New Pathways

To date most of the photo updates have been shown pathways that are in the area of the safari tents and the 4x4 campsites. Some new pathways have now been completed in the overland campsites areas. These link different levels and/or terraces of campsites to each other as well as roads and facilities. In some places I've laid them out so a path end on a ridge near some campsites which would have a nice view and/or is just a quiet spot away between some trees where people can sit and have a read or think.

Keep in mind that all these pathways will have lanterns hanging along them at night so its not going to be a hunt/fallover in the dark to see where you're going.

Pathways leading from the large main campsite to 3 other campsites and bathrooms.

Zoomed in to the upper left of the previous photo - showing a terraced campsite to the right of the pathway.

Path leading off on one side to the bathrooms (far mid-left) and one onto a little rise on the ridge and the nearest one leads to another campsite and viewpoint.

Photo Updates

Pathway past one of the 4x4 sites to a viewpoint of the volcanoes
This pathway joins to the one below and also leads the bathrooms and another campsite

One of the new pathways between the 4x4 Campsites

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.

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

New Seedlings Arrive & Stone Tabletop

Fig tree species (Ficus vallis-chaudae) used to make dug-out canoes

The guys from Ruhondo working at the site brought us the seedlings on Tuesday they've been nurturing over the past 6-8months. This included about 2,500 seedlings for the thorny hedge we're planting all around the site.

This morning I spent a half-hour recording all the different species on camera for our plant records - they had brought a total of 23 different species which excluding the hedge seedlings are mostly large trees used in the communities. Whilst photographing each species they also gave me the Kinyarwandan name which I can then try and trace back to the Latin/English name on the internet.

Quite a few of the trees are/were traditionally used for timber but there's a tree for example that was used to make bark-cloth from in Uganda - a Strangler Fig and the fig in the photo is/was traditionally used to make dug-out canoes from. There are also a few fruit trees including one with a fruit referred to in Kinyarwanda as umutima w'infizi which translates into the "heart of the bull". I have yet to see the fruit though as I don't seem to be able to find an English reference to this plant in Rwanda - yet.

As for the rest of the work on the site, all is progressing fairly well with huge advances being made on the pathway to the safari tents. The south-western corner of the road around the 4x4 campsites is taking shape now being one of the harder sections of this road to do due to the undulating terrain which we're trying to maintain as much as possible on this road.

The stairs at the drop-off point that will lead to Reception should be finished tomorrow to a level just below where we anticipate the Reception floor-level will be. The rest will be built into the Reception area after the buildings' floor levels are established.

A couple of the guys who are breaking rock at the restaurant area at the moment unearthed a massive rock (nearly in the shape of Africa as Andy commented) which we will get one of the masons to level on one side and then use as an outdoor table-top in one of the little "havens" on the site. We'll probably mount it on top of some tree-stumps cut to accomodate it. It is very large though and took about 15 guys to tip out of its resting place which should prove an interesting exercise in ancient transport on logs to its final destination.