save lars

Diary

Diary

This is our day-to-day story, starting on Friday 25th May 2012, actually the 35th Anniversary of 'Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope'!

 

Enjoy this story by the fans, for the fans.

 

Will we soon bring you a video documentary as well as a book, filled with fantastic photographs of this once-in-a-lifetime undertaking.

Diary

Diary

 

On this page, the Pioneers who traveled to Tunisia to Save the Lars Homestead, share with you their very own adventure.

Re-live the excitement of pulling off a restoration that has been one of the most anticipated projects in a galaxy far, far away.

Your guides are: Mark Dermul, Terry Cooper, Mark Cox, Robert Cunningham, Imanuel Dijk and Michel Verpoorten (more on our crew on this page). Oh, and lets not forget our 'caterer', Colin Kenworthy. After all, he supplied us with cool drinks and icecreams when we most needed them.

Day 7

 

Thursday 31st May 2012

 

Thursday was a big day. The final day of work, so the Saviours had to finish up no matter what. After all, they needed Friday to return to Jerba for Saturday’s red-eye flight back to Belgium. But the day started off bad. They had a man down. A stomach bug forced Terry to stay in bed. He was gutted he could not go out with the group, but he realized he would be useless in the heat. Coxie left him with medicine, biscuits and water in the room. Hopefully by noon, Terry would be back on his feet.

 

No less than 300 blocks of wood were sawn to provide the decoration for the arch entry to the igloo. While preparing those, the local builders put a coat of plaster on the base of the homestead and filled out the holes in the dome as well. Coxie, Imanuel and Mark put up the plaque, creating a sturdy, cemented base in the desert floor, while Michel and Robert documented the whole thing. The QR code on the plaque will lead tourists with a smartphone directly to the project’s website. With the plaque and the plastering done, noon was again upon them and the local crew said their goodbyes. But the clock kept ticking and the Saviours still had to finish the decorations of the door, screwing every block in place individually and paint the whole building a pristine white. They kept at it until 1.30pm, but again the desert heat forced them to get indoors. They estimated at least two more hours would be needed to finish the job, so they made plans to return at 4pm.

 

After a quick lunch and a very much needed shower, they headed back out for the finishing touch. On the way back, they purchased 6 brushes in Nefta and 40kg of white paint, so that everybody could help paint the igloo. Terry was back on his feet – not totally recuperated, but there was no way he was going to miss out on finishing the job – and even Colin, the accidental tourist, joined in. Mark and Imanuel finished the decorations on the door, just in time. Around 7pm, Terry could at last take the plastic protection off of the entry coder and everybody started cleaning up the site. The sun (just the one) was already very low in the sky. Daylight was fading fast. But with a big sigh of relief – and just a tad of disbelief – the Saviours could take a step back and look at the Lars Homestead.

 

‘We did it!’

 

In the fading light, they quickly freshened up as best they could with the remaining bottles of water and changed into their specially made Crew T-shirts to pose for some pictures, providing them with bragging rights to no end. But sooner than anticipated, the sun dipped below the horizon and the desert sky turned pitch black. The time had come to return to base.

 

After returning to Tozeur, they were invited by the restaurant owner next door to the hotel, for a celebratory barbecue in a nearby oasis. They even purchased a two litre bottle of champagne from the Palm Beach Hotel in Tozeur – incidentally the hotel were Lucas and his crew stayed during the shooting of Attack of the Clones – to celebrate their success… into the wee hours of the night.

 

Return to Day 6 - Forward to Day 8

 

Crew & Saviours

Pic 6

Find out who who donated to make this restoration possible and meet the crew who traveled out to Tunisia to make it happen.

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Book

Pic 7

We are currently hard at work creating a wonderful coffee table book, with loads of never before seen images. Stay tuned!

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