Yesterday we took time out to relax and chill after the drama on the mountain. Aziz took us to see what takes place within a palmerie. Needless to say the existence of any cultivation depends on the presence of water, supplied by a river , which flows in winter, or from an underground water table. Here at Sidi Albelali, they have both.
Seguias are the channels that criss- cross the oasis bringing water to the various crops. Each garden is separated from another by sun- baked, mud banks, along which one walks to move around the
palmerie. They were first built several generations ago and still exist today. There is wheat, couscous, maize, cabbage and apricots
. These " gardens " belong to the village and everyone does their share of the work, then in October all the dates are stripped from the palms and the community get together to, hopefully, celebrate a good harvest.
The air is full of bird song and egrets wade on the flooded land. It was incredibly peaceful.
We crossed the river, which at this time of year is a mere trickle, by walking along a fallen palm trunk...shades of "Swallows and Amazons" and then climbed a bank to be confronted by a deserted village.
Apparently as the community grew in size and became more prosperous, a new village was built on the other side of the valley.
So today has been really interesting and enjoyable, especially as we collected all our information and asked our questions in French.
Seguias are the channels that criss- cross the oasis bringing water to the various crops. Each garden is separated from another by sun- baked, mud banks, along which one walks to move around the
The air is full of bird song and egrets wade on the flooded land. It was incredibly peaceful.
So today has been really interesting and enjoyable, especially as we collected all our information and asked our questions in French.
Fatima, Aziz's aunty, with the bag of maize seeds that she is about to plant. Aziz is up the tree finding us some ripe apricots
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