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

Seasons' Greetings from all and the Girls

Today I went out to the site with the Girls who are already starting to show signs of boundless energy waiting to be released. As the last day of work for the year, we called everyone together at lunchtime and I gave them best wishes from Sarah (in her absence) and me and of course from the Girls who sitting there watching everything with big eyes. The surprise for everyone was when I pulled out a pile of Elegant Africa compliment cards with each persons name printed on one with seasons' greetings to them and their families in, from Sarah, me and Andy, in Kinyarwanda. A personal touch they just couldn't believe which disbelief increased when I added 1,000francs (about £1) to each person's card. The guys just couldn't believe that we had done the cards, especially in Kinyarwanda and still a gift as well.

So from this little best wishes "ceremony" everyone was paid their wages and set off home for a festive season and having a well-earned rest before resuming on 8 January. In the next couple of weeks I'll add some photos and news of the girls as they grow and most likely sneak their way into everyone's hearts.

A Serval, a genet and the Ikoro Girls

Serval track photographed in the NW of the site

This photo was one of a few I took in the north-west of the site. After checking the measurements and following as many of the tracks as we could and deferring to the field guides on tracks, we've concluded that these are serval tracks. On showing the pic of a serval to some of the lads at the site, they immediately identified it as the animal they've been seeing on the site. The other tracks in the north we also confirmed as genet tracks. Unfortunately one generally can't tell different genet species from each other just from their tracks so we have to try and get photos to know what genet(s) we have there.

This of course brings up the subject of the leopard's presence on the site. Now while I have not photographed the other tracks yet that have been seen on the site (which the guys maintain are much larger than theses serval tracks) it takes mentioning that pretty much any animals with spots that looks cat-like is called "Ingwe" - Kinyarwanda for leopard. So on whether there's a leopard on the site, methinks the jury's still out on that one.

Now this morning when Andy and I got to the north western border to check for any new tracks, I was greeted by a little whimper and the small "growls" of 4 small puppies. They cautiously approached me from the hessian bag they'd obviously been lying on just inside our hedge. I think my jaw just dropped for a second or two before I called Andy over to get some guys to help me get them to the car. Just 2 days earlier I had been chatting to the Gorillas vet about letting me knwo when they find a dog looking for a home - now I had just got four!

I immediately phoned the vet to ask if I could bring the puppies over for him to have a look at. Whilst waiting for him to phone me back I got out a syring from the first aid kit and started giving them water which they promptly gulped down, clearly very very thirsty. They were also covered with lice and fleas with the skin between the fur not looking too good.

Anyway, we estimated their age around at least 4-5 weeks (our own opinion based on their size and their eyes being open) of which the vets later said was actually closer to 8weeks. Getting some shampoo,we took them home and started the whole wash, scrub and clean followed by some more water, milk and maize meal porridge. The vet later helped us out with some deworming treatment for a 3 day course. Having obviously not had much care or possibly even food lately, they lay down after this and slept a good few hours.

This was clearly going to be quite a bit of work to try and nurse them back to health and get them enough nourishment and hopefully keep them alive. I had just received a very nice Christmas present but was going to have to work to keep it. The guys at the site immediately said that whoever put them out didn't realise that the puppies they had abandoned will now most probably have a better Christmas than them, so I suppose it was a bit of a Christmas present for the puppies to have us find them. I immediately started referring to them as "my & the girls" which confused some Rwandese no-end - referring to them as humans?!

Final week for 2006

Yes, in the home stretch of 2006 and everyone on the site is pushing to finish their team projects before Christmas when we'll be stopping construction until after the New Year. Also the time when we're sending out Season's Greetings to everyone who's been involved with the project and supporting us.

We do also have a little suprise for the guys on Friday, their last day of work. On Saturday Sarah will be arriving for a Rwandan Christmas and New Year whilst Andy and Claude go and spend the Christmas with their respective families. For Sarah and me their's a large, large turkey waiting to be cooked on Christmas Day - no oven, so it will be buried in a hole with hot coals and covered with sand and rock.

Looking back on 2006, we've achieved so much and the guys have really worked well. From a Eucalyptus forest to a place where one can now visualise where everything is going to be and roads, pathways etc are taking shape - already adding even more character to a lovely site.

