Ampitana

Yesterday we saw quite a good bit of wildlife, including some lemurs. But we were in for much more today. It didn't take long until it kicked off as we spotted a Chameleon as we were packing our bags to leave the hotel. The rest of the day consisted of sitting in the bus and completing journal logs while we drove toward Anja. Once again, though, the drive was interesting despite being almost desert. Rock formations appeared out of nowhere and created some unique views within the hilly though desolate landscape.

When we arrived in the town of Anja, the landscape once again changed dramatically, and plants and trees were plentiful again. It was very green and luscious, a necessity to maintain a huge lemur population. The Anja conservation area contains over 650 lemurs and is run and managed by the local people. With a key focus on local employment. As such, we had 5 tour guides for our group of 10. Of course, this meant that service was unparalleled. One man volunteered to take photos so we could simply enjoy the lemurs, the other educated us on lemurs while the rest explored the area for other lemur groups for us to observe. But when we first began our journey, there was little need for explorers as lemurs were everywhere. You were more scared of stepping on one accidently, rather than not seeing enough. They had clearly become very comfortable around humans and were quite habituated. They did not mind if you got really close and just kept going about their business eating, playing, and sleeping. As such, we could get some great photos. I was once again blessed with timing as we had come just after the birthing period for the ladies. This meant that there were plenty of babies playing around as babies do. The highest concentration of the lemurs was at the beginning, but I was still keen to walk around the park and see as many as I could. But I had to battle the older people in the group, taking hundreds of photos per lemur, asking silly questions, and generally slowing the group down to a halt. I am going to have to get used to it, however, as it will not going to get better. As such, we only saw 2 lemur groups in about 2 hours, but I did still enjoy the experience. It was great to watch them live and behave as a group and observe the social dynamics. I got plenty of great photos of the lemurs, although it is hard to capture the babies and mothers up in the trees. I did try, though.

After this, we drove about 20 minutes to a paper making factory. It was very primitive but interesting to see, too. It is not paper like we know it but rather very raw, simple paper. The only ingredient is water and tree bark, so it is not perfectly flat, uniform or precise, but it is very interesting and cool. Adding to the effect. To simplify the already simple method, you start by removing the bark of a certain type of tree, stripping the inner wood, and boiling it. After it is boiled, it is rinsed, then turned into a mush / paste, before being placed on a flat surface to dry. If they are decorating it with flowers, they will include these before the drying process. At the end, they sold books and other paper products, but because it is a more basic production process, you could not fit many pages within the book, and writing on it would not always be easy. It was still cool to see the processes involved and how they incorporate flowers and seeds into the paper for decoration. As a result, their target audience is for restaurant menus, wedding invitations, etc, rather than for office use. They had some cool products, but a lot of them aren't particularly practical, which is what I need for my Christmas gifts this year. After this, it was about 2 pm, and we still had about 5 hours to drive, so we hit the road once again to hopefully make up some time before dinner.Read more