Lemur Land!!!

After a good nights sleep and another wonderful breakfast we organized a driver for the day and headed off to a place called Lemur Land.

Almost as soon as we arrived and got out of the car we saw our first Chameleon, a huge brightly colored one in a tree.

I never cease to be amazed by them, the way they move, change color and the way their eyes move independently, that is incredible!.  We were met by a guide and he explained we would first tour the Ylang Ylang distillery and then visit Lemur Land. Ylang Ylang oil is distilled from small flowers picked from the trees and then loaded into a giant still, steam is then introduced to the still and the oil is carried with the steam into the condenser. The resulting oil and water then separate and the oil is skimmed off and bottled for sale.

Inside the Distillery.

There was also a display of old machinery from the Distilleries past, that gave us an insight into days gone bye before electricity.

Old Steam engines that were once used to run the distillery.

Once we had finished in the Distillery we moved on to the gift shop for a welcome drink of Guava juice before proceeding over a small wooden bridge into Lemur Land. Once in Lemur Land we were greeted by a massive 300kg Tortoise that roams the grounds with a slightly smaller companion. There were small displays of the native reptiles and Chameleons on every second tree. We saw many different species of Lemur as we moved through the different habitats set up specifically for each different type of lemur. We were fortunate to be able to interact with them all and it struck me how gentle they were, I had expected behavior somewhat similar to monkeys but they were totally different.

Greg feeding a Lemur.

After spending hours in the jungle of Lemur Land we made our way back to the gift shop to buy some souvenirs before leaving and driving through the old port side area of Hell-Ville, old wrecks stuck in the mud littered the port and still sailing wrecks floated among the hulks. We found it hard to believe that these vessels still floated let alone took on cargo and sailed between the mainland and the islands.

We then wound our way through the crowded streets before joining the road back to the Villa on the opposite side of the island. We spent the remainder of the day relaxed in the shade with a couple of drinks, taking the occasional swim to keep cool.