As we flew out of Cairo I was struck by the Nile. A few pictures of the area around the Nile and the areas in between make it really clear – the Nile means life in Egypt.

There is nothing where there is no water .. nothing.

Turns out that in the Luxor area, agriculture remains a staple industry – focused on sugar and fruit. What was interesting to me was the clash of modern and ancient. Donkeys pulling carts while Russian tractors blew down the road.

I had to laugh when I saw the Belarus tractor. My dad and Uncle use to sell those tractors. The Russians desperately needed cash so they started exporting these tractors prior to the end of the cold war. They are what you expect – cheap, simple and a solid workhorse.

The other way to move produce.

The odd shaped train cars caught my attention. Turns out that when Egypt was occupied by the British they built a railway to move sugar cane.

As a diversion, we took a trip to a banana plantation to do something other than a history trip.  It allowed us to sail down the Nile on a beautiful day. Unfortunately for the 2 sailors, there was no wind and they had to work incredibly hard for 2 hours to get us to the plantation – which should have taken a half hour by sail.

We stopped to watch this fellow. He is making mud bricks by hand (or to be accurate, by feed). A different world.

The plantation’s oven.

My son took this picture, sunset on the Nile.

A beautiful evening.