Festive Season (2007)

Wishing everyone and their families a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year and all success for 2008.  We thank all the people who have been supporting us and for all the encouragement throughout 2007.

Construction Update (Nov 2007)

All progressing well with foundation trenches dug and ready for the construction of the foundations to begin.  All the roads inside the site are now complete and have a single layer of gravel for levelling (a photo of one of the parking areas can be seen in the Gallery).

Campsites have grass growing and in some cases we're already cutting the lawns.  Linking pathways between campsites, ablutions and parking areas have progressed well with most of them done.  The next set of pathways to be tackled will be the pathways where the guests in the luxury safari tents can go for strolls and/or birdwatching in the forest on the site.

Breaking Ground (Aug 2007)

The moment arrived for the breaking of ground.  The foundations had been marked out and we invited the Chief Park Warden of Parc Nationale des Volcans, Mr Justin Rurangirwan to do the honours.

This was attended by all our employees whom Mr Justin addressed with a short speech on how good the project is and how everybody is looking forward to visiting us.  This was followed by him breaking ground at the entrance to Reception with the following spadefuls of soil removed by Andy and then each of the employees.  A proud moment for us indeed!

Gorilla Naming Ceremony (June 2007)

A huge ceremony this year with the President and 1st Lady attending as well a huge number of invited celebrities from around the world.  (Visit the Rwanda Tourism site to see who attended).  The whole event was bigger than both the preceding years and was enjoyed by all.  This was followed by a Gala event in Gisenyi the evening which we could unfortunately not attend.  ORTPN - congratulations again on a brilliant event.

Road Building (Feb 2007)

Road and pathway building is underway and progressing well albeit slow at times. All the roads and pathways are being done with volcanic rock shaped by the stone masons.  Most of the rock we're using for this is from our site from where we've cleared for building and where we have to level areas for roads.

This will culminate in almost 1.5km of roads in the site winding through the trees and contours of the site.  Pathways will most likely exceed this as no areas are being cleared for the pathways and will be the general access to all areas on the site.

Site Clearance (Aug 2006)

The big clearing exercise has commenced.  We got our permission from the Sector Council to clear the trees in the areas where we'll be building including where we'll have roads around the campsites and the main parking/arrival area at Reception.

The clearing of the trees, mostly Eucalyptus sp., involves getting all the roots out as well. This is proving quite a challenge considering how much rock there is on the site and the roots growing around and deep between the rocks.  We've also learnt not to be misled by a thin small tree as some of them have have given us our most work when it comes to getting the roots out - digging over 2 meters down in some cases.

Gorilla Naming (Jun 2006)

It was time again for the 2nd Annual Gorilla Naming Ceremony in Kinigi and turned out a huge success again.  The ceremony was well attended with the 1st Lady attending as the main guest of honour.   The entities naming gorillas this year included some of the embassies of countries represented in Rwanda and large businesses.  The luncheon was conducted near the Gorilla's Nest Hotel and catered for by the Hotel des Mille Collines from Kigali.  Congratulations to ORTPN on the success of this event.

Land Purchase (Jan 2006)

The beginning of this month we completed the land purchase with payments being made to each of the 18 land owners.  Each received a cheque for the amount due which also led to most of these people opening bank accounts.  The amount due was determined by assessing what is on the land in conjunction with the Ruhengeri council (now the Musanze District Council) and the relevant owners.

This is obviously a huge milestone in the project and the next steps include getting building/planning approval and conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and of course, marking out our bounderies.

The bounderies will be marked and finally planted with a Euphorbia species which grows into a dense hedge. This will be along the west, north and east bounderies with iron sheeting being erected temporarily along the southern boundery along the road.

Living in Ruhengeri (Aug 2005)

Marcell officially moved into the house in Ruhengeri that we'll be renting for the duration of the construction. Situated just two blocks off the main street with a magnificent view of the volcanoes, it's a perfect base for our Rwandan office.   Add to this a gardener who's also our watchman and is passionate about his garden which includes a large avocado tree, a vegetable patch that will make you salivate and a huge variety of indigenous flowering plants. The first thing to be done was furnishing the house and local carpenters were visited and orders for furniture placed. It took the surrounding markets and clientele only a day or two to get to know the new resident and offer their services for what ever work may be available.

Design Proposal and Further Progress (July 2005)

Symbion (our appointed architect) visited Rwanda with us during April '05 to view the identified plots of land and complete a concept design proposal for us.   During June, they presented us with the proposal. Pictures from this proposal can be found in the Gallery on our website.

We have commenced with the official land acquisition phase which inter alia includes formalising the leases and commencing with required Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) report. This phase will also be supported by a more detailed document from Symbion.

Needless to say, with Marcell living in Rwanda now, everyone in Ruhengeri is waiting for the first turning of the soil. We will get some photos of this momentous occasion and add them to the Gallery  

Gorilla Naming Ceremony (June 2005)

On 25 June 2005 a Gorilla Naming Ceremony was held at Mountain Gorilla's Nest followed by a gala fundraising event at the Kivu Sun in Gisenyi, both attended by the President of Rwanda, Mr Paul Kagame and his wife. The ceremony elaborated on the traditional naming ceremony where rangers, trackers and researchers nominated three names for the gorilla baby to be named. Around a campfire, one of the three names would be chosen by those present.

At the ceremony, various donors were given the opportunity to choose the name from the nominated three names for each baby. President Kagame and his wife each were given the opportunity to pick names for the twins in the Susa family. These twins are the only recorded surviving Mountain Gorilla twins. Elegant Africa adopted a gorilla which we also had the honour of naming. This is Umutsatsi's baby, members of Pablo's family and we named it "Iraduha" (gift from God).  

We were also formally introduced to the dignitaries and public with a further introduction to President Kagame and his wife. The support for Elegant Africa and our project by everyone in Rwanda remains very encouraging.

The gala fundraising event at the Kivu Sun succeeded in raising in excess of US$ 1 million for conservation projects related to the Mountain Gorillas.

The day after the Ceremony was spent by most attendees socialising and relaxing at the Kivu Sun and the official opening of the new swimming pool by President Kagame. A truly magnificent couple of days and a well organised event. ORTPN are planning this event to be an annual event in Rwanda.

Lodge and Tented Camp Names (June 2005)

Previously we had identified working names of Kinyarwandan origin for the Lodge and the Tented Camp respectively. These names; Kirekire Lodge (meaning: high) and Ibuye Camp (meaning: stone) now appear on some of our working documents (such as the architect's concept design).  

We have since sat down and discussed these names with local people from the Ruhengeri area and have subsequently settled on names with subtly different meanings in the local dialect. Consequently the lodge will be named Kumuremure Lodge (meaning: on a high place) whilst the camp will be known as Ikoro Tented Camp (meaning: volcanic/ volcanic rock). These changes take into account certain nuances and translations in the Kinyarwandan language.