November 2017 First site visit by Anton De Kock, Michael Tollman, Mike and Marian Myers. Anton was able to gain a sense of the place and two things immediately influenced his work; birds in flight and water lilies. January 2018 The Tollman family visit the site for the first time with architect Anton de Kock and project manager Philip Fourie. November 2018 The build begins. The old staff village is dismantled and the material is used to build the construction of the village on the main guest island. Containers of equipment are brought onto site at Xigera. February 2019 The building continues with the start of the staff village and the steel foundation for the main kitchen. Dismantling the old site of the main area. We had endless site planning meetings which took place twice a month. Everything was planned and discussed to the last detail. The animals on site made things interesting, such as the lions which decided to sleep underneath the kitchen or in the parking area. The photo below is when an elephant interrupted the morning construction meeting. As the year progressed, so did the building work. From July, we had nearly 300 construction workers on-site at Xigera. It was a mammoth task. By mid-2019, steel for the suites was being delivered to Xigera on trucks. It was the year of the worst drought in the Okavango. However, this helped the build as trucks were able to move freely to the site. July 2019 By the middle of July, the main area at Xigera had been set out and the steel was in place to start this vital part of the build. November 2019 The work was advancing on the suites. Sisilia and the cubs checking on the progress. We then began on spa treatment rooms, the yoga deck and gym. This was the last of the main area structures to be built.
