Kigali & BBQ

Greg and I had to go through to Kigali this morning to sort some things out. Other than a few minor chores the visit turned out to be unproductive. I went and bought some good sausage in town and some condiments for the house and returned to Musanze. Greg remained to sort out some gorilla permits.

Getting home, Andy had started the coals on the BBQ in preparation for some friends we'd invited over for dinner and drinks. On the menu was some good sausage, beef kebabs, ugali (maize meal porridge) and sauce and the obligatory pre-BBQ toasties with onion, tomato and cheese. Turned out to be a really good evening with much laughter.

Kinigi Again

Yesterday I went to Kigali to drop Sarah off at the airport. On returning home, I sorted out some things before returning to Kinigi to meet the tourists I took up there on Sunday. As I was getting ready to leave a massive thunder storm broke out and I decided to wait till it lightens up a bit. The thunder and lightning was quite impressive though. Eventually it was raining a little lighter and I set off to Kinigi to try and get there before another session like that.

I got to Kinigi fine and met with the tourists and also booked a room for the night. A very pleasant evening was had with Greg meeting us too and helping them sort out their itinerary for the next few days. The buffet dinner was also a most splendid spread.

This morning I saw the tourists off on their way to go trekking and gorilla tracking and had some coffee before setting off back to Musanze. Today was dedicated to a bit of TLC for the car, going over everything and changing the wheels around. Very productive day overall though.

Site Tour & Kinigi

This morning we set off to site to show Sarah what and where everything had been marked out. We took a tour leader and her crew with to show them around. We spent a pleasant couple of hours on the site touring nearly every corner.

After this we to town to have lunch at a local restaurant near the house. While we were here a group of tourist arrived on local transport from Kigali and due to them not being able to get some reliable transport to Kinigi immediately we offered to take them up to Kinigi Guesthouse where they had reservations. I took them up there and made sure all was fine and had a chat about their programme for the next few days. I said I would be back the tomorrow evening with Greg who can then sort out their arrangements and plans.

It was quite a pleasure driving up to Kinigi as most of that road had been repaired for the Gorilla Naming Ceremony and what usually a 45min drive was only about 20min now over and above getting off that road onto one of the not so good roads.

Gorilla Naming Ceremony

Yesterday Sarah arrived again for the Gorilla Naming Ceremony. Obviously another prospective nice weekend. Last night we went to have a drink at the new accommodation that we'd found the tour group in the week.

This morning we set off for Kinigi where ORTPN was hosting the 2nd Gorilla Naming Ceremony and 12 new gorilla babies since last year's ceremony would be named. Claude went with to keep an eye on the car during the ceremony.

On arrival we got a pleasant surprise being directed to some early tea, coffee and bites before the ceremony commenced. This was also an opportunity to catch up with some people we hadn't seen for a long time. Eventually the traditional dancing and drumming started as everyone made their way to their seats awaiting the arrival of the guests of honour. The President of Rwanda was unable to attend but the First Lady attended with the President of the Senate.

The speakers included the Minister under whom tourism falls, the Governor of the Northern Province and Rosette Rugamba, the Director-General of ORTPN. In the latter speech, Rosette referred to all the projects that had commenced and/or progressed from last year's ceremony and how some of the $1.4 million raised had been spent. Reference was also made to the new luxury community lodge in Kinigi that would be opening the end of the year and our project in Musanze and that we're planning to open June next year.

Two representatives from community projects also gave a brief rundown of what they were doing, one of them from the Beekeepers association in Kinigi. Then down to matter of naming the new baby gorillas. Ambassadors and representatives from various countries had also been invited to name some of the babies, amongst them the ambassadors from the USA, United Kingdom, Belgium and Netherlands and a representative from the city of Brussels. One of the sponsors, Rwandex (exporter of Rwandan coffee) also named their adopted baby and announced that this baby would become the face of one of their new products.

