Today I was unfortunately stuck in my office for the morning and also running around with banking etc but I managed to get out to the site about half 12. I did a quick tour through the site before the normal afternoon rain (this time of the year) which usually starts around 1:30-2pm.
The rock shaping is progressing well with rocks also being shaped for the Reception/Drop-off steps from the parking area. The latter rocks are shaped just so the top is flat and the front of each step will be reasonably flush - well, that's the idea anyway but I see the guys are shaping most of the sides. That's not bad though as these are all different size rocks so the irregular sized rocks will look good once they're laid down.
The pathway to the safari tents is progressing well albeit slowly and looking pretty good actually. Progress is slower here as the the rocks are being shaped as they're being laid and the rock is from the site - not the easiest "shapeable" rock.
At the 4x4 campsites side, the guys have cut through a ridge for the 4x4 road that will be going around that area and levelled a fair amount of the road either side of the ridge. Although not compacted yet its quite exciting to see one of the roads take shape already. This will probably be one of the first roads to be done on the site as there's no major levelling to do and being for 4x4's, won't be a "paved" road although the rock for this road will be fairly level and well compacted.
On one of the northern overland sites, the guys have started removing very large rock in order to start the levelling of the parking spot - a massive job in this case. The parking spot has to be dug out from the front with retaining walls being built around the sides in keeping with similar retaining walls on the site already.
Now getting back to the parking area, Andy and I got some guys to move rock onto an area with exposed soil so the rain doesn't wash the soil away. Whilst this was going on, there was a flurry of activity and shouts and luckily Andy and I were there - the guys were grabbing anything at hand to try and kill the little 30cm snake that came out. Aha I thought, my opportunity to catch my first Rwandan snake. Successful and holding it, I looked up to see everyone staring at me with very very big eyes. I spent about 10 minutes examining it - nobody could work the video camera and obviously nobody would volunteer to hold the snake while I took photos - so I had to have a good look before releasing it and then try and identify it from the field guide at home.
Even after I had released the snake, everyone continued staring at me and/or watching me out of the corner of their eye whilst working. Andy said that after I had left the site the guys were speculating about how much witchcraft I had that was able to pick up a snake and not get bitten. I'm sure this is not the last I've heard about this as the story spreads around Musanze and obviously, as these stories do, the length and size of the snake increases.
I wasn't able to make a confident ID from the field guide when I got home but it seems it was either one of the forest green-snakes or an olive snake. I'll definitely devise a way to get photos next time. Great afternoon though
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