Douar Ait Douib

Breakfast was a little earlier than yesterday as we needed to board our minibus to begin our journey to Essaouira to the west of Marrakech. Once we were out of the city the land became quite barren at times and not quite the palm tree and sandstone building landscape I expected. I wasn't unhappy at this and enjoyed the views, knowing I'd see those later in the trip.

Mid-morning the bus pulled over so we could photograph the strange phenomenon of tree climbing goats. Yes, you did indeed read that correctly because we are talking about goats on sticks, a welcome change to birds on sticks I must say.

To be honest, though it may seem a bit of a fairy tale or the after affects of a quick spell of sniffing suspicious substances, the spectacle of a goat, or a number of goats, up a tree is something I have actually seen before. I've seen them in Cyprus on the Akamas Peninsula - goats up a tree eating the leaves, in the middle of nowhere with no-one to be seen. So I knew it is possible for a goat to be in a tree.

In Morocco of course, the idea of emptying tourists pockets to allow them to see and photograph grazing goats amongst the branches was too much of an opportunity to miss. So when we got out of the bus with our cameras there were no goats in trees at all, not until payment was agreed and one of the 'shepherds' grabbed an unsuspecting goat and stuck it in a tree, whether or not the goat thought it was a good idea. Mostly they didn't think it was and promptly jumped out, impressively I might say, landing gracefully (for a goat) on the ground. They weren't there for long of course, not with those goat herders around.

Eventually we all pretty much got a photo of a goat in a tree so everyone was happy. We asked if we could have two goats in a tree but then suddenly all the shepherds ran away at high speed towards an arriving bus exclaiming, "Aah, quick, Chinese tourists, must go." Those goat herders could certainly smell the money, which is obviously much stronger than twenty goats on a hot day.

We all agreed it was a bit of a disappointing experience. Did we see goats in trees? I'm not sure we did.Read more