Last week was also the 1st anniversary of us signing the purchase contracts for the land - feels like yesterday. This was followed by the hedges being planted on the perimeter and the start of the Enviornmental Impact Assessment and eventually the removal and clearing of trees, the latter being our first real big work on the site. Starting with 4 guys working for us, we end the year with about 50 people working for us. Projections for the new year is that this number is likely to at least double with actual construction commencing.

Stonework of Note

The Reception stairs team with Andy (back right)

Yesterday the team building the approach stairs to reception finished their project. The stairs as they are stop about a meter below the present ground level of where the reception buildings are planned. This gives us the flexibility to add another step or two to the final approach into reception or leave at the final level and just increase the final section to meet up with the main building.

This is also the first project phase ( we have divided everything into mini-projects) that is now complete and has turned out to be a massive success. It does take mentioning though that this finished product is the 4th attempt which has turned out to be the final attempt. The good thing is that we've all learnt a lot from this little project and the guys also now have a much better idea of our expectations


Finishing taps to the Stone Table
A few days ago I mentioned about the rock that we planned to have shaped for use as a stone table. This is now nearly finished, tomorrow Elisa (busy shaping in the photo) reckons he'll be done. It is looking brilliant and may actually look quite well in the lounge. Elisa is one of our most experienced masons and quite a perfectionist when it comes to dimensions and whether the rock being shaped is level and/or the exact to the requirements.

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.

Recording Plants

Grass-like species photographed (Flower approx. 10mm)

Last week I started recording the plant species on the site with the view of having most, if not all, identified by a botanist/ecologist for us. Starting out it soon became clear what a daunting task this is - in 3 separate 1m square blocks I photographed 26 different species.

This was also only the smaller plants and not the larger trees and shrubs which were in these blocks. Some of the photos I was able to supplement with photos I had taken before on the site.

The other advantage of this is that we should be able to more readily for example, identify butterfly food and larval plants. There is of course the chance of stumbling across something which is a bit of a special species in the plant world and needs to be nurtured. A whole new road of discovery methinks.

Efficient Drainage

Pathway leading to Safari Tent sites
The pathway leading to the safari tent sites has become something I'm really proud of and the guys who are building it. The original plan was to build this pathway with volcanic rock and let it meander through the exisiting vegetation without creating any formal garden beds along it.

The outcome after a few weeks of rain and consequent plant growth has exceeded my expectations - not referring to the amount of work done but the final look of it, it was almost too easy.

The other great thing about how we built the pathway sunken into the ground is that there is no visible water run-off and no pools of water after the rain. The rain just seeps into the soil between the rocks and into the soil along the path where the grass and trees etc are growing. I must admit though that seeing the efficiency of it now during the rains is quite humbling as I didn't think it would work that well.

This very natural method of drainage we'll now make sure we use in the roads around the site too as this is clearly the way to avoid waterlogging of areas. The other thing is that had this pathway been built with paving and/or cement we would definitely have had to provide for drainage channels etc etc. Yes, everyone is working hard to achieve the results we want but Mother Nature seems to be on our side in a big way - as far as this is concerned anyway.

Back in Rwanda again

Stairs up to Reception from Drop-off point
Yes, after attending a very successful World Travel Market in London, I'm back in Rwanda. This wasn't the usual fly-back to Rwanda but driving back through Kenya and Uganda - quite interesting this time due to the massive amount of rainfall at the moment in central and east Africa. Very muddy and wet indeed.

On arriving back in Musanze Sunday afternoon with Andy, we stopped quickly at the site to greet the security guys and I had a quick look around the front areas. The guys have been working like demons and have acheived loads. The stairs up to the front of reception are taking shape too.

Monday was not a working day so my first working day again was today and was a bit like a homecoming with everyone coming up and welcoming me back. The road to the 4x4 campsites is also progressing very well with the southern part and approach cleared and rock being laid for the actual road. Most of the road down to the overland campsites is also ready for the rock to be packed in. My most pleasant surprise though was the pathway to the safari tents the guys were busy with when I left.

This now looks like a stone path through a wild garden with all the vegetation having grown quite a bit with all the rain. Immediately Andy and I got around to getting some other plants in along the way. At another place where the guys are battling breaking through a massive big rock I introduced an age old method i.e. making a very hot fire on the rock followed by pouring water over the hot rock. This resulted in quite a number of cracks which got some large chunks of rock out. There was a bit of surprise as to how I would know something like this as mzungus don't usually.