South Africa Weather Service

In April 2008, I was fortunate enough to be asked to help present Aviation Training to forecasters from the South Africa Weather Service (SAWS).

The training, delivered over 5 days, was held at the regional centre in Pretoria. The centre was very well equipped – the room was air conditioned and and each delegate had access to a computer terminal.

This was a bit of a mixed blessing, as one or two delegates were sometimes found to be checking emails in the midst of a few of the less exciting afternoon sessions!

As any trainer knows, having another trainer in the training room observing can be “interesting” and it was quite novel to have trainers from SAWS sitting in on these training sessions. 

The delegates came from all parts of the country and for some this was the first time they had physically met their counterparts from other airports within South Africa. They all worked well at group tasks and the course was generally regarded to have gone down well.

 

My colleague and I stayed in a very hospitable bed and breakfast house just a short walk away from the training centre, which gave us a chance to sample the equitable climate of the area.

The owners gave us some very good tips for restaurants in town, and we were able to go to one or two of them during our stay in Pretoria. They also invited us to join them on a theatre trip to Johannesburg, but sadly there were no tickets left when we tried to book the evening performance.

We also managed to see some of the local wild life while we were there but was amazed me, as a first time visitor to South Africa, was the sheer size of the place.

For example, we drove for seemingly endless miles between fuel stations - a situation that rarely happens here in the UK. One highlight was staying at a farm close to the Drakensberg Mountains and seeing how excited the locals became when it snowed on the mountain tops!

My world map

I found a site that makes maps of places visited. Here's mine...



create your own visited country map

Bangladesh Images

This group shot shows, left to right, Ashraft, James, Me and Chris, standing outside the Bangladesh Meteorological Department headquarters.