A representative from the DRC tourism/wildlife authority was also there to name a baby in one of their groups that had been born whilst the group was in Rwanda. It was great to hear that that the Rwanda and DRC governments had signed agreements on cross-border co-operation in conservation and in particular that of the gorillas.

After the ceremony all the guests were invited to attend a lunch nearby in marquee tents that had been set up. This turned out to be a fantastic lunch with more meetings with people we hadn't seen for a long time as well as testing the banana wine that had been put on all the tables - fairly strong too. We gave one of these little bottles of banana wine to Claude who told us that even by local standards it was very strong.

Another hugely successful day for ORTPN and for tourism in Rwanda in general.

Admin & Tourists

Wednesday was an all day admin day again with a meeting late afternoon with a group of tourists and their tour leader whom I know from my days on the road. So a relaxing evening and some of the tourists keen to visit the site to do some birding today and an opportunity for the tour leader to see where the site is and the sites we've marked out.

This afternoon we didn't get to and do some birding though as there had been problems at the place where the group was staying and they were more intent on sorting that out or moving to a new campsite. So Greg and I helped them out in getting another place for them to stay at for their last night in Musanze. All very hapy with the new accommodation, they chose to stay there to watch the English World Cup match against Trinidad & Tobago. They set off the next day to Kigali for the final night of their tour before flying out from Rwanda.

Kigali Again

Monday morning Greg and I set off to Kigali for what we anticipated to be one day at least but with the possibility of an overnight. Not an early morning but a pleasant drive (as always with the scenery) and some good chatting along the way.

Part of the reason for going to Kigali was to for Greg to apply for a visa for the UK for the World Travel Market in November in London. We managed to get that sorted and got the appointment for the next day for biometrics at the British Embassy (also in Kigali).

A lovely lunch at Hotel des Mille Collines followed and a fairly relaxing afternoon next to the pool meeting our lawyer etc. The evening at the hotel there were some traditional dancing and drumming of which I got some good video footage which I can use as inserts and soundtrack in the making of the video I'm busy with.

The next morning after coffee we finished the biometrics and returned to Ruhengeri and more moderate weather - Kigali was blazing. Getting back pretty much just entailed on catching up with Andy what had happened on Monday at the site and on outstanding admin.

Andy and the lads had gone to the site on Monday and cleared around the marker pegs so they're more prominent and cutting some of the 1.5m grass a little bit shorter in the marked areas.

Quiet weekend

The weekend was quiet yet productive and pleasant. The Saturday morning at 10am we had a meeting with a candidate for the site engineer's position and discussed the planned construction processes and durations. The meeting had just finished when we got a call from an overland truck asking for help on finding accommodation in Musanze.

On getting there I discovered its one of my good mates from the road. After getting the clients all settled in at a little guesthouse in town, we settled down for a bit of catchup over a few drinks. He had two new crew with him so agreed to take them out on Sunday morning to the site and show them around. We managed to get Greg to come with too as he hadn't been at the site since October 2004 when we found the site the first time.

Sunday morning thus was a bit of a walk around the site and showing what and where everything will be as we've set it out then spent some time up in the north on a nice little rock lounge chatting about the site.

As the new crew hadn't been around Musanze much, I took them on a little drive to Ntaruka at the northern end of Lake Ruhondo where the Hydro plant is. It was a pleasant surprise driving down the road as it had been done over and was an absolute pleasure driving on. With good light the views over the lake were also fantastic. Unfortunately didn't take photos this time but there will definitely be a photo session out there in the very near future.

Safari Tents & Mapping

Early morning in Ruhengeri (earlier this week)
The remaining 5 safari tents were marked out today with an extra one also set out as an option to one of the other tent sites.

Once again one of the sites turned out to be an absolute winner with an amazing location. The tent will be set in a depression that seems custom designed for a safari tent with views up the surrounding outcrops. This also screens the main part and the balcony from other tents. I have now reached the point where its hard to decide which of the tent sites are my favourites.

