Base Camp

The area that the company owns here is called the concession and there are two "camps" on the concession, Bravo and Base. I stay at Base Camp; which I am thankful for because Bravo is basically a man camp. Bravo is also very barren as it is all simple houses and rocks while Base is very green. Bravo also has a few thousand people living there while there are a few hundred at Base. Please join me for a tour of Base Camp...

Base camp is surrounded by a gate and razor wire. There is one entrance; through a gate which security opens and closes. This is a look at the gate from inside of camp. You can't see it well because one side is open, but the yellow and blue thing in the middle of the picture is the gate.

This is facing the other direction; what you see as you drive in through the gate. There is one main road through Base Camp.

The first 1/2 of Base is offices, a lab, security, geology, HR, small vehicle garage, etc. - basically places where people work. There are geology core samples all over the place, as is shown below.

There is also a clinic which serves the Base camp occupants as well as some people from Fungarume - I think it is just families of people who work for the company but I'm not positive.

About 1/2 way down the main road is the mess hall and the housing buildings. This is the mess hall; there are tables inside and out.
The commissary. I haven't been in yet, but the prices for the limited amount of goods are pretty outrageous.

To the left of the mess hall (up and behind) are rendavos (I have no idea how that is spelled). These are cute houses that people call chicken coops.

Across from the mess hall to the right are these housing buildings.

There are also a lot of housing building that look like this. This one - H4 - is where I lived the first 2 weeks I was here.

A look at some of the housing from the main road.

Continuing on the main road past the mess hall and the housing buildings, you start to get to the houses. This is where many of the people who are working here permanently live. This picture shows the end of the main road at which point you can turn left or right.

Left takes you up a small hill to where more houses are being built...

...to the social club where they have pool tables, outdoor sitting and beverages (most people go there to drink)...

...and to the tennis court and gym.

A right at the end of the main road takes you to some houses, including Mark and Anna's house where I am living. (You can see Mark and my trucks parked in front of their house).

This is a small portion of Mark and Anna's yard, it is very green and pretty. The tree in the middle is a banana tree. If you look closely at the right side you can see bananas growing.