Nice Prose!
Well written chief, you should be drafting travel brochures. I stayed at Nocundra station in central Oz once. Nocundra is an aboriginal word meaning mosquito infested swamp. The sleeping quartes were industrial regrigeration units minus the frigpack & decked out with bunks, the airtight doors really helped to keep the mozzies in!
Since getting onto pprune I've given up my taste for SF with its tales of alien worlds, I just read the west Africa & GOM threads these days.