Beasts of Burden

timber mule

Coming back up the mountain again it’s nice to see the lumberjacks working with mules. It was a group of three Moroccans doing this work, and it’s a great sight to see man and beast mutually benefiting from each other’s labour. The mules were in excellent condition as the men need to keep them healthy in order to pursue their tasks and for them to reap the financial rewards of such hard and hot toil.

But don’t let me mislead you, the Junta de Andalucia uses every modern piece of equipment available to thin the forest. This work reduces the risk of forest fire and most of the wood is now going off to be pelleted for bio-mass heating systems which is all very laudable. However no matter how much technology you have available if the slopes are too steep or treacherous there is only one machine capable of doing the work. A mule.

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