John had planned a tour of the Grasberg mine during my visit. A copper mine? I really could not grasp why this could be such a big deal, I was completely wrong! John and I headed to his office first. The office building was surrounded by large equipment spewing rock out of the mountain and machinery larger than I have ever seen. We checked in and headed through the tunnel for my first view at the stages of copper mining. Conveyor belts, tumblers, extractors, etc. Final product in liquid form to be pumped down the mountain to barges. Amazing. Next phase, take the tram to base camp of the mine pit.
Now is the time in your life where you realize you need to overcome any fear you may have of heights, claustrophobia, or vastness. The tram arrives at the dock and unloads about 30-40 workers packed in like sardines. I state to John there is no way I can get in the tram pack in like that. To my luck, there is only 12 people going "up", but coming back I may not be so lucky. As we leave the dock, the clouds roll in and my view is impaired. Bummer. However, in about two minutes, we come out of the clouds with a view indescribable. You could see the top of the mountain and behind us all the way to the ocean. I am now blown out of the water. This is just the first phase of the views I am about to encounter.
John and I meet up with our guide, Jim, who has been at the mine over 20 years. Hop in the Land Rover and off we go....up "that hill!?" Any other time I may have been leery of the drive, but my adrenaline has gotten the best of me. We venture the road to the top of the open mine pit. Elevation is fourteen thousand feet and I am still able to breathe. The view has got the best of me. I feel like an ant looking over the edge of the Grand Canyon. We are lucky enough to have the skies clear to view Carstencz Glacier.
The rest of the trip was spent testing my ability to climb up metal staircases at high altitudes, walk out on narrow metal walkways over the worlds largest rock crusher....ok, now I am getting winded!
We ventured down the HEAT road to head back to our starting point. Along the way we pass a few areas where rock slides had happened not to long ago. The road signs are interesting as to the "incline" shown for a hill with rocks dropping next to it. We stopped at this beautiful waterfall along the way. It was a nice to see nature un-interrupted amongst man made works.
No comments:
Post a Comment