Carpathian Sheep Walk: You'll never walk alone!

Thursday, 13 December 2012

You'll never walk alone!

Transhumance may be dying out in Europe but it's not quite the end of the road for wandering shepherds: next year, some Polish shepherds are going to retrace the old sheep walk from Romania to Valassko in the Czech Republic. Starting on 14th May, they'll be heading in a semi-circle, encompassing part of Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia before reaching the traditional Romanian shepherds' winter grazing area - Valassko from Vlach land - in September. Polish shepherds' transhumance 2013

Meanwhile, by harrowing the internet you can find a flock of other sheep walk revivals: in Aubrac, northern Aveyron, France for example, where if you pay 195E, you can follow the cowherds for a day, plus meals and accommodation: A day on transhumance in Aubrac 2013

And in Marseille, Theatre du Centaure is organising a theatrical transhumance event involving Morocco, Italy and Provence - and they're inviting participants to take their horses: see their details http://www.mp2013.fr/transhumance.... What's it all about: have a look here and see if you can work it out! Theatre du Centaure Transhumance 2013

Meanwhile I'm planning a trip to Northern Caucasus to look for traces of Romanian shepherds there, and will soon be posting more about the village of Jina in the mountains where it all started.

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Rounded hills at the northern end of the Cindrel Massif

Two years' worth of drought and centuries of grazing have given the landscape its smooth contours. In the distance, the fast-growing Gypsy quarter of the village stands out on the ridge tops. The Baiesi, the non-Roma Gypsies who live there make up a third of the total population of 6,000. Some fear that the district may become even larger, but most of those in the older quarters like to live and let live, and there are other positive sides to the situation, one of which is that many of the Baiesi are musicians. In any case, they are like all of us in that they only want a place in the sun. Still, there are tensions between the two 'sides', not least because Baiesi are building on land that is not legally theirs.

Gathering sheep on the Preseli Hills

Sheep from this farm are grazed on the hills during the summer and taken to winter pastures by lorry. Their journey to and from the winter grazing only lasts an hour or so. Lambs which are sold for meat travel across Europe while they are still alive. EU legislation limits the number of hours that animals should be kept on the road, and stipulates how often they should be watered and rested. These rules are not always observed. When it comes to horses, some 60,000 a year travel for several days from Poland and Romania to southern Italy, sometimes with injuries and often without rest or water. These figures have been collected by World Horse Welfare which has conducted undercover research to see what really happens. Ironically the economic downturn has made this trade less profitable, but it still happens.

Carpathian Sheep Walk

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Thursday, 13 December 2012

You'll never walk alone!

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