... greeted us this fella this morning, though not with a letter.

Obviously injured, it was later picked up by a team from the fire brigade (!) and brought to a veterinary. They can't be careful enough these days...

Visit to RWE power plant and coal mining area near Weisweiler today. More on this most interesting trip tomorrow.

'Willing worker on non-organic farm'
(related link, I've always wanted to do that in NZ)

A cute little piece of machinery they got there:

2700 tons of lignite per day are transported over conveyor belts from a few 100 yards down, out of what is probably the largest manmade hole in Europe. The coal is 'empow(d)ered' and then burned in a hall of ovens. These boil up water in towers up to a 130m high, from where the stream pushes at high pressure (in this case some 135 bar) into the turbines that generate the electricity. One wouldn't believe that a few ventilators at 3000 beats per minute (i.e. 50 Hz) can provide power for 15 million people.

Well, it ain't all that easy...

Conveyor belts from the open mining pit 'Inden' near the power plant. Two villages had to be relocated for 'dem 'baggers'.

Marketing vs. reality. It's old technology. A dirty place. Nonetheless fascinating.

Not only two villages had to be relocated, but also the river Inde. They created a new floodplain in a circle around the Inden open pit. Details and map here (pdf, 1.81 MB!).

On the artificial river banks a lot of trees have been planted and flowers been seeded, like these ...?

Jones won't go anywhere without soccer ball these days ...

After some serious sports ...

... it's time for some rewards :)