Flying goats and magic nuts

9 February 2014 by Geoff Nimmo Posted in Feature Tagged Argan oil, Argan tree, extraordinaryplaces, goats, Morocco

“Goats up trees!”- the shout that brought Charlie Charleston to a rumbling stop on the mountain road, as a shaggy white billy hopped onto a branch in the valley below.

They climb for the tender leaves

Their shaggy coats manage to avoid getting tangled in the spikey branches

We had been on a mission to find goats up trees since we were told that our hoofed and horned friends were the only creatures allowed by law to climb the fabled Argan trees. Not humans – just kids!

Sure-footed on the smallest branch

They are happy to share a good tree!

Argan trees are protected in Morocco because of the immense value of the oil that is produced from its nuts. The oil can be used for cooking, medicine and cosmetics for nails, hair and skin – anything really, it is magic stuff.

The much-prized Argan nut

But it is the collection of the nuts and the relationship with the goats that we found most interesting and entertaining.

Save some for me

This was a popular tree

Originally the nuts were harvested as a “post-goat” production, if you get our meaning – much like civet coffee. It fell to the women of the villages to sift through the goat droppings to retrieve the partially digested nuts.

Argan trees grow wild, even if they looked cultivated and organised

They say only goats are allowed to climb the Argan trees

No kidding – we climb trees

Thankfully for the women, times have changed and not only do they no longer use that particular method of softening the fruit, but there is now a high chance that the enterprise selling the oil, soap, powder and other much-prized Argan nut by-products, is a women’s co-operative and not a corporation. Apparently the old Yorkshire saying “where there’s muck, there’s brass” is very true in this case.

Lunch

Argan trees only grow in a small area of Morocco, in the Anti Atlas region and among the many things we were told about this fabled tree, was that only the nuts that had fallen from the tree can be taken – to maintain the trees protected status and in order to avoid them being over-exploited.

These trees only grow in a small area of Morocco

The thorns on the Argan tree are a good deterrent for most creatures

They manage to pick off the leaves and avoid the thorns

Eyes on the prize

The women collect them from around the base of the tree, pack them up and take them off to be processed. We have passed many patient donkeys shading under the Argan trees, waiting for their panniers to be filled.

The donkeys shade under the Argan trees between carting the nuts to be processed

Obviously if a herd of goats has just been tap-dancing through the branches, there’s a good chance they won’t have to wait too long.

So, next time you see Argan oil on the shelves – you have the flying goats of Morocco to thank for it!

We love goats up trees

How many goats can you get into an Argan tree?

They can get down as elegantly as they got up

First impressions of Morocco

26 January 2014 by Geoff Nimmo Posted in Feature Tagged Casablanca, donkey, Essaouira, extraordinaryplaces, kasbah, medina, Morocco, mosque, Moulay Bouselham, Rabat 4 Comments

We have never been to Morocco – we had lots of ideas of what it might be like, had read many stories, but we didn’t expect what we got…

We had been looking forward to breaking out the tent again after many weeks in the casita and house sitting and had imagined warm winter sun gently caressing Chubby Coleman, our big old tent left long under wraps.

This was the picture in our heads:

The sun sets and seagulls swarm over the Essaouira media

The sun sets and seagulls swarm over the Essaouira medina

What we got was torrential rain, lightening and thunder. We stayed two nights at our first camp, thinking it would blow over, then packed up between rain clouds and headed south – to the sun, right? Nope. More days of torrential rain, damp tent and to top it all – two punctured airbeds and a dead computer. Nothing exciting or exotic about any of that! Moulay Bousleham is next to a lagoon, which fills with migrating flamingoes in the spring, unfortunately the lagoon seemed more intent on filling the campsite during our flying visit!

Camp breakfast after it had dried out in Moulay Bouselham

Moulay Bouselham lagoon, with the Atlantic surf on the horizon

The gaint strawberry mosque at Moulay Bouselham

Admittedly, the inexplicable giant strawberry outside the mosque did make us laugh, but even the sheep that were herded past our tent for morning and evening feeds – which we also did not expect to see – seemed unimpressed by the relentless rain.

Sheep are herded through the campsite twice a day

Even the sheep thought the camp at Moulay Bouselham was too muddy

Eventually we managed to catch a break in the rain, packed a soggy Chubby into the car and headed south again.

By the time we got to Rabat, the capital of Morocco, the rain was becoming just a memory and the ancient stones of the Rabat kasbah and necropolis glowed in the sunshine. The blue and white walls and doors of the kasbah are beautiful and worth a visit to the city for that alone.

