The building has begun!

Ben was finishing up as much as he could before he leaves for Nepal and Base Camp on a little hike.  He managed to finish up the road project at the end of last week, so it should now be passable in the mud and they started the first building.  He is finally onto the fun part of the project.  He camped out in the forest this week with 4 workers from our village here in Rovieng – apparently a vast improvement from sleeping in the village on chicken mite infested mattresses with khmer movies (actually Khmer dubbed Thai soap operas) on till 10pm everynight and and all sorts of other diversions!  They managed to put up two posts and cement them into the ground as well as build a little shelter to sleep in.  They took out about 3 kilograms of fish to eat and the workers foraged in the forest and they ate wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots with their fish.

 

Here are some pictures of latest “Improvements!”

The corduroy road

 

 

The camp

 

 

 

Barefeet and Thongs

For the last two weeks we have been trying to hastily fix the road before the wet season totally sets in.  While the bridge over the creek is finished, there is about 150 yards of swampland to cross on both sides of the creek which is turning out to be as impossible to negotiate as the river is in the wet season.  We had been negotiating with a construction company for months trying to get them to come help us make a proper gravel road and they had been putting us off, always telling us to wait “one more week.”  Finally the wet season set in and they told us they could do it for us next year!  Yay.  So we have been trying to make the road usable. With little road building equipment to work with, we have been forced to become very creative.  Since we can’t haul gravel, we are using old logs to lay crossways in the road across the swamp and then lay a row of boards to drive that match the width of the tires.  Telling my dad about this, he told me that they used to use that style in the US in swampy areas and it is called “corduroy road.”

At the moment, we are about three fourths finished with that project.  We lay about 30 yards a day, and there is about 250-300 yards total to cover.

Last week we had a big rainstorm all night long and by morning the river had overflowed its banks.  Since I couldn’t take the pickup to work, me and my four workers walked to the bridge site and found our corduroy road under about 50 cm of water.  The actual car bridge was under about 4 meters of water.  At any rate, we didn’t get much work done that day.  Luckily by the next day we could work again as it didn’t rain anymore and the water had gone back down so we could drive across again. 

We have stacks and stacks of lumbar at the building site which we hope to start putting into a “headquarters” very soon.  We took a truckload of old wood from our house in a big old Russian Army truck – call an “Elephant Truck” in Khmer.  The truck left Rovieng at 6 am and arrived to the village about 11 am.  As we approached the mountain, the truck kept getting bogged despite the fact that it had a winch and a 4 wheel drive.  So we kept offloading lumbar along the way in piles until the truck was finally light enough to make it to the mountain.  He only got back to Rovieng at 11 pm that night.  It was a well earned $225 for Mr. Mao.

Since it rains all the time, I have had to trade in my steel toed boots for thongs which I end up tossing straight away and going barefoot for the rest of the day. I think my feet are getting tougher because I walk around barefoot in the thorns and I don’t seem to notice.  The other day, I took a 20 km hike through the jungle in shorts and thongs.  Which I only thought Australians knew how to do. 

Last week we said good bye to Savuth.  I was very grateful for his 3 months of help and support.  I think I worked him half to death because he went back to Phnom Penh and spent the next three days in bed with the flu.  Thank you Savuth!!

If the nice dry weather holds I’ll be able to finish the road next week and start working on the headquarters.    We’ll see.

The road immersed

Future site for the Lodge

The Hunt for the White Winged Duck

A few weeks ago a birder friend of ours came to the “Game Reserve.”  The primary purpose was to look for endangered bird species.  We had heard reports from villagers that there are a number of White Winged Ducks living on the creek and wanted to verify this.  According to websites I’ve looked at, there is a worldwide total of only 700-800 in the world or which about one third are in Cambodia.  The first day we saw lots of different birds but no ducks.  On day two we decided to go further afield and our efforts were rewarded when we finally came across a pair of ducks roosting along the creek.  We had kind of given up looking and were returning on a section of the creek that we had detoured earlier when they flushed.  If we had been paying attention it would have had a nice photo.  Instead I have a McManus photo of where they were once sitting:

Elated to know that there are some endangered species on the Game Reserve.  Now I need to find the bird list of what we saw on that trip.

Here are some other shots from the hike:

New fields

Lisa and a log

Fig tree

After the bridge

Now the bridge is finished Ben has been trying to work on the other side – the road.  To do the road he needed an excavator.  We don’t have an excavator.  He was wanting to contract one and there was one nearby – but not immediately nearby.  The other complicating issues were that the rains have been waiting just at the door – ready to burst in, and also that our project was just not that big.  We wanted to spend about $5000 to repair the road, build up the dam walls (I think that is what it was) and to dig a swimming pool (yes!).  All together it wasn’t a huge project – especially as Ben wanted to just do key bad spots in the road and not a major road build.  His friends who own all the necessary equipment were just next door – about 10km away but they were waiting for the rain so that they had an excuse to say no.  It rained last Saturday – and so Ben got a call soon after saying, sorry, but he couldn’t come. 

