The better is the enemy of the good – and so our old Futurelight housings need to give way to new housings for some devices. The new look will no longer be made of rubberized material, but of hard and smooth plastic.
Why this change?
Flat as a cracker – that is how the future of High Performance LEDs appears. And in this flat lies the secret of the powerful LEDs. Because the latest generation of high-power LEDs is characterized by COB (Chip-On-Board) manufacturing.
Advantages are a better heat dissipation, a minimum chip distance and an easy control of the LED arrays or LED clusters (also called modules).
Back in cold Germany. After 26 days, we landed safely in Frankfurt on January, 19th. Of course, people ask me: How was it? It’s hard for me to find a short answer to this question. However, I’ll try to sort my thoughts and draw a conclusion – let’s see, if I succeed.
The rallye is officially over. We arrived at the Zebra bar in Senegal. The perfect place to relax after these exciting weeks. Everybody is fine and trys to deal with the impressions of the journey. Not so easy, as there are a lot.
It will surely take some weeks to realize what we have done. Senegal is where black Africa begins and the oppressive feeling, which we encountered in Mauritania, flies away. The people seem to be happier, although they are not really better off.
As the first participants prepare to leave, you realize that even though it was a group of more than 50 people, it’s hard to say goodbye after such an adventure. And it really was an adventure. The desert, poverty, heat, dust and diesel. I am glad that I went on this journey. Now that I am back at home, I will dare to reflect.
The desert is crossed. We’ve arrived in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauretania – the next to last leg before driving to Senegal tomorrow.
The desert was phenomenal. On the one hand, the landscape is really awe-inspiring. Once we slept at a dune in the middle of nowhere and twice on the beach, I’ve never seen such a starry sky. On the other hand, this is a surreal situation driving cars through deep sand plains or across dunes, which the vehicles initially were never conceived for. Of course, the vehicles were raised and equipped with sensible underbody protection, yet they are still everyday cars or transporters, like our MB100. And just this car has done a sensational job. In contrast to others, we didn’t get stuck once and had no mechanical problems. One vehicle suffered a broken axle in the sand and had to be left behind in the Sahara. We then carried the drivers‘ baggage and others took in the passengers.
After the direct trek through the desert we drove on the shore. Over 100 km direct along the ocean, unparalleled! Unfortunately, we couldn’t pass through a narrow point –usually a short drive through the water to pass huge rocks – due to high tide. Without further ado, we opted for the route via a higher-lying dune and shoveled a ramp in order to reach the shore again below. Unforgettable scenes.
Today we also visited the second of aepn’s orphan children’s projekts. The scenes were similar to the first home. There isn’t much of anything, but the best that can be done is being done and the children are well cared for!
We’re now looking forward to Senegal and a few days of relaxation at the Zebrabar. I’ll certainly send some concluding thoughts from there.
See you,
Michael.
