New off season work blog post from the park.
Deeper in Africa: Giving rockwork a soul
A dark mountain range with deep ravines, rough walls and a large weathered rock with a monkey's face carved into it, have been shaping our theme area "Deep in Africa" for almost twelve years. Around the Inverted Coaster Black Mamba, we designed a unique African world with many lovely details, whose uniqueness astonished our guests. And now we want to raise our Africa once again to a whole new level - from artificial rocks to be a nature-identical mountains. Because when we built the imposing basalt chain in our Klugheim theme area, we got to know new materials, techniques and experts that we were not able to use twelve years ago.
This is how the Deep in Africa landscape looked previously:
Already in Klugheim, rockwork company Universal Rocks proved what they can do - so we have entrusted them with our Africa. The team leader in this project is the Portuguese Filipe Rodrigues. "I started working with Universal Rocks at Phantasialand. This is something very special for me. I just love being here. Also, because every project is different. We never know what to expect and always learn." For Filipe, the vision for our Africa theme is even more challenging than Klugheim, as he tells us in an interview. "When we create a completely new mountain, then we can do that from the beginning in our own way. Here in Africa, this is more difficult - we have to practically break up the existing rocks and create completely new shapes and structures. That's even more demanding - and dirtier," he laughs.
It's wet and dusty indeed. Because before the shape of the rocks in Africa can change anything, once dirt and paint of twelve years have to be washed off - otherwise the new cement will not last. Square by square, the experts spray the rocks that rise meters high in front of them. Only after the purge follows the second step, the "Cagework". For this reason, the rock builders bring in steel cages that create corners and edges, protrusions and indentations - where previously uniform rocks shaped the image. "So far, the rocks look artificial here. We make them look more natural and try to give them life, "says team leader Filipe Rodrigues. For this to succeed, every single cage must now be covered with a special plastic fabric. Many hundred meters of this fabric will have been laid in the end in Africa. And then, after this elaborate preparation, the rocks get their new look, their character.
Two layers of cement are needed to give the old dark brown rocks a new, "lived" structure. The first layer covers the cages and connects to the old cement, thus roughly creating the new shape of the mountain landscape. At the same time, the experts must always take care to comply with the so-called clearance gauge of the Black Mamba - the space that guarantees a safe ride on the roller coaster. And then the sculptors are in demand - they "hear" the second layer of cement. In loving detail, they work their way step by step, meter by meter, along the cliffs towering above them, through ravines and past overhangs. With trowels and knives they give the cement form and structure, create notches and stone folds. And not only do they keep an eye on the section that lies directly in front of them, but also on the big picture. Because only if the structure of the entire mountain range corresponds to that of natural rock, the perfect illusion of a grown rock in the middle of our Africa arises - as if the rock had resisted the climate of the African continent for ages, withstood sandstorms and could be shaped by the wind.
There is still work to do before it is all finished and Black Mamba can get back on track for the start of the season on March 24th. Until then we will keep you up to date. And one thing we can already tell you: our monkey rock gets a lot more bite.
Video (in English):
https://phantasialandblog.de/wenn-felsen-eine-seele-bekommen/
