It's the Dung Thing

I thought I might as well continue to follow our South African tracks from last year with another reminder of where we were. This time last year we had travelled the Garden Route to reach Plettenberg Bay. It's a well known route, which we have followed many times, and we usually stop at the Scarab Art and Craft Village at Sedgefield, as we know we can get decent coffee, although the cafe seems to change every time we go. 

One of the outlets in the village is paper making, so of course that to me is one of the other attractions. I have been shown round the paper making bit and seen all the processes - the first extra photo shows sheets of paper being left out to dry. 

And yes, they use paper made from elephant dung alongside the ordinary paper. Who discovered you could use elephant dung I don't know, but I think it is made in several countries now - anywhere where there are elephants I suppose. The dung, which is  raw cellulose because elephants are herbivores, is boiled and sterilised before use! 

Of course I always buy some paper, but one year I bought this picture and I had it framed to hang on the wall. It is not very artistically creative as moulds are used and many are made in the same way, but it does remind me of both the Elephants which we see at Addo every time we go to SA and the Scarab Village. I hope both will  survive this pandemic, I am often thinking of these places and people that we know so well. 

(No, sadly I didn't think up the title - it is used in the Village)

The second extra shows someone who also uses Elephant Dung.