From here we started measuring and taking bearings on the 4x4 circle and reference points so we reconstruct the overall plan of what has been set out so far. This was basically just loegwork for Andy and I with the two lads adding the odd peg or two for the marking process.

A pleasant was also improved by sightings of some bird species we hadn't before seen on the site and a pair of Augur Buzzards calling each high in the air above us. Another fantastic day in the bush.

Marking out the Safari Tents

Butterfly at Ikoro
Leaving the best till last, well almost anyway. We started marking out the sites for the safari tents today which was quite a pleasure considering the massive area we've set out for them. In the initial concept drawings, the tents are all arranged in a neat arc north of the campfire but the architects had mentioned that we would probably want to and could move the sites according to the best locations for each tent.

We did the eastern five tents today with one of them in a location that warrants having special status i.e. the "honeymoon" or "premier" tent. Situated on a rise but with rocky ridges along the sides isolating it from the rest, it has a lovely view of the volcanoes. The one thing I must say though is that every tents location has a special location in its own way with certain features around it that the others don't have. The fact that they're some of the first, if not The first, safari tents in Rwanda will enhance their allure even more.

These tents are set in an area where we will retain as much of the present wild vegetation as possible and meandering footpaths for the guests afternoon or early morning. The eucalyptus trees will gradually give way to indigenous trees and other indigenous plants which occur naturally in this particular environment and with the rate plants grow here, it could all be a little indigenous forest before long.

I had to shoot off quickly for a 10am meeting but was back in an hour and we continued working. The lads do sometimes think I'm a bit mad with me putting in pegs as markers and the moving them umpteen times before I'm happy with the location but it keeps them entertained every now and then.

Getting home I started putting all the measurements, bearings etc to paper, plotting it all out on graph paper. The idea is that eventually I can draw a basic master plan reflecting how everything is set out now. This is just as rewarding to actually see how everything is set out in relation to each other - unfortunately the drawings don't reflect what the actual location looks like i.e. vegetation and contours.

Central & South West

Part of southern campsite for Overland clients
Today was the turn of overland campsites and their ablutions. The same principle applies as with the 4x4 sites whereby every two vehicles have a set of ablutions.

This is probably the most overgrown area of the site at the moment with primary vegetation in some places regenerated to over 6ft. So yes, truly working in the bush today. Getting the ablutions marked turned out to be the easy part and sorting out the truck parkings and roads the "find your way through the bush".

Now marking out the truck parking at the two sites and their turning circles was definitely a bit of a challenge but it certainly helped that I used to drive overland trucks and could work out the best lay of each with the minimum "work" by the drivers and/or risk taking out rock outcrops or trees when arriving or leaving. Anyway, mission was accomplished and the sites look good. The camping areas also look very promising with most, if not all, the camping areas will be on different levels through terracing. There is one stunning site I suspect the crew will fight to get into first but I won't let the cat out of the bag now.

This afternoon, our EIA consultant also visited the site to see how the marking out is going and comment on locations etc. He was impressed how we'd used the natural lay of the land although he was probably a little less impressed with the pace Andy and I took him through and around te site ( a quick 1 km), we found him lagging behind at times. Advice for anyone visiting us during the next couple of months - don't wear fancy little city shoes :-)).

The Kinyarwanda and English exchange lessons are also going very well with the lads greeting me in proper English in the morning and me greeting them in Kinyarwandan. Its great fun working with them and we're moving onto bird names in Kinyarwandan and English too now.

The North West

Marking out southern 4x4 site ablutions
Today we finished the final touches on the marking out of the Bar, lounge, restaurant etc and moved over to the 4x4 sites in the north-west of the site. This is also a lovely part of the site with views from the western border of Karisimbi, Bisoke and Sabinyo mountains.

This part also feature big depressions down the centre i.e. when going from north to south. Its in these depressions that we marked out the ablutions for the 4x4 sites and ensuring that spaces are available on the western and eastern sides for six designated camping sites, cooking and dining areas.

