Clearing - Day 1

We started the day early with 2 guys from next to the site and 2 from Ruhondo. The initial task was to get the holes done for the corrugated iron sheeting fence at the road side (southern) border. Taking off at a run we had this done in just an hour and a half.

Having all the tools on the vehicle we decided to start on taking out stumps in the reception area. This little "exercise" confirmed my thinking that it would be hard work although the reality was even harder. The Eucalyptus in many places seems to grow just on top of the rocks but in actual fact finds a crack between the rocks and grows through there with a root that's 1cm thick. When the root is eventually out you can see the flat thin root that has just folded itself around the rocks to get down into the soil.

We had a full day and it was great to get some physical labour in although the guys were hugely surprised to see me physically working as well. Initially they would come up and take the tools from me and carry on what I was doing and then eventually realised there's no point as I will just find another tool and carry on.

At one stage we also had a snake come out from around the diggings, pencil thin and about 20cm long and slate grey with some black spots on the back near the head. Getting closer to try and catch it, I got grabbed from behind by one of the guys shouting that its a snake - even the snake stopped moving at this commotion, luckily. It took about a half hour to explain that I knew about snakes and would attempt to catch them if I was sure of what I was doing. The guys had thought I had never seen a snake and was still not happy with the idea that I would think of catching them. Anyway, that was the first one I had seen at the site and is definitely not the last I'm sure.

Tomorrow I'll be taking some photos of the clearing as we'll have 20 people tomorrow working at the site. It was hugely encouraging to see what we had achieved with only 4 people today though.