water woes for the lodge
24 hours, that’s all it took. Yesterday we drove down to the airstrip because we heard the water levels had risen. I should preface the next few sentences by saying earlier in the year, due to the amount of rainfall, the airstrip was flooded. The airstrip sits at a slightly lower elevation on the road from the main gravel road to where the lodge is located on the river. The lodge had to construct a new road along the ridge that went around the lower, depression that the airstrip is located on in order for tourists to be able to access the lodge grounds. When I arrived in May the main road that cut through the airstrip was still closed but pretty soon after arriving they were able to open a slightly altered road along the airstrip (which was good b/c the other road was too sandy for non-4×4s and big buses to get down).
When we arrived at the scene of the crime we were amazed that the amount of water that covered the surface area. This was Monday. On Saturday I had run down to the airstip and managed to run down most of it. By Monday much of the dry land had been covered by water. The only part left was where a huge tank type machine used for grating roads (that packs roads to make them drivable) sat with a missing tire. The lodge management is desperately trying to get another new road (this will be the fourth road of the year) built but the tire went flat on that big machine so things came to a standstill). At any rate, we took some photos and video and went on our merry way for work.
Work was good – got the last big participatory meeting done that we had planned to do this field season so that was a relief. Although we still had to contend with a flat tire, shifting of intended schedules, and time waiting to see how it would all go. We have had five flat tires in the past week – or something crazy along those lines. I suppose we don’t have the best tires ever (went through one field season already with these tires last year) but jeez it’s ridiculous. But hard to avoid not so ideal conditions b/c some of the areas we need to get to demand some unavoidable off-road traversing…not that on the road is that much better…can be worse with the gravel road broken in chunks and makes everything on the truck rattle as you roll down the road.
Anyway, we came back later that day to hear that the progress on the road was speeded up and occurring even after dark had set in b/c the water was now covering the entire airstrip. The huge tank/grater that had the flat was being furiously worked on to get it off the airstrip before the night was out….already water was creating damp areas and the jacks were sitting in water. This morning Jg and I drove out to the airstrip and I was shocked to see the water covering the entire surface of the airstrip. In a matter of three days all of this water had appeared and the road out of the lodge (the one that buses and cars might could use) is still un-drivable. We are lucky in that the sandy road is not a problem for the Isuzu (yay! One thing that truck can do w/out causing a headache) but it’s a problem for the management b/c if they cannot get the road open they will have to close down until they can fix it.