massive generating load from a Generator/Turbine Set is like simultaneously taking the brakes off a runaway train whilst also firing up a pack of attached JATO units! 4) The MAN Turbine, which is being fed with super-heated dry steam by a 62m high Babcock Boiler delivering 16.1MPa (161 Bar / 2335 psi) at a temperature of 535C, suddenly gains speed at a rapid rate of knots causing the Turbine Centrifugal Overspeed Switch to sense a "runaway Turbine" (or not, in the case of Duvha Power station) which in turn triggers the HP (high pressure) bypass valves on the 600MW Turbine to activate. These valves close, preventing steam from entering the turbine and sending it unused back to the boiler. 5) The live steam returning to the boiler without having any of its "energy" taken out, causes the temperature and therfore the pressure in the bolier to very quickly climb and within seconds the first of the four roof top Boiler Safety Valves will operate, dumping dry live steam in excess of 535 Deg C / 16.1MPa, out into the atmosphere. The whole operation generally takes no more than a minute, from the first "Bang" of the CB's tripping to one of the safety valves letting go. If you're outside and you can hear a safety valve dumping live steam, you usually can't tell which unit has tripped - because the steam, being dry, is invisible......

The friends I mentioned in our "Big Adventure" thread are back from their Cuban holiday now, so hopefully we'll all get together soon and have a look at our Build Plan to see how much of the work we can do ourselves if they help us. I'm fairly hands-on myself, but with my friend Ben's help we can add lots more jobs to the list of things we can do ourselves because he's a builder! Will be great if we can cut the labour bill right down to the bone and if we concentrate initialy on getting a small part of the project finished and ready for business, then that will give us some income and financial security too.

We've been watching YouTube videos of last weekends "Cape Argus" bike race. We did this race several times ourselves so we recognise bits of the course. Brings back some happy memories. Well done to any Hubbers that took part!

I remember this.

We were watching an old episode of "Columbo" on TV yesterday lunchtime and the music was during the "tense bit" was bizarre. Something they knocked up in the kitchen scraping pots and pans together I think.

I honestly haven't a clue. Properties like this are unique - so there's no real way of telling. To buy it, have plans drawn up, pay for the planning permission, renovate it, put in a proper access road - curently a badly maintained dirt track which is a couple of km's long, run in mains water and electricity (or go Solar), and pay the relevant taxes . . . . you'd need to have won the Lottery!

Zona Zero Route ZZ-014 "Camporrotuno and the Treasure of Dineeretes" - This huge abandonded house - "La Capana" - and its outbuildings, which include a Hermitage and a small Church, are beside the trail...

If I won the Lotto I'd buy the whole lot and turn it into something amazing . . . . Meanwhile, in the real world, let's get our own place done first hey??

Some more of the house and the view down to the Dam. As you can see, our exceptional weather for this time of year carries on!

This huge abandonded house - "La Capana" - and its outbuildings, which include a Hermitage and a small Church, are beside the trail of Zona Zero Route ZZ-014 "Camporrotuno and the Treasure of Dineretes" ......

I guess they will have been parked-up and stored sensibly, so hopefully not too much trouble getting them back on line. I'm sure I read somewhere that fuel doesn't stay as fuel if it sits too long, so drain, flush and refill needed too . . .

Do they pay their bills?

Pinetown . . . .

We lived on the west rand and Lanseria was soooo easy to get to, to check in at and to fly from.

unfeasible vote harvesting promises . . . .