Hello everyone and thanks for reading. It’s Annalise here, Natasha is off on holidays so I will be updating everyone with our news while she is away.
What a busy month we have had on site at Le Nautique La Digue! The site is really starting to take shape and it’s now becoming easier to visualise how truly special our little slice of paradise is going to be.
Could that view be any better? Imagine drawing back the curtains of a morning to this!
Over the last month the team has finished all ground floor slabs and blockwork for the three main buildings and has been preparing for the pouring of the first floor slabs and internal staircases.
Ground floor blockwork completed on the third main building
Now, ordinarily the process of pouring a first floor slab is relatively easy… right? Well not when you are on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean! Unfortunately, being on such a tiny island there are no such luxuries as concrete pumps and mechancial lifts. So our team has to do it the old fashioned way, by wheel barrow…
The power of man and his wheelbarrow
Just to put it into perspective, each first floor slab takes 5000kg of cement to complete. So we were all scratching our heads trying to work out how the team were going to wheelbarrow all that cement up to the first floor and just how long it was going to take. Never underestimate the creativity and inginuity of Seychellois. We give you, the wheel barrow lift…
Our custom made wheelbarrow lift
Two days, one digger, two wheelbarrows and many exhausted men later and two of the three first floor slabs and internal staircases are complete. Words cannot describe how happy Natasha and I are that we can now walk up a flight of stairs and stand on solid ground to gaze out over the view, as opposed to scurrying up a ladder, balancing on timbers and then feeling faint at the thought of going back down the ladder again.
Walking around the first floor we can visualise where all our purchases from all around the world will be situated and daydream about walking up to that view! It’s all starting to feel so real and we are all so excited!
Completed first floor slab
In other news, at the start of the build we inevitably had to remove some trees to make way for the buildings. One of these trees was a mature Bodamier tree and thankfully we were able to save the trunk and have it cut into large slices which we will use as furniture pieces within Le Nautique. Its so nice to know that we can carry the history of our land into the future with us in some way.
We have just seen the cut pieces of wood and it is stunning! The colours and patterns are amazing – have a look at the photos below.
Stunning colours and patterns
So where to from here? Well Natasha and Stuart begin their long trip back to Australia to celebrate Stuart’s brother Thomas’ wedding and the remainder of us will keep the progress going on site. I would say “some of us have to work” but is life in the Seychelles ever considered work?
Things will start changing rapidly on site now, as we concentrate on the remaining first floor slab and the first floor blockwork and following those… the roof goes on! So stay tuned for more construction updates and information on our beautiful islands.