Of course it wasn't all just hitting pegs into the ground and moving on, we had to partially mark out most of the circle road around the 4x4 sites. Its not really hard though to find where the road should be as the contours make it fairly obvious although we let the road go around the odd very large tree. Must admit when we were looking at the various campsites, they are really nice. Some in slight depressions and others on ridges with fantastic views. The existing terraces and contours also provide ready made demarcation sor campsites and 4x4 parking.

Every day at the site now is also a bit of wildlife checklist compilation with sighting of a huge variety of butterflies, insects and birds.

No Blue Monday

What a fantastic day it was, most of it at the site. Andy and I got out there about 10am after some business in town. Tomorrow we'll be out there bright and early though.

When we got there it was all rock n' roll and starting with building a temporary entry into the site for the vehicle - this is also where delivery vehicles will be coming in during construction. Some of the people passing along in the road stopped to stare at me working with the lads and packing the rocks but they'll get used to it. Result: our vehicle went in - the first vehicle on the site since demarcated and purchased (only about 20-30m in though - no way a vehicle can get deeper into the site at this stage).

We had decided to mark out the front of house buildings first and from there we'll do the rest. Well, success on that - finshed marking out reception and the office, also the bar, lounge and dining areas. It was a massively pleased group of guys looking at all those points we'd marked out today. All being done the old traditional way of handheld compass and tape measure and of course the wooden pegs and string. I must say, one does get a lot more respect for the surveyors of old who didn't have all the fancy toys.

Marking out was also not marking points, because of the contours etc we had to make sure what areas the building affect and which we will be leaving as they are. This is probably what made it even more rewarding to look back at everything in the afternoon.

The other little added bonus was that my learning of Kinyarwandan just accellerated today. I made a deal with the lads that for every term or sentence I learn and use in Kinyarwanda, they have to do the equivalent in English - if I don't watch out, these lads will be speaking English better than my Kinyarwandan is soon.

Friday to Sunday

A 3-day blog in one - well that's because the Friday and Sunday were two admin days in the office with not much happening but Saturday was definitely more productive - marking out at the site has commenced!

Friday was a month end admin day with all the normal monthly accounts to be reconciled, invoices, statements etc. Also a good opportunity to see how bad the cold was that had sneaked up on me the previous day.

Saturday Andy and I decide to get out to the site and get the marking out going to know what we're getting ourselves into and pretty much a bit of a precursor for the new week when we'll be going at it with all guns blazing. We started out by marking the proposed gate posts and entry area into the site. The pegs you see on the photo is actually the originally proposed left hand side of the entrance into the site. I say original because it became very clear that there would be some adaptations to incorpoarate and take into consideration the contours and rocky outcrops etc.

Sunday I decided to stay home and try and get as well as possible before going out to work at the site on Monday - it was hard as I'm really itching now to get out there. The evening I went out for dinner with Greg and his daughter and did our normal catch up on business and local gossip.

EIA Submitted!!

Yes, the big day today. Andy and I went to Kigali where had the EIA reports bound and headed to the offices of the Rwanda Environmental Management Agency (REMA). Handed it in and had a chat with them. Hopefully we won't be waiting too long for a reply as they are apparently also now getting some more staff which is good news. Copies of the report also went to the Dir-Gen of ORTPN (tourism) and to RIEPA.

At RIEPA we also had a good chat with James, the director of Investment Facilitation. About the project, Investment Conference, the potential spin-offs from and just Rwanda business and investment in general. Quite nice to have the time to sit and have an informal but yet informative discussion at RIEPA.

Then I got a very worried call from Greg who was also in Kigali but with the overland group I'd met over the last two couple of nights. Their truck's engine had caught fire! Andy and I rushed over and found that in the end it had only been the starter motor but the latter was well and truly fried. We then took them around Kigali trying to find a replacement - nothing. Then there was the issue of where they were going to stay as they had already lost too much time to make the border.

