A bit late but better late than never: Field report for April 2014

I and my classmates, a group of 13 students, went for a field trip which was a one week trip. We visited the  Kombat area which is around Otavi in Namibia. The field trip aimed to familiarise the students with working in  a small group and know how to tackle such work when  assigned to do them in future. The Kombatmine, where copper was unearthed,  closed few years back. This is why some studies are being carried out to see if there is still a potential for the mine to open again.

The field trip started on the 5^th of April until the 12^th of April, we had one supervisor and we were divided into three groups and each group was given a specific area to focus on in the Kombat area. To start the day, we always wake up at 06h30 in the morning, prepare breakfast and pack our lunch for the day and leave the camping site at 07h30 to the working site.

The first day we worked as the whole group with the help of the supervisor and one of the geologists who works in the Kombat area. They were introducing the area and telling what is expected from us.  We should find some outcrops which are believed to be in the area but they are not appearing on the geological map of the area. On the 07^th of April we started working in separate groups of which each group was allocated to a different farm as the area under exploration is a farming area. We used to finish our daily work at 17h00 and wait for the bus to pick us up, we mapped for four days in which in the 4^th day we heard weird sounds of wild cats which terminated our mapping activities and we were forced  to do the logging the next day which is done at the office.

Safety is first priority in exploration that is why when we heard the weird sound of the wild cats we terminated the mapping exercise and not go in the bushes any more but these are things which an exploration geologist will always be expecting. Generally the field trip was good apart from the weird sound heard. It is a very good way of exercising  as we are now fit to work under pressure and different working environment.