Egypt Part The Third 2022 - Out And About and Transport - Part 1

 One doesn't like to be nosey, but then when you are out for a walk how can you help noticing things....?? I was going to try and put on a map of where I go often for a walk but unfortunately by the time I have zoomed in on it it is too big to fit an a blog!

Suffice to say it is very dusty most of the way around, 

And before I forget... This should have been in the blog about Luxor City... This is the El Karnak International Hospital.

I don't know why the International because it is for everybody. As you can see it is new!

                           

The two photos above probably say it all, the one on the left is typical in the fields, I have yet to see a tractor.... The load on the donkey and cart is the tops from the sugar cane which they use for animal feed, the one on the right is in the city and they still use donkeys even there, but behind it is one of the minibuses they use in the cities and in the country.

Meanwhile in amongst the fields they are building yet another mosque, as if they haven't got enough already...

This road is a road not just a dusty track, you really would not want to be disabled around here and a wheelchair user... The canal on the left is an irrigation canal but at the moment they have a problem further up the road as the culvert that carries the water from the main channel has become blocked with rubbish and general black Nile mud!

By the way all these dusty tracks have LED street lighting which they have been using for years in Egypt... Who said they were backward?

Like Greeks they do like building stuff in the middle of nowhere... This is destined to be a hotel in a few years time, yes another hotel...

The palm tree on the right amused me rather, never waste a good palm tree is the motto I suppose.

Years of ploughing has resulted in the soil compacting down, and in dry weather blowing away as dust and left this tree high and dry!

Below right n the banana fields they cover the developing fruit with blue plastic bags to protect them from the cold.

Walking around these back streets you get to speak to a lot of people, many of them invite you into their homes and show no embarrassment that the floor is compacted earth, but somehow spotlessly clean. Years of damping the floor and walking on it compacts the dirt down, indeed they even sweep it.

And of course you get the children and sometimes the adults who ask you for money, and for many this seems strange or unusual, but many Egyptians will refer to it as ''a present'', at this point it is worth remembering the Five Pillars of Islam, one of which is 'Charity'.....

Give an Egyptian an apple and you will often see him cut it in half and share it with somebody else.....

The video is just a part of my daily walk, I took it because of the level of the Nile at the moment which is the highest I have ever seen it. Where the donkey is is usually dry land but at present it is flooded. I asked around and apparently the level depends on the rainfall in the mountains where the Nile rises and when Lake Nasser reaches maximum capacity then the flood gates ae opened, but the level also depends on agricultural demands for the rice fields downstream in the Nile delta around Alexandria. Bet you didn't know they grow rice in Egypt!

Meanwhile the weather is still misbehaving and it is very cold at night.... So along the riverbank there are burning braziers to keep tourists and local alike, warm.

And somewhere I have lost the plot on the transport side of things!!