As another year comes to a close and we enter the holiday
season, Norman has sent us special seasons greeting which includes the first
part of a recap of what 2012 held for him during his long stay in Japan whilst
waiting for the permission (that sadly never arrived) to continue the
circumnavigation.
Always upbeat, here in his own words is Norman's Christmas
greeting.
Christmas 2012
Hello again everyone, well what a fantastic Olympic year 2012
has turned out to be… though unfortunately it has also been an extremely
frustrating year for the Gyrox Goes Global project.
It began well enough; initial spring time optimism pointed
towards a timely return to the circumnavigation record attempt once the Bering
Sea became unfrozen. But late spring slipped steadily into summer without any
sign of the elusive (but still very necessary) Russian Flight Permission being
granted. Seemingly endless negotiations continued throughout the summer months and
as if in an exact replay of this same time last year, we now still find
ourselves remaining firmly stuck in Japan for a second winter….
However, remaining ever the optimist (at this point I think
the GGG motto should read “Spes oritur aeternum” - hope
springs eternal!), the encouraging news going forward into the new year is
that I have finally managed to make contact with a highly regarded Far East
Russian Navigator who is willing to assist and accompany me on the onward
journey in late May 2013.
Looking back on the year, I spent most of the summer simply
waiting. I was constantly hoping for improving news from Russia (in fact any news coming out of Russia would have
be seen as good progress…) and thus kept the GGG project in a constant state of
readiness to immediately fly on towards Alaska, once the green light would be
given by the Russian Authorities. All well and good only the “Green for Go” light
never came…in fact at times it felt more like the traffic lights had been decommissioned
and unable to give out any signals at all….
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| Dougie arrives in time to help Norman with the cherry harvest. |
I was however able to put the enforced down time to
good use and thus embarked on various local projects that would keep me busy.
My “gastronaught” puppet co-pilot supplied by Stomawise UK ( Named “Dougie”
after Douglas Bader, a very famous disabled pilot) arrived during the summer
and he instantly became involved with many of the activities, including
assisting in the annual Cherry picking harvest at a local family run farm. This was a most enjoyable experience,
although it also meant a very early start to the day to pick enough Cherries in
time for each day’s market.
Rice planting was another wholly fascinating and
unusual activity, especially for someone who hails from “Norn Iron” - where potatoes are our staple feed-stuff…
The rice seedlings are cultivated in long polythene
tunnels in seed trays and then taken out to be planted in the regular rice
fields. Normally the planting out is undertaken by a very bizarre looking,
spindly wheeled tractor, but on one occasion I joined an organised community
planting day to experience the job of planting the rice out by hand, as it
would have been traditionally done many years ago.
It might not look as pretty as a sports car, but the modern planting
tractor is definitely the rice farmer’s
best friend in the spring time… as trying to plant out a whole field by hand alone
must have been very hard work in the past, especially while you are being baked under the hot spring
sunshine…still, at least the oozy, warm mud squeezing through your toes was
quite good fun!
During the summer the rice grows quickly and a clever
method is used mid season to combat pests and encourage the eventual yield of
the crop. Once planted out with seedlings the fields are initially flooded to
help the rice grow rapidly, but this then makes it difficult to enter the field
with any large machinery to perform any necessary crop spraying.
A highly effective solution has emerged in recent years and
that is to employ large remote controlled helicopters that can hover just a few
metres above the crops. Very specialised teams of remote control pilots (who
are often also farmers themselves) are then very active mid season moving from
field to field during a few brief hectic weeks work.
Rice Harvest season came up next (in early autumn) and
I was thus able to complete the full growing cycle by having a lesson at
driving a combine harvester.
I was very privileged to actually be allowed to take the
controls as rice cultivation, as you can well imagine, is a very serious business
in Japan - it proved to be great fun none the less!
Later in the year, on a day trip over to Sendai, I came
across this very peculiar sight - it was a small boy standing outside a
shopping centre holding a piece of carrot on the end of a long stick….what on
earth was going on?
All was revealed when the small boy duly offered up the
carrot to a very well behaved horse! No chance of any bitten fingers here! The
horse was part of a promotion for a local riding school and the staff where
taking no chances when it came to potential personal injury claims…
Trust the Japanese to
have thought of everything!
On the same Sendai trip I spotted an enormous inflatable Japanese
Santa hung from the ceiling in a shopping mall, I was especially drawn to his
somewhat contradictory jet black hair and white flowing beard…. Complete with umbilical air pipes to keep both
he and Rudolf fully pumped up over the festive season, I thought what a perfect
way to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
And in case you are all suffering from aching feet during
the endless Christmas shopping trips of late, the Japanese have triumphed once
again…..what better solution can be found than by supplying some complementary
sofas in your busy department store, especially for the reluctant partners of shopaholics
to rest up a while…
Until the next installment….
From all at the Gyrox Goes Global team and from myself and my family, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and successful New year,
Best Wishes
Norman.
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