A Mud Lobster's holiday to Ban Tale Nok

My apologies for the prolonged silence on the blog. Don’t mistake silence for inactivity. Lots of things have been going on. Most importantly, your corresponding Mud Lobster joined Jim and Ning’s excellent adventure to their Mangrove Action Project (MAP) site in Ban Tale Nok, Phang Nga province, where they are attempting something similar to Bang Lang Da. MAP has been working hard over several months to get the Dept for Marine and Coastal Resources and other local authorities to agree and support a rehabilitation effort in their particular pond and to allow the use of a tractor. There have also been protracted land tenure issues that have still not been fully resolved and consequent tension within the village.

Most of the village has been very supportive of MAP’s intended rehabilitation effort, and on 9th-11th August they put they hoes where their mouths were and got digging, as permission for tractor use in a mangrove was denied. 30 villagers helped, working 8-11.30 and 2-5pm in sun, rain, high tides and everything in between. Essentially the effort was to dig into the top of the mud walls and re-slope these walls so that they were more horizontal, thus providing a much greater area at the appropriate height for mangrove growth, and particularly Nypa palm. Nypa is useful to them at they make with great skill cigarette papers and roof sections from the leaves.
Always enjoy my trips with Jim and Ning to BTN, where I perform several roles, including jester, driver, bag carrier, official photographer (yes I know Shell, Benjol I wish I had your clicking skills) and help with some of the technical aspects. Measuring the change in soil heights allowed us to ensure we had regraded to about the right height. And we answered the question about salinity with a salinity prism – almost fresh water. Much was learnt about they way the villagers liked to work (altogether in one group and the same time on the same bit of pond) and how much we could do in three days (a lot). Inspiring and humbling to see just how strong some of the fine ladies of Ban Tale Nok were, despite the 33 degree heat. The homestay is always an education, and they always always cook well.
The other task at this pond was to widen the sluice area to allow the water to move quicker and drain better. What was not attempted at this stage was to deal with the pond floor. This is soft sloppy mud and needs to be channelized, as is happening at BLD. Tune in after Ramadan when we return for more fun.