Photos of Rusumo Falls, Lake Bulera

I mentioned before about the trip I did to Rusumo Falls at Lake Bulera. A few photos have now been posted on www.africa-photo-tour.blogspot.com/ - the link is also in the on the left side of this page.

There is only one of photo that includes Lake Bulera, although a stunning lake, the air was extremely hazy on the day and long distance photos did not come out well at all. Enjoy

General Update

This last while has been a lot of admin and planning work but things at the site are about to start picking up speed with marking out of foundations and final campsite layouts commencing.

Also recently got hold of an article that appeared (April 23 - 27, 2007 publication) in the East Africa Business Times on Ikoro Tented Camp after an interview with one of their journalists. We got a full page in the digest section and a very positive article. A copy of the article appears here http://www.rwandagateway.org/article.php3?id_article=5258

The number of tourists in Musanze is rising very fast as we hit the peak of the season with larger numbers also staying longer in the area, partly also due to people waiting for their turn to track gorillas and permits are spread out over a few days.

At the house, we've appointed Dio as the new housekeeper and cook. He has some previous cooking experience from Hotel Muhabura here in town, so we'll be teaching him a few more skills as we go along. The idea is to reach the point where he runs all household matters including the cooking side of it - maybe even end up at Ikoro as one of the staff there.

4x4 Campsites B (11-26 April)

This particular 4x4 site has a stunning view of Mt Karisimbi from the dining area which is on area about 1.5m above the parking for this site. The campsite per se for this site is about 2m higher on the other side of the parking area.

View from the Dining Area





View of the parking area showing the high rocks on the left.
We've kept the rock walls covered in moss, lichen and vegetation here to retain the rustic look. This site in my opinion one of the nicest 4x4 sites.




A very large tree being removed to make space for the parking

In the left of the pic is the western leg of the 4x4 circular road going to the NW corner.

4x4 Campsites A (11-26 April)

View of the site from its Parking
The parking has been constructed with volcanic rock similar to the rest of the roads on the site and each campsite will have its own dedicated parking spot.


The Clearing Team
The group of guys who cleared and levelled the site in 2 and a half days. This included removing all the existing vegetation and most of the buried rock except where they're standing where the fire place for cooking will be.


Planting Grass after clearing
Grass being planted which should be growing quite quick with all the rain we were having at this stage. The grass being planted around the rock where the fire place will be - so the rock plate will standing out from the grass where the tents can be pitched.

Update after Long Delay

Yes back on and able to update the blog again. I'll be posting the updates from the April 15 post with the relevant in the header. There was some great progress and a short delay but with other things happening though.

I've also been doing some exploring around Lake Bulera checking out future options for activities as well and have some pics of the spectacular Rusumo Falls too. Those pics I'll post on here and/or on the Africa Photo blog too (link from this blog on the left).

Mpisi, my 4-legged girl is also doing brilliantly and hasn't stopped growing yet but being my best friend out there and also our security. There'll be some recent pics of her too.

Anyway, enjoy the following posts.

Pics of the roads

View south of the road leading down to the southern overland parkings and sites - about 10m from the main southern parkings.


View from Reception side, of the two northern overland parkings. (Mpisi walking around in the foreground)


Northern leg of the 4x4 circular road (looking west). 4x4 Parking and campsite planned about a third of the way on both sides of the road.

Western leg of the 4x4 Circular road (looking North)A 4x4 campsite is planned just past the small banana tree midway up the road on the right.

Before and After Review

These photos are of the bar delivery road which although short, took exceptionally long to clear due to amount of trees growing seemingly out of solid rock. The roots had found/created cracks and grown around the rocks.

View of the road (looking south) from where a ridge separates the road from the back of bar area. It took almost two weeks to remove one tree(People working furtherest from camera)that had been growing through cracks in massive slabs of rock


The Bar delivery road photographed toward the north after completion. The actual delivery ramp will start at the far right hand end of the road, angling over the ridge to back of bar.

Roads and Campsites

Sarah and I have been spending some time around the site reviewing the progress that's been made with the roads and earmarking locations for the 4x4 and overland campsites.

The 4x4 circular road has been completed with the guys just finishing the final levelling with small pieces of rock rubble. The whole junction between the first two overland parkings have been completed with major progress being made on the road down to the southern parkings and sites.

The bar delivery road has also been completed. The plan is to make a 'ramp' from this road over the ridge between this road and the bar and a pathway with which deliveries can then be moved by a trolley to the bar store.

In the next 2 weeks I'll be taking a lot of photos showing the completed road sections and also the clearing and layout of the various campsites.

