Sunday, May 2, 2010

A walk around the wet land in Luxor

I was having probs with blogger  and was unable to put all the photos on,   a walk on the wild side,
got over the prob and now  all the photos are on this blogspot,


Leaving the new marina area on the West bank of Luxor  after a kilometer walk I am in the wet lands.where today's walk along the Nile river starts.

one of the water buffalo  and its cleaner  the cattle egret,

  today's walk is something the tourists and even local people do not see. no point in going on a walk  just to see how long it takes to get back.
 my eye is on everything if its worth a shot I take it  sometimes just stopping to take a photo the eye will be caught by a movement tiny as it is its well worth looking to see what it is . here in the wetlands today the water is about 1" under foot  and there are lots of damsel flies about,  here in this area the growing land is just about submerged in water  and the clover is dying off,  during the winter months this area is dry and has to be watered.

.


Hi  nice to see you too
The little white Egret looks like its pleased to see me.


the birds are everywhere  here is a squacco and a night heron
.
A crow and little white egret ,        The rest of  today's  birds are on the http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/




.
Take your eye off the ground look up and there are nests in the trees every where.


.
here is the rancher  with his sheep and goats. getting one back at Mary  http://faithfabricandphotos.blogspot.com/    ok coral ?






 
These  tiny butterflies are everywhere
.
A young  yellow wagtail having a moan cos I am to close

Dragonflies are out not too many here in the wetland  only saw 3 species today


.
Looks like an oriols nest But I am sure it belongs to the hoopoe as there are 4 in this area





As I continue the walk into the flat area  the wetlands,   there is the modern pump house that takes water from the Nile  to feed the canals  for irrigation of the farm lands these pumps are dotted all along the Nile  from Aswan to Alexandria a total of about 1000 kilometers  most of the new pump stations have been donated by countries such as China,  Why do they donate to such a wealthy country as Egypt?
 so they can pour all their crap  manufactured  stuff such as electrical appliances, vehicles, motorbikes , most of this stuff will not get a pass for sales anywhere else.for instance!  names like Kawasaki motorbike.   its spelt  keweseki  the  Egyptian do not read English. not until the rubbish breaks down do they find an answer like !  ah  we do not sell that model now we find its not real make.  and so you end up with another pile of unwarranted no guarantee  rubbish in the garden  or as Egyptians put it on the roof pile. and what does this government say,  its good for the economy, and we get license from china to make the cheap rubbish here in Egypt,
so must not upset  China who donate our pumps so we can irrigate the land.


Another family outing  getting the best use out of their cheap import motorbike before it breaks down.




And  me the donkey I am still here  I never break down,  been here forever.  get some bad hair doos.
and sometimes we break free and go for a good gallop,  until I get hungry and have to go back home to get fed.  well not exactly,    my owner is a bit well I will not say stupid, cos they call us that, but!  he tied me up to my foot.    and went off for a , do not know but he went in the house. so I will not be missed for a few minutes,  see yah,
.
Whats that?  got enough rope to hang myself   nah! I borrowed this off the buffalo  while it goes for a wallow

Even Mary rode one of my ancestors into Bethlehem 2000 years ago

.
all over Egypt  we have the Little Cattle Egret  who it seems has a main task and that is cleaning the domesticated animals of flies and any other grub it sees they can take a fly from the eye lid of a beast without touching the animals skin,  and as I pass these  I always think  do they talk to each other,  but I know they do not,  Just do what  nature intended them to do.   but what if they did talk?
Whats he on about  China? I thought they made Ming vases cups and saucers and stuff like that!
You mean plates,  now stop messing about  there is a fly on my nose,  do your job  no not know why such a little bird gets involved with what people say,  I have family in china, they wear the horns to the front;-  Like the cows you mean?   no not to like that  to the front like a bumper on the cars:   strange,  not really,   the cows in civilized countries get polled,   whats that then?  you men balled?.   n no I mean polled,   so civilized they are they use a hot iron  to stop the growth of the horn as it starts to form. now I know you are polling my leg.   not only that they also brand them with hot irons  I hear,   Saw a film once called rawhide, on the coffee house telly opposite my place, see  a lot on there  and of course you go hide in a tree as soon as it goes dark,  
and they say its civilized?  beats me why all these Egyptians want to go live in them kind of countries? raw bottom eh! sounds a bit like us donkeys some times,


.
Hey mom  whats that bird doing chatting away to the buffalo  he is supposed to clean us of flies not have morning gossip like our masters,  why is there not one here cleaning my face.  cos you are not tied up and you make a chase game with them as soon as they come over.  never mind one day you will get your own cleaner.



,
This is more like the Nile river camels and garbage


And animal fodder,  the corn chaff  waiting to be bagged and taken away.


.
The garbage area   this area stinks  I do not know why  all it is is a loading area from the boats  on to the lorries and taken to the desert dump. 
.
looking at this pile of garbage from the  big M  it looks like all of the city garbage now comes across the Nil;e beat's me why they cannot take the garbage lorry direct over the new bridge to the dump, but there is no logic here in Egypt.  find a hole and put it in  including the wet lands.
at least the rats have a good feed.


.
Crows and egrets waiting for the fish that get caught in the pumped water out of the Nile
Nile  blooms and a carpet of yellow marsh flowers , the building in the background is the old winter palace hotel once the winter residence of the kings of Egypt last king was http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Farouk_of_Egypt.html   
and Egypt has been in decline ever since where once the young king had a lavish life style. now its just run on corruption.
Sparrows on line
and this is how to ride a donkey these animals are not meant to be abused by pulling heavy carts all day every day  and only get a respvite 
When  the harness or chain cause wounds like this  the tail is not long enough to swat the flies so they make a meal of the flesh then lay eggs in the wound that will fester while the maggots eat the poor animal from the inside   the only thing I could do was swat the flies and put a cover over the wounds, the owner was not around so I called the neighbor . and showed him the donkey and made A point of telling him I was reporting this to brook's animal welfare.  not that they will do anything about it anyway  they have too much to cope with as I was told by one of their new vehicle drivers a few months ago.
here we have the garbage collector  the owner has decided there are lots of plastic bottles in the Nile  caught in the reeds  
Nice one  the owner must have plenty of money employing an artist to  paint his favorite temple on the gable end wall  or was it yellow and blue looked a bit bland certainly eye catching,  
 another ship had a fire strange how these lower class ships are catching fire.
 I wonder if its owt to do with insurance???

No comments: