Since completing the clearance of the land, there are some piles of consolidated vegetation debris that still need to be removed. It is now a race against time before the rains come. Having the digger on site is very handy in progressing onto the next stage – forming the structure and topography of the land to create a usable and accessible environment where the elephants can graze and roam. Our Technical Adviser, Lee Sambrook, and Jake are very pleased with progress.

The work has included reducing the gradient and undulation of the land by filling in the ditches, discovered around the land when it was cleared, and regrading the slopes with excess soil, in order to allow the elephants to more easily freely roam. In turn, this also will help the workers when it comes to the next stage on the site – laying the turf.

The digger has been used carefully to design and forge the pathways around the site. This was done in order to route visitors around the site via higher vantage points and the pools to see the elephants grazing and bathing from the best possible view, and to enjoy the planned cascading water between the pools. The paths also neatly direct visitors past the planned sites for the education, visitor and research centres, as well as the hospital, in the order we would like them to. As the paths grant the digger more access to different areas deeper into site, and closer to the pools, in the north west of the the site, this allowed the ground to be flattened using the combination of the digger and a roller to form a base ready to construct the stilts that will be the hospital’s foundations. The lower path by the pools will also permit the digger to get even closer to the pools in order to dredge them, and restructure the edges.

We can just begin to visualise what the ‘new jungle’ will look like and Lee says he can imagine our elephants drinking, bathing and splashing in the pond area. Can you help us finish the work?

Please try and help if you can by clicking here.

Come back next week, to read another blog post on the new site’s progress!