Day 4 – Wednesday 30th March:
Today was our first day on site actually working. It was quite a delayed start due to trying to get hold of tools but the task for the day was to dig the toilet block foundations and set up a shelter to work under. The team was raring to go and after marking out the correct area, digging commenced. We also dug the foundation holes for the shelter, which didn’t take too long. The heat was quite intense, so we took regular breaks and I now have a peeling back to show for it! The majority of the trenches got dug with only a minor issue of one of the pick axes breaking in two! There are some pretty strong guys out here! We finished a little early as everyone was suffering with the heat and going quite red.
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| That's not a tan, that is muck! |
After a hot shower to get clean, we all headed out to celebrate one of the teams 21st birthday. We found this awesome restaurant on the edge of the dam to watch the sun go down and then ate all you can eat tiger prawns for only £8 each, bargain! We had a few more drinks, heading on to a further bar for some pool and dancing.
Day 5 – Thursday 31st March:
Today was another day on site, finishing off the trenches and shelter. We were all feeling a little delicate from the night before, but you only turn 21 once right! The digging of the trenches got completed and we also leveled out the area. Some of the team even got to learn out to use the surveying equipment.
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| Digging trenches |
Progress was made on the shelter too with all the gumpoles being cemented in. Mixing the cement was tough work especially as it dries out so quickly under the African sun. My arms definitely got a good work out!
We had a really chilled out evening and discovered the local Internet café so hopefully now a few photos will get attached to these blog entries. I’ll also try and upload a few more video blogs too to keep you all entertained!
Day 6 – Friday 1st April:
Friday began with a little April fool as the materials didn’t turn up on site on time…everything runs on African time, which means things will arrive usually a day later than they say! Luckily it only turned out to be an afternoon later so we had a few hours to kill. We ended up heading up the mountains to a local wildlife reserve to try and see some zebras, impalas and some deer like animals. However, all we saw were some cows! Reckon the sun was too hot for them all. We managed to explore a waterfall and found some amazing butterflies. I should be able to upload some photos of them soon. You should all be impressed to hear we also found some MASSIVE spiders in HUGE webs and I managed to get quite close to them, close enough to take some pretty good photos. I was quite proud of myself, as they were horrid! We managed to see a few monkeys as we headed out of the reserve, so it ended up being quite a successful mini break from site.
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| This is actually about the size of my hand! ew! |
Once we got back to site the materials had arrived so it was straight to work attaching the bracing to the shelter. It didn’t take us too long but trying to hold a purlin at 3m when you’re only 1.56m high is quite a challenge! We sorted out some platforms in the end so the job got done.
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| Catherine, Dave, Ellie, Sam and Me after finishing the temporary shelter |
Friday night was our first night out without an early start the next day so it ended up being quite big one. Team bonding is the key to all projects! We found a couple of great bars, had a few drinks and danced a lot. I even managed to not any of my drinks all night!
On a domestic note…we managed to find a laundry so you should be pleased to hear I have now got some clean clothes!
Day 7 – Saturday 2nd April:
After a later start than normal, we headed out for a fry up and a pretty chilled out day sorting out a South African phone, getting some food in and chilling by the pool. An early night was very needed as we had a 5:45am start the following day for a day out to the third biggest gorge in the world.
Day 8 – Sunday 3rd April:
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| Dam |
Today was an AWESOME day. It was an extremely early start and quite a long drive to begin with but our first event of the day was a boat trip along the river flowing at Blyde Canyon, however it is a gorge. It is stunning down there, just amazing scenery all around, further than you can see. We actually saw some hippos in the river just enjoying the morning sun, got a few photos but you can only see their ears and eyes. Pretty cute though! We were on the river for about an hour. After than we began a drive around the area and national park taking in mountain passes, further awesome scenery, small villages in the middle of nowhere and random cows in the middle of roads. We stopped at Echo Caves and adventured underground for a view of some South African stalactites and stalagmites. There was a lot of ducking and diving in the caves and so many steps to get out of them, definitely felt the burn on the thighs but it was definitely worth it. We took a further small journey down the road to stop for lunch at a viewpoint overlooking the whole gorge, felt like you were on the edge of the world. Found some local residents too in the form of bright red and green lizards. I reckon there were quite a few snakes lurking in the grass but we didn’t dwell on that too much!
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| Hippos in the wild! |
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| Green and red lizard |
We got back to the hotel about 8pm, only to be greeted by the craziest storm I have ever witnessed which hit about 10pm. It went on for about 6hours keeping most of us up all night. Rivers were running down the roads and the thunder was so loud. I can understand now why the area has had so much flooding lately.
I’ll try and get some photos up soon and some more video blogs, I’ve taken a few, I just need to find some time to head out to the internet café. Hope all is well in England and everything is good. Catch up with you soon.
Helen
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