“Work smart, not hard” became my mantra after I heard it from Enrique, my fellow survey operator in French Guyana.

Those three months were the hardest, hottest, most difficult in my life so most things about French Guyana have stuck in my mind: being locked up over night by a drunk official in a room with a French Guyanese soldier shouldering an AK-47; the ‘steaming broccoli’ over which I flew 8 hours a day in 100% humidity and 40 degree heat with no air conditioning as it disturbed the survey equipment; the two terrible tragedies; the physical toll, in part a result of the endless turbulence and throwing up which knocked off the kilos so I was down to 39kg by the time my husband arrived from Greenland after I’d been 7 weeks on the French Guyana job. For long stretches I was the only woman, but the great crew I worked with was the counterbalance to the hardships.

It took me 23 years to get published and I’ve adopted the ‘work smart, not hard’ mantra.

I hope my blog will offer some helpful advice to others making the same journey.