White, blue and a touch of red, Rabat kasbah

Tiles and pots in Rabat kasbah

The multi-coloured Rabat medina

The kasbah at Rabat

Painted doorway, Rabat kasbah

Cats have it easy in the Rabat kasbah

Hitching a ride

Entrance to a mosque in Rabat kasbah – the sign says Mulims only

Hand made door decor in Rabat kasbah

Silver and blue doorway, Rabat kasbah

Rabat kasbah from across the river

Studded door in Rabat kasbah

The ancient necropolis – once a Roman settlement – on the edge of the city is a fascinating place and home to countless clacking storks, but Geoff got a stalk of a different kind – a double dose!

The necropolis at Rabat, complete with storks nest

The remains of beautiful mosiacs can still be seen at the Rabat necropolis

Stalking Geoff – how not to get hired as a guide

Stalking Geoff – it’s okay if you are a cat

Stalking Geoff – The necropolis cat wins!

Green door at the necropolis

The Hassan Tower in the centre of the city is also a sight to see, set as it is amongst more ancient Roman ruins and guarded by elegant horsemen.

The Hassan Tower among the Roman coloumns in Rabat

The Hassan Tower among the Roman columns in Rabat

Guarding Hassan Tower, Rabat

From Rabat, again we have pushed south, toward Casablanca. Is there any other city that so immediately evokes thoughts of Hollywood glamour and excitement? We turned to fellow travellers on the internet for some insider wisdom on the best places to visit. “Do Not Go To Casablanca” was the overwhelming message from almost every review we read. The only thing worth visiting is the Hassan II mosque. Built only a couple of decades ago, in just six years, to honour the dying King, it is one of the largest mosques in the world. Twenty-five thousand devotees can be housed inside and a further 75,000 outside.

The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca in the pouring rain

$Just a fraction of the massive Hassan II mosque, Casablanca$

Just a fraction of the massive Hassan II mosque, Casablanca

Massive windows in the distance at the Hassan II mosque, Casablanca

Looking across the width of the Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca, with the women’s balcony above

Geoff at the Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca. King Hassan decreed non-Muslims should be allowed inside

Ceiling decoration and crystal chandeliers in the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

Titanium doors on the Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca

Wooden roof and Venetian crystal chandelier at the Hassan II mosque, Casablanca

The columns are made partly of eggshells to absorb the damp from the hamman below the Hassan II mosque, Casablanca

The yet-to-be used public baths below Hassan II mosque, Casablanca

It is perhaps true that the only thing worth seeing in Casablanca is the Hassan II mosque, if you are a tourist. Its sheer scale is very impressive, but we have seen more beauty in other buildings. Casablanca itself it simply a very large city – not geared for tourism or visuals feasts. Suckered by Hollywood again!

So onward and further south we have pressed, driving for most of the afternoon past donkey carts, sheep and cattle herders, shepherds, farmers and all points in between.

Hard to decide which one looks more composed

Brightly coloured baskets for sale along the road

A splash of colour in the mud

A roadside chat

Lady donkey driver

Leading the way, even though he’s being ignored!

Morocco is marred by endless garbage

Ploughing the unforgiving landscape

Shepherdess

Striding out with purpose (and bucket)

Tangine top hat

The long day’s journey

The look in his eye says it all… the horse’s eye, that it is!

The sheep herder

Three ladies by the roadside

Two children and a wheelbarrow

Woman in red buggy

A well-earned rest

We landed in Essaouira – a fishing town beloved by surfers in the summer season and a rather chilled and easy place out of season. Those surf-making winds can be rough this time of year though and we had to hang on to Chubby the tent as it was buffeted every which way as we put it up. A tour around town found a wonderful local metal fabricator who, after we had stumbled through our basic French and waved our one remaining tent peg in the air, stopped what he was doing to bend and bang out twelve new heavy-duty pegs on the spot. Chubby is now tight as a drum.

It was no problem for him to stop what he was doing and cut us 12 new tent pegs to battle the Esaouira winds

Health and safety be damned – this is how we roll in Morocco!

Made on the spot, with a cheery smile and a 7 euro bill for 12 new pegs

Our brand new, hand-made tent pegs

With Chubby pegged down we were free to explore the sights, smells and colour of the Essaouira medina and port – what a feast for the senses!

Women in Essaouira port

The olive seller in Essaouira medina

The carpet seller in Essaouira medina

The boat and the battlements of Essaouira

The blue boats in Essaouira harbour

Souvenirs for sale at the Essaouira medina

Slippers for sale, Essaouira medina

Pots of dye in Essaouira medina

Night time at the Essaouira medina

Boat builders of Essaouira

Camels on the beach at Essaouira

Lamps and drapes in the Essaouira medina

We are beginning to settle into Moroccan life – and even Moroccan driving!

