New Accommodation

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Gorgeous red sunrise at 5am. We did a session of beach stretches then had breakfast. We’ve changed huts, to a better position right on the beach, at the east extremity of the resort. I’ve had a few days of asthma, and where we were, next to the market site, the villagers sweep up the mess in the morning and burn it. Smoke and plastic fumes made my asthma worse, but where we are now is beautiful.

After brekky I worked with the resort owner Barry and three of his men setting out the adjacent site. It’s 5000 sq metres, over wet grassland. It’s at a level lower than the road, so he needs about 10,000 cubic metres of fill, and he needs it to be a shape he can work with later, so I designed a pavement shape, where the water can get away without flooding neighbours, etc. Then we made a ‘water level’ – Google it, 3000 year-old technology – to provide set out level marks on stakes placed around the site.

The stakes were cut-down tree branches, eucalypts, with the sharpest points you could imagine. You learn to respect and envy the locals, when you see how sharp their machetes are.

We visited a village which has a blacksmith shop! The furnace is powered by two vertical bamboo tubes, 100mm dia, 700mm high, with a string and ball in each. The blacksmith lifts alternately the string, which moves air through a pipe into the fire base – incredible. His work is of high quality.

The local boys were impressed with the water level. I demonstrated how the water ends match in height, even when you move the pipe up or down – magic!

We pegged out half the site, got blue ribbon tied to the stakes for fill levels and then waited for a machine. The boys flagged a passing gravel truck and because the project nearby has run out of diesel, we can have the front end loader if we fuel it, tomorrow! Then on Sunday we get the bulldozer for half a day to trim the work.

What about our cars, you ask? Are we having too good a time here to continue the drive?
Not exactly. There have been delays… Details when it’s sorted.