The beginning
After more than a year of planning, we arrived here in the South African bush at the end of January 2004. We rented a camper for the first ten days since we knew that we needed to do some work to make the old building habitable. After breakfast the first day we First went to the estate agent (who lived in the same reserve) to borrow some tools to open the door because there was no key. Once inside we really saw what enormous task waited for us. There was no water, no electricity and everything was incredibly dirty from not being used for years. We first went shopping and bought a broom and other cleaning attributes and went to work.
Arranging things
Those first weeks were spend mostly arranging things. We had to open a bank account, the electricity needed to get connected; we needed telephone and internet… In between all the visits to the different offices we cleaned the existing buildings and cleaned up as much mess as possible. The terraces were swept, branches cut and slowly but surely the rondawels became habitable. In the mean while we visited the lodge where we stayed when we came here with our parents to look for properties. One of the managers had experience with building and offered to help us. He took three months leave and we agreed on a monthly salary. He stayed with us in a tent. After ten days we brought the camper back to Johannesburg. We stayed with a friend in Pretoria and took the opportunity to look for a car. We bought a bakkie (pick-up) and our friend offered to bring the car the next weekend and take our rental car back to Johannesburg. We now lived in the rondawel where the previous owners had left an old chair and couch. We bought some cheap mattresses and put these on the floor. We had some paraffin lights and cooked on a fire since the electricity was still not connected.
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| our bushtoilet while we were building |
After five weeks the container with our things form the Netherlands arrived. A week later we finally had electricity. We only had one double plug and power to the water pump but after six weeks without any power this was luxurious. I remember very well how happy I was with the soft whirring of the fridge that now kept all our food and drinks wonderfully cold! It took a little longer to get water, since the pump broke down after just two days of pumping. Luckily we had met our very friendly neighbour in our first week here and he let us get water from him. Since we were building already we had to drive two, sometimes three times a day to his place to fill up all the water tanks we could find. At the end of the day we could shower there and that kept us going more than once. Three months after we arrived here the borehole was finally cleaned, we had a new pump and a new water tank. Finally we had our own water! We kept going to the neighbours to shower for a few months longer since we had no bathroom yet.
Building
In the following months we built four rondawels for our guests, a bar with a terrace, a boma, a toilet building and a small house for us. We renovated the existing buildings to form an office, lounge, dining area and kitchen. We used sand from our own dry riverbed to make big blocks to build with. We had some locale people working for us but were ever possible we helped and it was hard work. Al building got a thatched roof and we started to buy things to furnish and decorate. Bit by bit the lodge started to take shape and in September the first two rondawels were ready. It was a race against the clock, since we were expecting our first guests and one week before we still had to do a lot, since we had to wait for the electrician. In the months after that we finished the last two rondawels and made the swimming pool.
Exactly one year and one month after we came to South Africa, the building of our Amukela Game Lodge was finished. Of course we kept changing and improving things but the biggest job was done. We had some guests already, even before the lodge was completely finished and our main task would be now to market our lodge and get more guests.
We left everything behind in the Netherlands to start this great adventure here and to follow our dream. It was hard work and the first year was not always easy but I have fond memories of this special period in our lives.
Regards from the bush
Miriam
