Goats in a Tree and other Tales

It seems forever ago that I wrote the last post. Since then we went to the Sahara, left the Sahara, changed a tire, saw the Atlantic, saw goats in a tree, got a speeding ticket, and returned the car.

Pre sahara we spend a night at toudru gourge, a very beautiful place. My favorite part of that day was the walk through the palmarie. It was amazing!! From the outside it just looks like many many palm trees.

But when you walk under them you see that there are many small fields that are growing alfalfa, tomatos, peppers, corn, cabbage, and more. There are also lots of other trees including pomagranite, fig, apricot and others which I have now forgotten. Because a river flows through the center of the valley, there are irrigation cannals with running water that wind their way through the fields. The fields have walls that are built up, and they are flood irrigated - water is let in from an irrigation cannal and then allowed to sink into the soil. I'm sure there's a lot of work going on in the area, to me it was a beautiful and magical place.

The sahara. After leaving toudru gorge we drove south to Zagora. As we were driving we passed a sign - welcome to the moroccan sahara. It began to get very hot and we drove through a lot of stony desert. Then, we started driving through yet another valley filled with palms - the Draa valley, home to the biggest river in Morocco. Our destination was Zagora, one of the last major towns before the serious desert. William had lived here for a month 12 years ago, so it was exciting to see what he had been talking about. We also went to the market - it was very hot and there was so much stuff. To attempt - spices, building materials, old tires made into baskets, cassettes, grains, produce of all kinds, especially watermelons, clothes, metal pieces, and jewlery.

That day at 6pm it was 102 in the shade. That afternoon we drove south, but decided not to go to the end of the road because william was worried about the tires. Very fortunatly the hotel had a pool, as well as excellent tomato, onion and pepper salad. And we learned that mom only sweats in the Sahara.



After two nights in Zagora, we drove out of the Sahara, and west. We drove along small roads, went through a couple of towns that were having markets, and then all of a sudden, the car started bumping and william pulled over. The result is that I know know what to do if I ever get a flat tire. And we were all very glad that it hadn't happened in the desert. Onward we went. We drove into Taroudant, a walled city thinking of staying there. The sign said it was 97 F, but to us it felt cool. It was market day there too and things weren't going right, so we drove all the way to Agadir, a big resort town on the Atlantic that also has a major port and fishery. It did not seem at all like the rest of Morocco, but it was nice and cool.

Yesterday we left Agadir, after trying to get to the beach and failing, and drove a two lane road with lots of very heavily loaded trucks. After a wile we passed a bunch of bottles on the side of the road. William told us it was Argan oil, made from the nut of the Argan tree. Traditionally, goats ate the nut and then their digestive system got rid of the hard outer coating. The nuts were recovered, the kernals pressed, and then you had this oil which is supposed to be very good for you, and is catching on in places like Paris and NYC. And to get the nuts, the goats have to climb the trees. Which is why I saw goats in a tree as we passed. The Argan tree can live in temperatures up to 50 C, which makes it an ideal plant to fight against desertificaiton. Back to the oil, now they have coopertives which are cutting out the role of the goat. Mom was joking and said there should be a campain for "full employment for goats"

After the goats in a tree we were driving along only to get pulled over for doing 82 in a 60km/h zone. The guy pulled out his book to show us the fine was 400dh. However, we didn't have that much money. He was kind of shocked, and we didn't understand him and he kept getting louder. He decided he couldn't take all the money of some stupid tourists, and let us go with only a 200dh fine and no written ticket.

We returned to Marrakesh, and then had to drive in the old city to get to the parking near where we were staying. William returned the car, and tomorrow we head out for Essouira, a small town walled town on the coast.