We could have invested in a tidy little villa on the coast, opted for a turn-key new life in the tropics…  it certainly would have been easier…

For sure, it’s easy to say and summaries the challenge as I have,  ‘transform a jungle-clad mountain into a home and...’  but having spent a month getting to know this wild place, it’s clear the skills needed and perhaps resources, are much more than we have. Saying this, I haven’t once doubted our choice and every day I  stroll the landscape with a mile-wide smile making plans. So here they are…(video)

Starting From Scratch: An Inherent Challenge

The Basics 😯 : We are in the middle of nowhere… with only a rough farm track that winds its way two kilometres through the folds of the volcanoes ridgelines: Access to the site is tricky… there’s nowhere to park a car or deliver materials. There is no electricity to power tools, lights and machinery, there is no water supply to the top of the ridge, so the springs and river far below are the only source for drinking washing, construction and so many things. There are no pathways or routes through the landscape worth mentioning, its a wild overgrown writhing blanket of green with life and designs of its own!

Aside of these physical and logistical barriers, there are complex legal concerns too…the land is registered as Green Zone, meaning it can not legally be built on…  but hey… if it were easy…!

 

Courage is your currency, bravery, determination and vision the things you have that money can not buy!’

I said these words last year to a group of aspiring young explorers excitedly gathered in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. I had been invited by the Queen’s household to give a rousing speech and asked on behalf of his Royal Highness to hand out the years  Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards…it was a great honour, one that I’m sharing here only because it’s now that I really need to live by my words.

So having spent a month on the land alone…here are my plans as laid out in a video walk around for Denise…

it’s long but if your interested it sets out the first of many exciting transformations and the challenges ahead (many of which have now been completed).  In the coming days ill be sharing the key stages, building the first structure, clearing the land, building the Helicopter Pad (Ok its a car park!!!) resolving the water problem, the electrics and solar… the creation of the lower pond and pathways… Oh, and just in case you are worried… the legal issue is also resolved 8-). lots to come and some dramatic changes…