Egypt

Egypt

Egypt has a land area of over 1 million sq. km. Only 4% of the land is inhabited and cultivated, the Nile Valley and a few oasis – the rest is desert! That is a whole lot of desert. The Nile vies with the Amazon for the title of the longest river in the world, estimated to be 4160 miles long and with no tributaries in Egypt. It runs the entire length of Egypt, 960 miles from the Sudanese border to the Mediterranean. The oldest records of humanity are Egyptian. They include a piece of pottery with the earliest known record of a sailing boat about 8000 years ago. The present population is approximately 70 million. Most are Moslem and the official language is Arabic. Britain occupied Egypt for 40 years officially becoming a British protectorate in 1914. The railroads are British built. The Suez Canal, approximately 100 miles long, was completed in 1869 by a British/French consortium and was canal was operated by the same consortium until nationalized in 1956 by the Egyptian government. Since then it has been up and down. In the Arab – Israeli conflicts 1967 – 1973 the canal was closed. In 1966 70% of the ships using the canal were oil tankers. After the closures, in 1975 only 23% of the traffic was oil tankers. Oil companies responded to the closure by building supertankers and going around the cape. The Suez canal was eventually cleared and widened resulting in increased traffic. Still traffic is one way only, south bound at night and northbound by day. Our transit was uneventful . It took one full day of hassles, bribes and ripoffs ending finally at 1AM, and we left at 6:30 AM, with the pilot hollering full power, full power. We were supposed to leave at 5:30 and he was late. It cost an official $390 for the transit plus bribes totaling $100 and a polo shirt.

There are 3 very important items that Egypt must have to continue functioning – The Nile, tourists, and, last but not least, the donkeys that do much of the work..

The Nile

From the beginning, the Nile River occasionally flooded causing havoc, death and famine. In 1972 the Russians completed building the Aswan high dam eliminating the flooding. The Nile sustains the entire country! It supplies the water for cultivating the entire valley. On both sides of the river the valley is lined with farms and orchards for a mile or as far as the water can be pumped. Beyond is desert and more desert! A thin strip of green meandering 960 miles thru’ the desert! The cultivated area supplies wheat, dates, bananas and alfalfa. The lower delta has crops of rice and cotton. Farming appears to be done as it has been for centuries. We saw many farmers, their wives and children cutting wheat by hand and hauling by donkey. Many of the small farms thresh their own wheat, take it to a grinding station and return with flour to be used for the season. We ate some locally grown wheat bread and it was delicious (there’s a photo in the First Mate page). The Nile also supplies approximately 70% of the electrical power for the entire country. There are many large tourist river boats and the graceful felucca sail boats. We took a 4 day Nile River cruise from Luxor to Aswan and found it very pleasant, similar to taking a cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico – plenty of good food, nice staterooms, and even a small swimming pool, but no rock climbing.

Tourists

They are everywhere! The Egyptians have been squeezing money from tourists since the time of the Greeks and the Romans and they are good at it. The average tourist doesn’t have a chance. You can steel yourself, but still no match. You may bargain like mad and end up paying twice the going price. If, for example, you stop for tea at one of the many sidewalk cafes you will get a cup of hot water, saucer and tea bag. The local customer will get a glass with tea “dust”. The tea dust actually tastes better than the Lipton tea bag, at 1/3 the cost. At tourist sites tea can cost $5 for tourists and 50 cents for locals. Beware anyone that comes up to you saying hello, where are you from? They will want money for being a guide. You cannot walk past a shop without someone trying his damndest to get you inside. There are no fixed prices – only what the traffic will bear. They usually start asking 3 or 4 times the price. If you bargain hard for a taxi ride and the taxi encounters heavy traffic, you are asked to pay more. It is a tourist site and he knew it always has heavy traffic. There are more tourists than you can imagine, wearing clothes that you can only imagine. This is a Moslem country where the local folks, especially women, are covered from head to toe. There are tourists, especially Russians, that wear very little. The Red Sea coast has many, many huge first class seaside resorts, with marinas’ dive boats, wind surfing, swimming pools, non stop discos and non stop food. Many of the really big resorts are dedicated to Russians. I walked into one really gaudy resort that occupied miles to find that everyone spoke Russian, signs were all in Russian and the menu’s Many of the resorts are located miles from anywhere. Remember the country is 96% desert. Along the Red Sea Coast, 140 Km. From the nearest city, you will find Port Ghalib. It is huge, very modern, 4 star resort with marina, dive boats, fancy restaurants, shops and everything a tourist would want, but it is remote with only the nearby airport carved out of the desert. So fly them in, take them diving, feed them and fly them out the following weekend, all with sunburns. Some of the real tourist guides here are very knowledgeable and well trained. Our English speaking guide studied for quite a few years in college and in USA to be a guide. His brother is also a guide for Japanese. Tourism is the #1 money maker and a huge business here.

The Donkey

The donkey was present in Egypt long before camels and horses and will probably outlast both. You will see donkeys everywhere, hauling carts, wagons, sugar cane, people, and loads of everything. As we passed fields of wheat, sugar cane and other crops being harvested, late in the day you could see the donkeys standing by, watching the farmer loading up the days produce and thinking “I’m going to carry that??” Some of the loads are unbelievable. In the smaller cities you will see donkeys delivering gas bottles, water, produce, rugs and people. With one person aboard a donkey can scurrying along at decent human running pace. Must be tough on the butt.

If I ever visit Egypt again in my lifetime, it will be too soon! I’ve been to some crummy countries, but Egypt takes the prize!!!!