Good News

We got some very good news from Andy today about Mpisi. She's recovered very well from the tick bite fever and become very lively and playful. This has been a week of concern with regular updates from Andy about Mpisi's recovery.

A big thanks again to the vet's who've been checking up on her. Its really good having our new member of management i.e. Mpisi back and healthy and I'm looking forward to seeing her again next week when I get back to Rwanda.

Updates from the site indicate that most of the footpaths are finished and the roads are progressing well. Next week I'll take some more photos and post them here.

A Tribute to Imondo

We received very sad news yesterday that after two days after a lot of attention and hard work by the vets and Andy, Imondo died from a bout of tick bite fever. This tribute I also want to use to thank all the vets for the professional attention they gave Imondo from the moment they found out she was ill.

We will miss Imondo immensely having being the most lively (and tallest) of all the girls and always the one to make us laugh. She was also the bouncy one keeping her siblings out of the their sleep and on their toes, starting many a game of mad run-around.

Now leaving Mpisi alone with us, we will never forget her and are happy that at least she had a good quality of life for the last 2 and a half months of her life.

Andy will be burying at Ikoro near the spot where we found them abandoned just before Christmas.

Mpisi has also been tested and is being treated as well for tick bite fever. We're all holding thumbs with the vets that they've caught it in time and she recovers.

Progress with English

The English lessons now being led mainly by Andy is progressing very well. There is a core group of 10-20 (varying on whether there are any community activities etc) who still attend the lessons every Sunday afternoon.

Last week they had some 'homework' to do with basic sentences in English. Working through them today, Andy and I were pleasantly surprised yet proud and impressed with what the guys had done. They had made an effort to incorporate place names and activities they had learnt over time at the site into their sentences. So, in addition to being able to construct basic English sentences in conversations, some of them can now write it as well. Although the spelling is still phonetic at times, it is extremely pleasing to see this progress.

There are of course some who can't write (never learnt to write) but that has not put them off as they push forward by remembering all that's said and practicing the sentences. This pleasingly puts to rest some people's opinions that if someone had not gone to school, it is very hard, if not impossible to teach the person(s) the new language.

At this rate, this part of our staff training will be well advanced by the time we start the training in hospitality matters.

Finished section

After a lot of admin and meetings the past week, there is also some more good news from the site.

The second overland parking is also finished. Having been led by one of our new masons, this parking area looks brilliant and as level as anything. A lot of work has gone into this parking with, as mentioned before, tons of rock being used to fill up the area first. This was followed by a base layer of rock and finished off with a top layer of large rock compacted with soil again.

Looking at this spot before we started there shows how much work really had to be done. The front end of the parking had to be dug out, almost 1.5m deep. The centre hollow had large loose rocks that we then had to remove to see where our firm base is, this left a crater over 1m deep by 4m x4m.

For comparison, look at the pic in the previous post on 12 Feb showing the half-finished site. (I will post a photo of the finished product at a later stage)

Now follows the joining by rock of the entrance areas of Overland parkings #1 & 2 as well as the approach road from Reception. Every stage of this work now has to be monitored carefully as this is also from the road leads down to the southern-most two overland sites, which is also about 5m below the level of this section of road.

Overland Sites: parking & approach

The junction where the road to the right branches off the 4x4 campsites circle road and the one to the left approaches the overland campsites.



Looking in the direction of the junction in the first photo from the overland campsites. At this point about 10m from the parking areas.










Work in progress at Overland parking #2. This is post having filled in the site by hand with approximately 1.5ton of rock (looking west toward the front of the parking)










Overland parking #1 finished. The end of the parking in the foreground will be joined by an upslope 'ramp' from the approach road. Looking toward the front of the parking here in a NW direction.

4x4 Campsites: Circle road

Prefect, one of our main masons on the this road doing an absolute sterling job with his team. As can be seen in this and the next photo, also a brilliant job on the retaining walls at this junction in the road.



Looking west, this junction is the South-east 'corner' of the circle road that leads around the 4x4 campsites.

Part of the junction seen from higher up on the eastern leg of this road.

Kazungu, one of first 3 employees when we were still marking out the site. Here he's part of Prefect's team working on the eastern leg of the 4x4 circle road.

Pathways: photos

Looking down in a southerly direction, this path leads off to the campfire area at the centre of the site with the path going off to the right, leading off to 4 other safari tents.


Looking west, this path shows how some large sections of rock on the site have been incorporated into the pathways. Mini-retaining walls have also been added so we don't have soil washing onto the pathways with rain.