You name it, they’ll drive it

Overtaking Moroccan style – four at a time

Hay bale hold-up

We hope to spend some weeks in this new country – exploring the deserts and mountains, coasts and oases – we hope you will come along for the ride.

$Just a fraction of the massive Hassan II mosque, Casablanca$

Sintra Part IV – Marvellous Monserrate

19 January 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged extraordinaryplaces, Monserrate, Portugal, Sintra

If you are looking for an example of sheer indulgence, rescued literally from the ashes of pure neglect, you need look no further than the Monserrate Palace near Sintra.

A flight of fancy, built in a Moghul-inspired designed for an English merchant in 1790, who abandons it just four years later. Rented out for short periods of time, but with no one to really care for it, the exotic mansion was finally rescued by an English knight – Sir Francis Cook – in the mid-19^th century. The Cook family undertook a mammoth task – one still being maintained today by the trust which now owns and runs this beautiful, Romantic-inspired wedding cake of a building.

Sintra Part III – Curious Quinta

19 January 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged extraordinaryplaces, Pena Palace, Portugal, Sintra

It takes a true alchemist to combine Masonry, The Knights Templar, four different types of architecture and perhaps a big dollop of arrogance and not come off looking totally crazy.

Wealthy merchant Antonio Augusto Carvalho Monteiro did just that at Quinta da Regaleira near Sintra, and guess what – it’s a world heritage site too!

The gardens feature grottos, fountains, secret tunnels, towers, lakes and possible Masonic rituals. The house has its own alchemy den on the roof where he spent many hours, days and weeks on endless “projects”. His breathtakingly talented Italian architect – Luigi Manini – designed and laboured over an incredible amount of detail of every inch of Quinta da Regaleira, inside and out, with masterly imagination and astounding prowess in technical drawing.

But for all his millions and attention to romantic detail, Monteiro and his wife lived only one year together in the finished mansion before her early death, and he followed her only eight years later.

They left behind an intriguing and beguiling home – an enigmatic thing of beauty for us to enjoy and marvel at, perhaps the best alchemy of all that he conjured.

Sintra Part II – The pleasure of Pena Palace

19 January 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged extraordinaryplaces, Pena Palace, Portugal, Sintra

There’s so much gorgeousness in a few square kilometers around Sintra in Portugal – it’s almost embarrassing, so on Geoff’s birthday we set out to revel in it all – how Romantic!

The Romanticism movement is actually the key to all the loveliness around the area – starting with Pena Palace, the summer retreat for the royal family during the 18^th and 19^th centuries and is still used for state occasions to this day.

Pena started out more humbly though – as a small chapel on the hill, which became a place of pilgrimage for kings and monks alike for decades. Despite the massive damage done to the surrounding area during the infamous Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the chapel remained intact.

More decades rolled by until the young, idealists prince Ferdinand took it upon himself to transform the chapel, its hillside and the surrounding estates into the summer palace for the royal family.

The romantic styling was left, naturally, in the hands of German mining engineer Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege – hard to believe, but true! He was considered to be just an amateur architect. Perhaps his engineering blood is what ensured the attention to detail was so exact…. But that engineer had a poet’s heart for sure to be able to merge neo-gothic with neo-islamic, alongside neo-renaissance and neo-manueline and wrap it all around the remains of the original chapel.

Today, it is a place of pilgrimage for millions of admirers and romantics, who can marvel at the foresight of Ferdinand and the skill of the amateur Wilhelm.

Scintillating Sintra (Part I)

19 January 2014 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged extraordinaryplaces, Portugal, Sintra

Sintra is deservedly a world heritage site, surrounded by world heritage sites, but never mind that – check out the size of the chimneys on that thing, they’re mammoth!

The Sintra National Palace is the best preserved example of a medieval palace in Portugal and at a time when the size of your kitchen chimney said a lot about a man… the Moorish rulers must have had it going on!

Built in the town below the Moorish Castle – which is now little more than just ruins perched on the hill above – the National Palace was built in the 10^th century and later taken over by the Spanish king after forcing out the Moors in the 12^th century. Many changes and additions were made to the building over the following centuries and changing kings and queens.

There are many other incredible buildings around the district of Sintra and we are dedicating the next four posts to this multiple world heritage area, for you to feast your eyes upon them.

Sintra is officially and understandably – a national and world treasure. Lord Byron declared it the most beautiful place he had ever seen. And who would be daft enough to argue with him.