Avenue of the Baobabs
Watercolour
and crayon
©2019 Charlene Brown
I have to
admit there’s a certain appeal to visiting places very few of your friends have
seen. Madagascar appeared on this particular part of my bucket list when I
heard from a friend from our Dubai days that she had made the trip and loved
it.
The place
may not be ideal for a painting trip, however. What my friend found most enchanting
– and I’d have to agree – were the many varieties of lemur. And they seem to be just about
impossible to even photograph, let alone paint.
What are
paintable, and almost as unique to Madagascar as the lemurs, are the baobab
trees. The huge ones found on the ‘Avenue
of the Baobabs’ are up to 800 years old and almost 50 meters around the base.
Their origin was explained by early, apparently very imaginative, Arab traders,
as regular trees that had been ripped out of the ground and replanted upside
down, probably by the devil.
