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Carnival revellers say they are ready for the road, while Ruta Maya Paddlers say they are ready for the river.  And tonight we can report, that the river - or at least the Haulover Creek is ready for them. Today 7News went along with the Forestry Department and the City Council for a final run through after a team of 12 men and two divers worked for 12 days on clearing the creek.  It was a tall and tough task, but they’re finally finished and just in time for Ruta Maya.  We found out more:…

Phillip Willoughby - City Councillor
"I honestly thought the magnitude of the scope of works that we would have to contend with was way beyond our capacity, way beyond our capabilities."

Jules Vasquez
"You thought it was impossible in the period of time?"

Phillip Willoughby
"Yes sir, being fair yes, impossible with uncertainty of getting the work done."

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"I did underestimate and that's more so because when we did our assessment using a drone, the drone could not actually take pictures of what below the canopy and that's where I kind of failed."

Jules Vasquez
"So what did you all encounter that was the hardest to remove, that you did not factor in?"

Marcello Windsor
"Well the size of the mangroves in this area are very majestic, are very tall, very old growth mangroves and very heavy to be honest and then as we know our biggest challenge of trying to remove very heavy timber from areas within the creek to be honest well imbedded in mud. We had 8 chainsaws being City Council and the Forest Department and we had 3 barges and we had a boat as well. Aside from that we had chain heist and what we call come longs that we use to tie the heavy timber and just take it out from the banks of the creek itself."

Jules Vasquez
"And so people actually had to be in the water, under water as well seeing the depth and how it's rooted down there as well?"

Marcello Windsor
"Yes we had 2 divers diving for leaves and sunken logs and they did a very good job to be honest"

Jules Vasquez
"Okay now when one looks at the state of preparedness of this creek for the La Ruta Maya in a few days, how ready is it?"

Marcello Windsor
"Well given the limited time we have had I think we've had much success in the cleaning up of this creek. What I would advise the organisers that they should be responsible enough and take a look themselves to see what is they will encounter here. Overall for canoes I think it's pretty safe, pretty good, it's wide enough."

And what we encountered on our three hour tour today were two baboons, or black howler monkeys.  Windsor discussed the unique features of this towering Mangrove Forest:…

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"It is also an area where it’s very rich in its biodiversity; you can find a very diverse wildlife in terms of fauna. As we rightly saw today we saw some howler monkeys, my people working along the areas have also seen tapirs, seen crocodiles and quite some fishes in the area as well."

Jules Vasquez
"So right in the extremely close to the country's largest population centre, you still have this active wildlife zone, it's an indication that no doubt while we think they are living in our area, we are actually moving increasingly when we see Belama Phase 4 into their areas."

Marcello Windsor
"Rightly so, this is a very rich habitat and we are encroaching into this habitat itself."

The City Council and the Forestry Department say that they will now implement a regular system of maintenance to keep the creek clear.