Goats in Trees on the road to Taghazout
On the road from Agadir to Marrakech you have to stop to
see the "Goat Trees". Here a clever man has trained
his goats to climb a tree! By the side of the road you will
be able to stop and photograph this odd sight.
These animals
have a head for heights as they look out for the next bus coming
up the hill. They are able to with stand all types of flash
photography.
This well trained team will spend up to one hour
hanging out, safe from the dangers of modern life.
The goats were originally made to climb the trees to eat the
argan, the sharp thorns of the argan making it difficult to
harvest its crop. From this point the shepherd will have to
follow his goats with a poo bag to collect up the depulped argan.
SHEPHERD'S LIFE
A shepherd's life is nomadic,
where the work is to move the herd to new and richer pastures
during the year.
The free camping of Taghazout during
the winter months produces enough rubbish that this local shepherd
became part of the nomadic community. His flock of 30 goats
would each day make its way through the mixture of Moroccan
cars, hippy vans and surfers boards.
Regularly there would be the cry from a new arrival as his wet
suit boots were inspected as a potential food source by the
herd.
One day a worried Taghazout surfer threw a stone at one of "the hoovers"
who had become interested in his still wet Lycra. The stone
(much to the surprise of the young man) came flying back only
seconds after he had thrown it, hitting his bottle of beer which
he had left on the ground. The message was clear, "that's
my job" was the cry from the shepherd, who would be selling
the animals at 1200dh each in the market over the next few weeks.
After the day has been spent foraging for food the shepherd
will always have a safe house for the night. Above the Atlantic
coast you will be able to find hidden among the rocks caves
which have been used for centuries by the nomadic movements
of generations of shepherds. Each will have a designated cooking
and sleeping area. The flock would be made safe at the back
of the cave away from the eyes of the night predators.
BIO RUBBISH COLLECTION
The Goat has a use in Africa which
Europe should learn from.
This four legged animal could easily be renamed The Bio Rubbish
Recycler.
Each morning on the free camping of the Source, Taghazout a local clean
up would take place. A fast moving herd of goats would wind
its way through the camp, eating all left overs. It was a good
reason to put everything back in the camper at night, as the
morning wake up at 0600 by 30 goats eating by the van is a once
only event. If you leave your plastic bags outside, during the
night you will be woken by wild dogs opening the bags during
the hours of darkness and by the goats in the morning doing
the hoovering!
The goat eats everything except for plastic and glass, which
it has understood do not help its digestive patterns. This leaves
an important hole in the recycling of waste which the people
of Morocco and her visitors must be very careful to fill.
Please when you are free camping remove all none biodegradable
products when you leave. Find a rubbish bin in the nearest town
or village and leave the bag there. You will be surprised by
the local rubbish checkers who will jump on your bag to see
what is in their.... We throw things in the bin which to a person
on the poverty line will reuse.
Morocco has just started to recycle plastic, metal and glass,
you will see on the beaches at the end of a weekend, the children
doing the cleanup as they collect the used bottles and cans
to sell to the recycling units.