In the end, they push started the truck and set off for the border and finding a place to camp along the way or sleep at the border and set off in the morning. Greg, Andy and myself then set off back to good old Musanze - one does really miss it after a day in the city.

Start Marking Out

Tuesday was a bit of an office day for me so not much else happening. Early evening I went to go and meet one of the overland trucks and take their gorilla permits to them. Also spent a couple of hours chatting to their clients about Rwanda and the gorillas. Andy and I did go to the Cyanika border (Uganda) to sort out some Customs documents for the car which was a nice scenic outing with the lakes and mountains looking amazing as usual. I didn't take any pics as there always seem to be powerlines in the way at the best spots.

This morning, Andy and I set out to the site with compass and drawings to start the marking out process so we can be ready to start clearing immediately when we get our Environmental Impact report approval. It was really good to be out at the site and actually even more exciting because we are potentially (and hopefully) only a few weeks away from turning the first soil. It was once again abundantly clear that the layout of different sections and/or buildings will be moved a little to accommodate the contours. Part of this process will also include us making a call on whether we will be incorporating certain rocky outcrops into the buildings and if so, how.

The evening I took some of the overlanders to the little local bar where they had bought their beers for the campsite (no beers sold at the present place they camp) and we had some beers with the local patrons. I hadn't been to this little bar before but I knew some of the guys there and it turned out to be a really good little visit. Also realised again how much people in town actually knew about the project and everyone's just extremely keen for it to get started. I was also offered a trip up to the peak of Karisimbi (one of the Virunga mountains) with the helicopter doing the flights up there to set up the new mast/antenna. I'll see tomorrow if it was just talk - it will be nice if it does happen though.

Good News - EIA!

Sarah and I set off for Kigali this morning - she was leaving in the afternoon :( Anyway, we went to the craft shop at the KBC (Kigali Business Centre) that has very reasonably priced traditional art and crafts. Objective: buy two woven trunks. Result: success! We had a look around at some of the other things but decided that we should go to Butare in the near future where a lot of these art and crafts originate. After a nice lunch at Hotel des Mille Collines (Hotel Rwanda), Sarah set off back to the UK.

I had a meeting with the consultant who is doing our EIA (environmental impact assessement) for Ikoro. We went through the report and at end realised that we were pretty much ready to submit the document to REMA for perusal and hopefully approval. The date was set for Thursday this week - very exciting now, we're reaching another milestone toward commencing with construction.

After the meeting I set off for Musanze having a not so good drive through driving rain, some fog and some bad drivers. My nerves were a little in tatters at the end but go there safely.

Long Awaited Visit

Friday morning I was up early and eventually off to Kigali International Airport like a shot - Sarah was arriving for a short visit. Having picked her up, we went to one of the nice charcuteries in Kigali and got some sausage for a BBQ the evening. The BBQ was our frst proper meal on the new BBQ that had been made for us - mmm!! Lovely sausage and ugali (maize meal).

We couldn't plan anything for Saturday morning as it was Umuganda. This happens the last Saturday of each month and is a national event where everyone goes out and does some work in their community i.e. cleaning up the streets, sidewalks or whatever the community projects may be. During this time, all shops are closed and nobody drives around. Around midday we went for a stroll around our immediate area of Musanze including some parts that I hadn't yet been through - not that I remember anyway.

Lunch was at Hotel Muhabura with Greg and his little daughter and catching with whats been happening. We also decided that our first "entertaining" would be on Sunday afternoon with Greg and his daughter as our guests.

Sunday late lunch turned out to be kebabs and baked potatoes etc. The skewers had to be made in town but was done in just over an hour and only cost us about 15pence each - they did look very professional though. The kebabs (brochettes) were massive with meat we had bought at the local market butcher and some tomatoes, onions and peppers. Everything was of course done on or in the coals. mmmmmm again!

