A day of Farewells

Just as summer finally arrives in Cape Town, we had to say farewell to Jon and Amanda today.
I drove Jon to the airport this morning, through Cape Town’s appalling early morning traffic. He is on his way to Zambia, from where he begins an overland trip through Botswana and Namibia, arriving back in Cape Town in 3 weeks’ time.

We had an excellent lunch with Amanda at Blues Restaurant in Camps Bay before dropping her off at the airport for her Emirates flight back to the UK.

Chapman's Peak

The 582m Chapman’s Peak overlooks Noordhoek Beach (see yesterday's beach photo), and Chapman’s Peak drive is one of the most famous scenic drives in the world.

Amanda, Jon, Dean Eastbury and I made the fairly strenuous hike to the summit today. The views of Hout Bay were spectacular as was the view from the very cold summit, where we were buffeted by gale force winds.

On our return, a well earned beer was followed by an, unfortunately, very mediocre meal at the local Red Herring Restaurant.

Views of Hout Bay

Jon on the windy summit with Constantia and Fish Hoek in background

Sheltering from the wind on the summit

The capricious Cape Town weather

They call it the Cape of Storms and the weather during the past week has been the worst that we can remember.

Even now, although the weather has improved, it has been totally unpredictable today.

This morning we relaxed in our cottage at Noordhoek, and caught up on emails and phone calls, then in the afternoon Jon, Amanda and I walked 6 miles on Noordhoek Beach, initially in glorious sunshine, then an hour later in a torrential downpour.

Dean Eastbury of Elsevier joined us this evening for drinks and dinner at Monkey Valley’s Thorfynn’s Restaurant.

Farewell to the Vineyard Hotel

The sun finally shone on the Vineyard this morning, as most of the delegates made their way home! Amanda surfaced very late for breakfast, looking extremely fragile after ‘networking’ until 3 in the morning! We will be back in 5 months' time for Comminution '10.

After finalising our accounts with the hotel, Barbara, Jon, Amanda and I collected our rental car for the 30 minute drive to Noordhoek and our timeshare cottage at the beautiful Monkey Valley
resort.

The Last Supper

Amanda and Jon enjoying a final Vineyard dinner with Prof. Jan Cilliers and his impressive team of young researchers from Imperial College, UK.

Left to right: Jan Cilliers, Kathyrn Cole, Amanda, Pablo Brito Parada, Gareth Morris, Kathyn Hadler, Chris Smith and Jon.

Flotation '09- the party's over

The conference was officially closed at 1540 by Prof. J-P Franzidis and me, the delegates then enjoying a final wine event in the exhibition area.

It has been a great conference, thanks to the quality of the papers, the high level of interest shown by the delegates, the perfect venue, and, of course, the weather, which has kept most people indoors for the last week!

I would like to thank our 12 sponsors again, and our two consultants, the chairpersons, authors, and all delegates for making this event such a success.

The conference has ended, but has just begun as far as I am concerned, as I now have the satisfying task of putting together a high quality special issue of Minerals Engineering. The conference itself has provided the initial peer-review of the papers and authors have been asked to submit their final revised manuscripts within the next month.

The weather is still atrocious, but is forecast to improve by weekend, which is good news for all who are staying on to sample the delights of the Cape.

The next Flotation conference will be held at the Vineyard Hotel again, from November 7-10, 2011 and Maelgwyn Minerals have already agreed to continue with their sponsorship.

Finally, we will be preparing a report on the conference for MEI Online, and would greatly appreciate your views and comments, sent directly to me at bwills@min-eng.com.