A section of path I fondly refer to as our "garden path". This is all plants that are and have been on the site with this particular section being extremely rich a fern species, enhancing the garden-like effect.

The Past week reviewed

In addition to the excitement of our first foundations, work has been progressing very well. The "Ikoro Girls", the puppies, also had their next set of injections and two of them have left us today to Kigali. Akajama and Ingwe have settled in very well in their city home according to their new owner. Hopefully Mpisi and Imondo won't be missing their sisters too much. They will also now be going to the site with me everytime I go giving them and even bigger area to run around in but also more used to being in the car with me and being between people.

Andy and I have taken on another 20 employees on the site. 18 of them are masons which brings our number of masons on site to over 30. The total number of people working on the site is now 70! The enormity of the workforce hits home when one sees everyone setting off to their various workplaces on the site in the morning.

The pathways are proceeding quite rapidly as the guys are clearly into the swing of it with the masons knowing what we're expecting. Its becoming a more and more pleasing sight to see the pathways meander further and more widely through the site. Latest photos of the pathways in a follow-up post.

The roads are going very well with the 1st overland truck parking place completed. The second truck site has commenced which is quite a lot of work as there's a lot of filling up to do but the guys there are working hard with a high level of productivity.

The circle road around the 4x4 campsites is going very well too with a team that seem to outshine the rest in productivity with absolute ease.

In respect of the roads I'll also do separate posts to show some of the latest photos.

1st Foundations

Foundations commence at Safari Tent sites

A very happy day indeed. The first foundations were started today being the foundations for the supports of the safari tents and and the rock bathrooms.

The supports will first be erected after which the bathroom foundations proper will be dug. These foundations will then incorporate four of the supports' foundations. There are 12 support uprights in the planning which will support the tiled roof over the safari tent and bathroom.

The Ikoro "Girls" - latest photos

These photos were taken on their first day back at the site since the day as very small puppies, they went with me to wish all the staff a merry Christmas on the last day of work. Needless to say, everyone on the site gasped, as I initially did too, at how much they had grown. On the site they followed Andy and I around all around the site with the boundless energy of young puppies. As per the vet's initial estimate, they are approximately 12 weeks old here.

"Ingwe" - her head sticking out below her slightly bigger sister "Akajama". Getting a bit bullied at times by her 3 larger sisters, but bully might be an overstatement as she's very adept at holding her own.


"Imondo" - one of the girls that will be remaining with us. Also the tallest of the four and already barking quite readilyat people she doesn't know.





"Akajama" - still energetic and living up well to her name of 'little gangster' by more regularly than her sisters still testing the bounderies of what's right and wrong...as kids do.










"Mpisi" - still my favourite and also one that will remain with us and "Imondo". Second in height only to Imondo, she's bulkier of the 4 and also true to her name 'Hyaena' specialises in being opportunistic, especially when it comes to sneaking up behind me and grabbing my legs/ankles in her little sharp teeth.

Start 2007 update

Work commenced on the site again 2 weeks ago whilst I was on a short trip to the UK. Everyone has jumped in again with renewed enthusiasm and clearly well refreshed after the festive season.

In these 2 weeks, the guys have done a fantastic amount of work again some of which I'm told, was to impress me with how much can be done in a short space of time. Well, success on that front - I am impressed, hugely so!

Very soon we'll be able to do deliveries of building materials to various points on the site via the roads that are progressing rapidly. I've driven my car into the site on the exisiting roads and well impressed. Other than the odd spot that we had to attend to that wasn't as compacted as we thought, the roads so far are looking great.

As for the pathways, I'm going to have to start drawing a map of them and the roads so we can give our clients a layout map. Very pleasing yet humbling seeing the pathways winding through the trees and knowing how much sweat had gone into the making of them.

The "girls" i.e. our puppies have grown a lot and are now ready for their next set of injections including the rabies jab. This will happen in the next few days and then sadly but necessary, we have to say goodbye to "Akajama" and "Ingwe" who are destined to becoming city girls. I'll get some pics of them up here before they go though.

Pics: 2006 work and the Girls

The Girls' new home/mansion I built for them with a section covered with wire mesh to protect them from birds of prey, the same reason there's a door. The door will come off once they're bigger and a more unlikely target for our avian predators.












The Girls in their temporary home inside the house and their Kinyarwanda names; Mpisi (Hyaena), Imondo (serval), Ingwe (leopard), akajama (little gangster











A before (insert) and after photo of one of the pathways leading to the safari tents

The SW section of the ring road around the 4x4 campsites (rock and soil)

The start of the road leading from the finished reception stairs leading to the campsites