Tag: Morocco

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#16 in series: poultry, not paltry…with musical bonus)

Published October 2, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#16 in series: poultry, not paltry…with musical bonus)

Just a few years ago chickens displaced pigs as the #1 source of animal protein consumed by humans.

As is true of most “domesticated” animals, chooks enjoy/suffer a host of different “fates”.

Millions suffer appallingly, en route to being devoured, but that is not invariably true.

Nor does every member of a “meat” species end up on a plate.

And some experience kinder, more compassionate treatment from humans than do millions of people.

I am almost certain that the pictured Moroccan rooster enjoyed a more pampered life than did many of his human compatriots.

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#10 in series: sheep, looking at dog and duck)

Published September 12, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#10 in series: sheep, looking at dog and duck)

The featured image was taken just seconds after the previous post’s.

In #9 you were looking at a dog and duck; they were looking at sheep.

This chapter’s featured image shows the now-sheltered sheep, returning the canine/avian gaze.

All were photographed within the fold/pen to which a Moroccan family’s sheep and goats return, after each day’s grazing.

I think that the duck had become “imprinted”. In this context, at least, it saw itself as a sheepdog!

In truth, even the dog’s non-imaginary herding skills were superfluous.

These sheep (plus a couple of goats) were obviously accustomed to their daily routine…and fully “on board” with spending their nights on the safe side of a wolf-proof barrier.

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#9 in series: the dog and duck)

Published September 10, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#9 in series: the dog and duck)

Various nations, continents and islands have pubs/“ale houses” which call themselves The Dog and Duck.

The most famous – possibly, “the original” – has flourished in London’s Soho for nearly 130 years.

“Notable” patrons have included members of the local Royal Family, and a “Madonna” – by stage-name, only.

The pub’s “tag” is pure whimsy.

However, the upstairs dining room has a meaningful name; it honours the most widely-esteemed of the venue’s “regulars” – George Orwell.

As it happens, in 1938 & 1939, a recuperating Orwell and his (first) wife Eileen Blair spent 6 months in the African nation where, in October 2025, I photographed this post’s co-heroes.

Can you correctly guess what the real-life dog and duck were doing on the fringe of a small town in Morocco?

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#16 in series: Gnawa)

Published December 9, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#16 in series: Gnawa)

“Gnawa” is the most common of various transliterations into English.

The word refers to a so-called “ethnic group” (albeit one whose members’ ethnicity is not in fact singular), a member thereof, the Sufi brotherhood to which many Gnawa men belong, and – most especially – to a musical genre which is distinctive, mesmeric and usually (simultaneously) both “devotional” and “funky”.

As “Flamenco” is to the global perception of Spanish music, “Gnawa” is to how the world perceives Morocco’s: “emblematic”.

For many foreigners, flamenco is the only Spanish musical form that rings a “bell”.

Most foreigners cannot name any Moroccan genre; if they can, chances are it will be Gnawa music.

In each case, the genre’s emblematic national status is highly paradoxical.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#14 in series: ornamentation “1”)

Published December 6, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#14 in series: ornamentation “1”)

Morocco and Andalucia contain some of the world’s most exquisitely detailed interior surfaces.

A single site can include equally jaw-dropping examples across completely different surface types – wood, plaster and tile in the pictured madrasa, in Marrakech.

Madrasa (also commonly transliterated into English as “madrassa” or “madrasah”. In Morocco it is usually transliterated as “medersa”) is the Arabic term for any educational institution, whether secular or religious.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#13 in series: mighty walls “2”)

Published December 3, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#13 in series: mighty walls “2”)

Essaouira is a very likeable city on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.

For many centuries it was highly “strategic”, and during the 19th century it was Morocco’s primary seaport.

Unsurprisingly, it has “changed hands” more than a few times.

Morocco and Spain are very richly endowed with impressive defensive structures.

Some were built by “conquerors”, others by “locals” who were trying to repel would-be conquerors.

All (or nearly all) such structures “failed”; they eventually fell into “the enemy’s” hands, and were then modified by the victor, who would later become the vanquished..and so on, over centuries.

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Morocco & Andalucia (#11 in series: Sahara’s edge)

Published November 29, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia (#11 in series: Sahara’s edge)

Southeastern Morocco affords tourists their easiest and safest access to the world’s largest desert.

For most of them, the Sahara’s dunes provide a capital “e” “Exotic” experience.

Saharan tourism generates a lot of revenue and provides employment to many Moroccans.

It also creates a whole lot of unsolved “management issues” and environmental problems.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#10 in series: much older than “the oldest”)

Published November 28, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#10 in series: much older than “the oldest”)

I took this post’s photo at 3.16 pm on 14 October 2025.

My vantage point was a ridge-top in Morocco’s Anti-Atlas – the southwestern part of the Atlas Mountains.

This region’s climate is very harsh, but the pictured valley has “traditionally” received enough water to support agriculture, which is why there is so much terracing.

Over the last several years, however, drought has rendered the terraces (temporarily?) useless.

Immediately behind me was a strategically-located, solid and venerable structure.

Effectively, it used to be a bank – a bank which was fully operational several centuries before the establishment of certain Italian and German financial institutions which are routinely described as “the world’s oldest banks”.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (altitude & climate “2”)

Published November 24, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (altitude & climate “2”)

The pictured location is not in the Atlas Mountains, but is in Morocco.

Morocco’s northernmost mountain range rises to 2,456 metres above sea level – a deal more modest than the Atlas, but still 228 metres higher than the Australian continent’s high point.

The Rif Mountains’ western end is very much wetter than is any other part of Morocco.

In most winters the Rif’s upper slopes are probably the nation’s snowiest; at any time of year they offer dramatic vistas and some beautiful (albeit threatened/remnant) forests.

The Rif is “very Moroccan”, but its wetter, higher parts do not at all resemble most visitors’ preconceptions of what Morocco “should” look like.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#5 in series: delicious fish & shellfish)

Published November 19, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#5 in series: delicious fish & shellfish)

Our October/November 2025 travels confirmed that something we already “knew” – from previous experience – still held true: Spain is a wonderful destination if you love to eat fresh seafood.

We also learned something we did not already know: that Morocco is similarly wonderful in this respect.

Both nations’ “catch” is richly varied, and both lands have many citizens who really know how to “plate it up”.

In Morocco that is most especially true of places on or near to its western (Atlantic) shores.

Such a place is the historic, long-fortified, port city of Essaouira.

I took this post’s photo there on 17 October, shortly after a teeth-squeakingly-fresh seafood lunch.

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