Bye Bye to the Donkeys
I read some very sad news today. The last working donkey in our local village has retired. I’m devastated. I realise I’m a tragic foreigner about this, but I love love love those rare days when we time a trip to town just right and manage to get stuck behind the last working donkey, laden with wicker baskets, wood and tools being led by surely the oldest farmer in the world. The site of them both can have me smiling for hours, wallowing in the perfection of rural life (never mind that every sensible person has a tractor or two and that any other ancient tractor-less farmers at least have a Nissan and a very loud moped).
In 1876 our village had 98 donkeys and 94 mules. Now there are only two donkeys remaining and they don’t work anymore. The bit that still does make me smile though is that the retired beasts still live at home, on the groundfloors of two village houses.
The end of an era….
Ah well, maybe it’ll stop the influx of other tragic Brits looking for authentic Ye Olde Espanya? I will miss him though!
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so maybe there is some old donkey harness lying around. i cannot find any in mallorca. trekked to the other side on a tipoff only to be told by the saddler that it has been years since they stocked those wooden frame saddles for loads. and they came from granada.
so got a very cheap saddle which we will have to convert with imagination but no experience. any one out there ever used donkeys to gather wood?
Some friends of ours picked up some lovely old saddles from the village dumping ground, though with no donkeys they’re just beiing rustic garden ornaments- at least they didn’t get burned with all the other wood based rubbish though!