Kikonko Lodge - Lake Albert - Uganda

To get a better idea, here is a small video... Progress, progress, progress!

Stefan and Richard left Kampala today really early in the morning to go to Hoima. Once they reached the site, Stefan was quite surprised to see all the progress that has happened since the last time he was there in July 2018. Getting ready for the concrete sealing of the foundation The view of the final cottage will be amazing! At the moment there are about 20 people working on the site The foundations are being filled with rocks, boulders and sand What now looks like a parking will be the restaurant later on

The land in Buseruka is DRY! Well, when we bought it, we had obviously thought that we would simply drill a borehole and that this would give us water. Hmmm, after the water engineer came to the land and asked two very simple questions "Do you have a palm tree on the land?" and "Do you have termites?" and we had to answer "No" to both (well, actually, the termites somehow found their way to us now) it was clear for the engineer that there is no water whatsoever. Drillig a borehole would not work, getting water through pipes from the lake was also not an option. So we decided to buy a water truck and supply ourselves. Here is our truck with its unique colors! Stefan quickly designed a small advertisement flyer for it. We also saw that some of the villages nearby our construction site have very little water and that people struggle to get water for their every day lives. We bought four 10.000 litre water tanks and positioned them in strategic pla...

After the machines made their way through our land, the time has come to lay the foundation! This is the most material consuming part of the whole building process and so Richard was busy buying truck loads of sand, bricks, boulders and what not. Initially trenches are being dug and then filled with cement. This will constitute the outer limit for the foundation, which will then be filled with boulders, rocks, gravel, sand and ultimately cement.  Big boulders are being brought to the land to form the foundation. The first foundation walls are erected!  

For all of you who thought that coming up with a name for the lodge is an easy task: this is to tell you that it is NOT. Should the name represent something on the land? Should it represent a feeling? In which language should it be? Does the name need to have a meaning? Who can pronounce it? Does the name exist elsewhere? Do we all like it?   First ideas materialize (after we had ruled out Amani Lodge and Muziiri) At some point the word "escarpment" (Steilhang) came up, which means in Runyoro (the language of the people in Buseruka) "KIKONKO"     After some feedback that the red writing with the red dot would give the impression of a Japanese sushi restaurant, we changed the color  At some point we thought we could mix different words, such as KIREREZI (light) and KIKONKO (escarpment) and we came up with KIRONKO     Again, we got some feedback: this time the word Kironko could be misunderstood by the local...

Buseruka . You might ask youself "What?" and "Where on earth is this place?" Even we had problems in the beginnig to get the name right: Busereka, Baseruka, Burekesa? No, we are building in BUSERUKA and do you know why? Well, if you look at this, you will know why: The land has an amazing view over Lake Albert and in the distance you can see the mountains of Congo. At night the fishermen go out with their boats and use lights to attract the fish. It is truly amazing! You might think that you are looking down onto a city - only to realize the next morning that there is absolutely nothing but NATURE and water. So where exactly is Buseruka? Buseruka is in Western Uganda, between two well-visited National Parks - Murchison and Queen Elizabeth. It is about 4 hrs away by car from Kampala, the capital of Uganda and about 30 minutes away from Hoima, the next biggest town. Near to Buseruka are the building sites of the new international a...

... this is how Richard must feel at times. Amongst the things he organizes on a daily basis are transport issues of all sorts of things (machinery, poles, food, people, materials and so much more), the water truck deliveries and its break-downs, contracts with people, negotiating prices, ensuring the right materials in the right quantity are being loaded, conserving trees and nature as crazy wheel loaders and excavators are moving over the land, calculating sizes of soak pits and septic tanks, defending the team from the aggressive baboon and negotiating prices of capturing it, fighting the termites, getting grass oin huge quantities to the site and and and and ... This post is to thank Richard for being such a crucial person in this project and for taking his job 200% seriously! And another update: the foundations are being laid today!!! We are certainly moving into the right direction!

From August to the end of October 2018 we had our two star architects with us: Vitalia Gordeev and Robert Coellen. They both studied architecture and recently graduated. A project like ours was their first experience in the "real" world! When we visited the site, they were quite surprised to find a piece of land of such a big size (6 acres or 2.4 hectares) that is not just flat but quite hilly. Since there was no real plan of the land and its different levels, our architects set out to measure and survey it themselves.   What seems like a bit of a crazy thing to do,came out quite nicely in the end!

FINALLY! The building plans for the lodge in Buseruka were approved by the local authorities and now the leveling of the ground has started!  The parking area was levelled. The machinery arrives on the site   The swimming pool is being dug out...