So no contractors. No excavator.  No good road – this year at least.  The next idea is to get piles of river gravel.  Then to pile them at the bad spots.  Then to make ruts and fill the ruts in with the gravel.  That should work, you think?  Also on the plan now is to buy a winch. 

The rains last Saturday made this next little project fun.  Ben has been collecting wood over the last few years.  Any downed or dead tree he has found, he has had sawed up and the boards stored under our house or in our yard.  Not all the trees obviously but lots.  Enough for a truckload of wood to fit into a large truck.  One of our friends has one of these large many-wheeled-drive trucks with a huge winch.  He wasn’t too worried about the trip.  On Tuesday, they loaded the truck up with all the spare wood, one of the sheds that we had in our yard taken apart (for easy reassembling on site so that Ben will have a tool shed right away), and some tin we had purchased a while back.  On Wednesday, he left early in the morning.  Things were fine to the village but by the river, the Saturday rains and the heavy load finally took its toll and the river banks were soft!  Only by 7pm had they unloaded the truck (at about 3 locations – to lighten the load to get out of bogs), and were back at the village and could finally eat (lunch or dinner). They all were very tired and I think the guy will think twice before helping us again!

So now Ben has his wood.  He is planning on building the first building which will be temporary accommodation for us and anyone helping out.  We probably can’t move our house out there until the dry season.

Preah Khan or Bakang Temples, Songkom Thmei District

Very close to the village of Ta Bos is the Angkorian temple complex of Preah Khan.  It is quite an impressive series of temples and I haven't visited them all.  We went for the first time there in 2002 when we first started working in Rovieng.  We had three volunteers who helped us out in setting up the office and before they left we took them out there.  It was a very rough road and we got bogged a few times - and this was in February (dry season!)  Eventually found the place and explored all the tumbled down temple structures.  We didn’t have a digital camera then – can’t even remember if we had a camera at all – so I have no pictures of that first trip.  We didn't go back there again until just last year, when another of our volunteers at Jombok Hoas, Phil, was leaving.  We went together with the Jombok Hoas team and had a picnic out there.  It is a world away from the temples of Siem Reap.  The road out there has improved dramatically.  A newly graded laterite road – 30 kilometers – takes you from the district town to the temples.  There were tourist guards even – collecting money from foreigners.  They even had official looking receipts.  I think they wanted something like $5 for each foreigner.

The road is being well maintained.  Built last year, sitting on the side of the road is a number of pieces of heavy road building equipment – an excavator, steam rollers, dump trucks etc.  there just for maintaining the road.. at least for now.

The buildings are in pretty good nic for being in such a remote location.  Having just visited Siem Reap’s temples recently, these are pleasantly, wonderfully empty (of tourists!) so quite easy to get pictures without other unknown people walking across the shot.

The Bridge

Final Bridge Building Crew

The bridge is finished finally.  Well mostly.  It was actually mostly finished a few weeks ago but we have been super busy with some ADRA stuff so haven’t had a moment to update the progress.  They finished two bridges.  A lower heavy duty bridge that is meant to be usable in the wet season and is expected to be flooded out during the rains.  Also a higher motorbike / horse cart bridge that is a swinging bridge.  They were build with entirely volunteer village labour so many people were involved – switching every day.

Next phase is the road repair which is proving more tricky.  Finding a contractor to come out to the middle of nowhere with all their equipment, excavator, bulldozers etc., is proving difficult.  We also want to do it sooner than later, the rains are coming!

Adding support cables

Car Bridge - almost done

Ben's week at the Game Reserve - by Ben

Well,  another week down with only 5 weeks to go until the monsoon rains hit in full force (could be a lot sooner but hopefully this year will be “ average”.   Work on the bridge has been taking up all of my time and energy.  We are making progress, have the cables up ready for boards but no boards.  They have to be cut with a chainsaw but getting that has been taking longer than I thought it would.  All the chainsaw people seem to have a million other things to do.  We also finally finished the blasting for the foundation in the river bed without any accidents.  Now we have to get the two, 24 foot posts up and that has proven to be harder than I had thought.  Spent most of Friday trying to do that with about 15 villager volunteers but it didn’t happen.  Will try again Monday.    Still trying to eliminate poaching and logging in my free time as well.   Have been trying to coordinate with the forestry Administration to raid the camps scattered around the community forest.  They made some arrests last month but there are still plenty operating.  Also poachers shooting the banteng and deer.  Also heard that a gaur was shot this week but haven’t confirmed that.  Hopefully we can get the bridge and road done in time to save at least a remnant of the wildlife.