The Return to Egypt 2019, And I Learn a Bit About Agriculture and Egyptian Male Names

You might have gathered in the past that I do a bit of gardening myself, indeed where I spend my winters on Crete (when I am not somewhere warmer!), my garden is some 820 sq metres, less the footprint of the house, or just shy of a quarter of an acre for those that don't do metric. While much of it is ornamental and partly paved I always try and grow food crops, so wherever I go what they grow and how they grow it is always of interest. 

I think I noted in the past that there are fields full of grass, which is used for animal feed, but what I didn't say was that farming as such seems to be very small scale. So wandering south from my hotel I come across one such small holding. Passing along the way a new mosque under construction.

A bit further on I find Sayed (I am guessing at the spelling), who has some horses, a donkey or to, and a very fine Friesian cow, indeed I reckon in a competeition it would be a prize winning cow. and also a couple of vegetable plots. He grows tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and so on, and also some prize winning cauliflowers! 

But I am puzzled because obviously in this climate irrigation is essential but apart from a couple of large pipes I cannot see anything else.

 I ask Sayed about this and it seems that old habits die hard. So used are they to the Nile flooding annually that they still used flood irrigation, hence the reason why everything is grown in a sunken bed. 

And Sayed tells me that he only irrigates about once a week, which means going down to the side of the Nile and starting up one of the big pumps that you see at intervals to pull the water up from the Nile to his fields.

I personally am inclined to think that this is a bit on the wasteful side and that individual drip watering for each row of plants might be a better usage of water, but then so confident are they that the Nile ''will always be there'', that it doesn't seem to worry them! 




 There is however a trade off for having a constant year round water supply without the annual flood, and that is that the annual floods used to replenish the fertility of the soil with alluvial deposits and this no longer happens so there is now reliance on artificial fertilisers.

You win some, you lose some..... Although with all those horses the opportunity for a bit of organic gardening does seem a bit wasted. But even that has its problems as in a climate like this it is very difficult to get the horse manure to rot down!!

Returning back to the ''centre'' I find a number of interesting doorways and a couple of unfinished hotels...

On the way to the big open cafe near the ferry 

I have to pass the boatman, most of whom I now know by name, nearly all of them have ''traditional'' names so there are various Ahmeds, Muhammeds, Abduls, Abdullahs, Patrick, and Clive..... Don't ask it is too complicated.

In the cafe a fine example of flood irrigation in progress along with a very large cock....

 To the left is Mahmud, and I have already mentioned a Mahmud, but this is a different Mahmud. This Mahmud has been trying, unsuccessfuly,  to get me to go on his felucca. Personally I think Mahmud is too young to even be out of the house on his own, let alone take people out on the river...

But I am going to meet
Ahmed who drives the boat that is called Ahmed, that belongs to his uncle who is called Ahmed...... You see how difficult this can be when everyone has the same name?? It is a bit like standing in the village square in a village on Crete and shouting out Giorgio or Manoli... At least 10 people will shout out ''Yes''....

Ahmed is trying to get me to go on an evening cruise, and I am trying to get the price down which probably means feeding him but it will be cheaper than the extortionate amount he is asking at the moment....  

And also, Abdul, is also trying to get me to go for a Sunday cruise to Banana Island, the Abdul that used to have a felucca but sold it, not Abdul the taxi driver, or the Abdul that took me to look at a holiday apartment belonging to Mahmud....... And then there are Abdullahs as well. 

This is an Abdullah.... Abdullah works in the hotel where I am staying, indeed he lives in. If you can call sleeping on a bed in the front garden under a pile of blankets ''living in''... I am not sure what his actual title is but it does involve hosing down the paving in the front garden. Abdullah claims that he did not see me sitting outside my room reading a book when he ''accidentally'' put the hose on me. For some reason I do not believe Abdullah. But how could you possibly get cross with Abdullah?

He has a baby daughter who has his eyes, and at the age of 6 months has eyelashes that most woman would die for!

Finally the deal with Ahmed is done, and it means that tomorrow I get a ''free'' ride across to the East Bank as he has a party to take over, and later he will bring me back, (which has saved me all of 50 English Pence on the public ferry), because I am going to Luxor Temple, and also the market for a bit of serious shopping......