Kinigi

Up at 5am this morning and greeted soon afterwards by a stunning sunrise as only the Virungas can offer. I drove up to Kinigi with one of the tour group's leaders to tell ORTPN that this group may be a little late. This road has unfortunately become notorious for being in very bad shape so at times we were doing about 5km/h max with the 4x4. Good news is that the upgrading is due to start soon. Anyway, a 12km journey that takes about 40min to complete but hugely scenic and ending at the ORTPN office with fantastic views of the volcanoes.

Having delivered the message, we waited and had some coffee hoping that our estimate of the group arriving 15min late is not an under-estimate. In the meanwhile, I managed to get some video footage of the ORTPN office there and some pics of the volcanoes. I also overheard someone say that the altitude at which the ORTPN office is, is about the altitude at which the gorilla sightings take place at Bwindi in Uganda - I can't vouch for this but its an interesting observation.

The group's arrival made us sigh a massive sigh of relief - they arrived exactly 15min late. So everyone got sorted into the various groups going to the different gorilla families. Susa family was quite low so only a 45min trek was anticipated - this is a family which can on occassion go quite high up on Karisimbi and offer the visitor some challenging trekking and tracking.

The afternoon the group offered me dinner with them at the Hotel Muhabura as a little token of thanks for the help the morning. We had a really good time and obviously a lot of the discussions was on the days' gorilla tracking.

Poison & a Witchdoctor

On Wednesday afternoon and evening, Andy and I realised that our gardener/housekeeper, Claude had gone out and not let anyone know the reason. By late evening he was still not back. He got back about 7am on Thursday morning with news that his wife was ill.

Somebody had come to call him to take his wife to the doctor as she was ill. The doctor apparently examined ("looked" was the word used) her and told Claude to take his wife to the traditional healer as his wife had been poisoned. My immediate question was whether it was food poisoning. It was patiently explained that Claude's wife had been "poisoned" by somebody i.e. a by supernatural means. Claude couldn't explain how the doctor determined that it was something for the witchdoctor and not the medical profession.

The traditional healer is actually also referred to as the witchdoctor here and this particular one had space where he could admit patients who needed more attention. Claude's wife went on a treatment of various herbs and "other things" that witchdoctors use.

This was quite interesting having worked in Northern-KwaZulu Natal (South Africa) where there is a very large number of traditional healers, both herbalists and black magic witchdoctors. Andy proceeded to explain that for example if one had a fracture this could be treated by the witchdoctor.

This would entail a visual examination of the location of the fracture followed by the witchdoctor putting something like a short stick on that injury. His advice would then to be to return home as by the next day at a set time, your fracture would have healed - this being due to him rubbing the little stick between his hands during that period. I am told that this treatment works!

The witchdoctors are much more active in daily life than we are sometimes led to believe and obviously also yield a lot of power over a persons decision to do something or not. Definitely something else worth being aware and sensitive of when dealing with staff in future.

Back Home (Musanze)

This morning I went with Greg to pick up one of the tour operators at the airport from the UK. The visit was planned to discuss some future business opportunities for Greg and other Rwandan operators. A very important part of the visit was sorting out permits for their tours for the rest of the year which entailed paying deposits for all those permits as guarantee of their availability.

I joined Greg for some of the discussions and potential new projects in Rwanda were discussed - I won't divulge any details now but it will be a pleasant surprise for a lot of people. I set off back to Musanze with some gorilla permits Greg had asked to give to one of the overland groups that had arrived that day.

I knew the crew, so had a couple of drinks with them and their clients and discussing Rwanda and of course, the gorillas. There was also some sad news that their head office had banned their trucks from entering Rwanda so the tour leaders had to source local transport in Uganda and come in that way with their clients. I'm not really sure what the reasoning is behind that decision but hopefully we can get them to change their minds on that eventually.

Discovered that this group had a departure time for the ORTPN office up at Kinigi, half an hour later than they should be departing to reach there in time. I'll meet with one of the tour leaders early morning and go up there with my car so we can tell ORTPN that the group is on their way but will be 15 minutes late - otherwise they think the group is not coming and may use the permits for people waiting to see if they can get some leftover permits.