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Saturday, March 19, 2016

An Agricultural Tour - Part III

After lunch, we walked down the road past a few neighboring farms.  Bananas and animal fodder are major crops being grown nearby.
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We stopped to look at the cows and other domestic animals.
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The green bee-eaters also caught our attention.
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At lunch we had been entertained by a chameleon that may have been confused by the green mat we were using for a picnic blanket.
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The electricity that runs the pumps on these farms is produced nearby at the North Giza generating plant.  But not without some controversy, of course.  Everyone complains when the power goes out here, but no one wants a power plant in their back yard.  Sound familiar?

This article in the Egypt Independent describes the issue as seen by the local farmers back in 2012.


The farming village of Abu Ghaleb is the chosen site for the North Giza Power Plant, a large power station being built on 73 feddans (a feddan is almost exactly equal to one acre) of purchased agricultural land.

Funded in part by the World Bank(Your tax dollars at work again!) and the European Investment Bank, the project is being planned and implemented by the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC), which has “an objective to provide a secure, reliable electricity generation and distribution system for Egypt,” according to the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
Loving all things electrical, I naturally photographed the plant and electrical infrastructure for you.
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On our way out of the area, we made two more quick stops.  We took a break at our host's home in the village to thank his wife for the delightful lunch.
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We had passed a small plantation of thorny trunk trees on the way and we stopped to take a few pictures of these which are reportedly raised for lumber.  I leave it to the reader to make the proper identification.  Try Googling thorny trunk trees in Egypt and following the images link.  Good luck!
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We arrived back at the ferry just as dusk was arriving and the rush hour traffic from the city was returning to the village.
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