no steam engines on the nile

Village life part 3

Making foul the best tasting  (fool)  is made this way  cooked slowly overnight in the household rubbish including what waste comes from the animals backsides. Beans mixed with herbs and spices.


another salesman in the village.
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This guy is the tree cleaner the matting from the tree has many uses, used as a cloth to wash . made into all types of brushes  brooms paint Etc the branches also have a number of uses first to make chairs and tables  crates for fruit and vegetables, folds (pens) for the animals wattling for wall etc, etc,
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 The old pump house chimney as you get closer it looks like a forgotten relic in the middle of the village  now a place for dumping the rubbish that's if the village people can be bothered  to step out of the front door to tip their  rubbish,  a place that houses snakes rats and other wildlife inside, gone has any piece of metal that would have any monitory value, only the steel bends are left just incase someone will need them and therefore will have more value than scrap iron.

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 the opening seen in the base of the chimney
this a shot looking up the inside of the chimney  and it took all my will power to stop me climbing up there  to get a surrounding areal view A few years ago I would not have even thought about it  but I know my back would have given in half way up  and unlike a ladder with poles each side of the rungs  if I did get stuck
I could have slid down to safety .  we must grow old gracefully and give in. such is life.
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The whole of this buildings windows and doors have been bricked up  not that this will hinder the thieves of Egypt ..  the seem to have the God  given  right to take anything,  Ah  its a gift from Allah.
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Looking up from what was the grand entrance into the pump house, 
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The villagers view of the Building. 

Not  sure if this is the older of the two pump houses  but its in bad disrepair
 the land around and inside has been filled in  and we are now looking at what was the first floor

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Inside the floor has been filled with rubbish  so none of the old plinths etc that the old machines stood on are visable  the brickwork with the hole in it  is the chimney base and the opening for the fire is another 2 metres down in the infill. this building dates back to the mid 1800s  and has I would think been derelict since the late 20s when mechanical pumps came into use..  I do not know what these steam engines where fired up with but wood is not  ready available in Egypt  never has been even the Pharaos brought timber in from Lebanon and other countries. And I have not heard that coal has been mined here  but the coals could have been brought by barge down the Nile as all these pump houses just like the Temples were built by the Nile.

Even the roof timbers are made from palm trees  these are not a good burner the tend to smoke  not heat up and would not have been any use to heat up the huge boilers to drive the beam engine pumps that could lift up to 200 gallons of water into the canals in one stroke  these pump houses only had one use  and that was for irrigation of the land. the people used the Nile for everything they came to the Nile for drinking water, ablutions and bathing. everything was washed in the Nile including the domestic animals, the water was always clean because it flows so fast.  that was before they built the Dams te regulate its waters,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam
 they say themselves  NO NILE NO EGYPT.  and its a pity the mentality has gone  to keep the Nile Clean.

Half filled in is the pit where once the pipes lay just a trap now for snakes and the children that wish to piss in it

  Views from the old pump house of the Nile 

View of what was the ramp or loading area from the Nile

A new born Donkey foal

 A second view at the bread oven   its sole purpose is to cook bread  not to burn rubbish even though they use plastic and whatever the can find to heat these ovens up. the worst thing they use now is polystyrene from packages that foul acrid smell and black pieces hovering in the air and getting on peoples chests, but no thought of that here  these are simple people  and this stuff makes good quick heat . hooray for polystyrene coming to Egypt they say?%$&"


The front door an excelent bit of craftmanship using local materials
one  side  of the door the wall has sunk 4" 


The scenery here on the outscirts of Luxor City is supperb and one of the reasons I chose to live here and
its simple way of life,  back in 2002 I did not know or realize how simple the people are,

the fruit and veg man

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No we are not on the riviera this is the Nile at Luxor the Nile is at its lowest and dirtiest
no swimming for us foreigners unless we need a dose of dysentery or a mouth infection,


 I could be on a tropical Island

 Or even a deserted Island 

 Or crossing the Atlantic  watching the wake from the propellers of a huge ocean liner

but here I am in Luxor Egypt cropping photos to show you how Nice this place is
and its  a shame because this place I chose to live has so much going for it  but the culture of the natives spoil its beauty,   but I can find Quiet places and have my dreams.

the heronry.May 2010

latest  nile birds are on  http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/
Another wonderful half day on Banana Island heronry, so many fledglings trying their wings  today also many few day old chicks one of the trees with the nests at eye level the tree is growing from the base of the Nile river bank so I am standing twenty foot up to tree level. so a few of the baby chicks are only maybe 15ft away from the camera,  no need for any more commentary just enjoy the young Little white Egrets and the Cattle egrets chicks.                       click on the photos to enlarge,

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the heronry one week before 22/4/10
As promised I went to the heronry  today and it was  a nice day out  real nice breeze  too cool things down.
I sat down near my usual spot to watch the kingfishers  a bit too windy for them  all they did was perch  and have squabbles with the offspring  i suppose the young did not understand why there was no fish today. and I shall explain  for what I think. The Nile was a bit choppy  and the mud was being churned up making the waters murky  the Kingfishers hover at about 20ft above the water and dive as soon as a fish comes to surface for air. so the kingfisher has to watch it come up. then dive hitting the water at the same time the fish takes air.  now the herons have no such problems. most times they wade in the water or perch on  flotsam. and wait for  a fish to come in striking range like today this Little white egret dived from a perch and caught its prey.

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seeing there are a lot of young Little white egrets about  one might think this fish  was going to feed one of them, It seems the Little white Egret is a cuckoo  from what I saw at the heronry. not only  do the Cattle egrets build the nests    but it seems they sit on the cuckoo's eggs 

this is a large white heron chick  so all three of the White egrets are nesting in this area,

  I saw one or two chicks foraging around on the ground on my way through the  fruit tree grove  so this was a sure indication that the trees of the heronry will be very active .

I have not been to this part before  this is the roof of the pump house that pumps water for the banana island plantation its about 20 ft down to the Nile River and it pumps about 8ft up to the plantation water level this tree in the Nile  has about 50 nests most with chicks  as I clambered down to the entrance of the pump house I was about 6ft away from some of the nests on the top of the tree. I could almost touch the Cattle egrets.

This nest has a white egret  chick.

 

And another

You all shut up the kids are trying to sleep