I thought I’d offer another interpretation of Ailsa’s weekly travel theme on her wonderful travel blog (Which you can find here).  Her theme for this week is ‘unexpected’ so I am offering a picture of goats in a tree on the road between Marrakesh and Essaouira.

Yes those are goats

see, really

The tree is an Argan tree and used to produce Argan oil, which is a major export from Morocco.  You can buy this oil virtually everywhere you go in Morocco; it is derived from roasted nut kernels and sold for cooking (where it has a distinctly strong nutty taste) and also un-roasted nut kernels sold for cosmetic use (because you don’t want your hair or skin to smell like something you cook with).

It is hard to find something that Argan oil isn’t promoted as a cure for, from dry skin to dry scalp, for use as a hair conditioner to a hand/nail cream, and virtually everything in between.

A woman’s co-op producing Argan oil on the road from Marrakesh to Essaouira

Certainly it has changed the lives of many women for the better, and women have set up co-ops to cultivate the nuts and to manufacture these products, often improving their lives immeasurably.