Visiting a big garden: the Nile DeltaIn the middle of pharaoh temples, huge mosques and mass tourism summer resorts, the
Nile Delta actually receives poor attention from most travelers coming to Egypt (and tour operators). Maybe because one of the world's largest river deltas
only offers green areas, agriculture and daily life experiences with locals?
I had a dream... I could imagine a network of youth hostels spread all over those dozens of towns in the Delta, which were inter-connected by several roads and train rails, each one offering beautiful green areas and local people always looking forward to meet the visitors. In reality, almost everything is on place, except from the youth hostel networks. But still in order to discover this area, I decided to prepare a small backpack and my camera, and went out together with two friends (Mallory and Amr). Before I continue this story, and for the purposes of 'ambiance', let's call these 3 guys: Biero (Arabic pronunciation for Piero), Moleria (Mallory) & Omar (Amr).
The initiation: keep it simple and localOn Saturday at 8am, Biero woke up at 8am, then blamed at the fact of waking up early, took a shower and had a quick breakfast (fruits from the fridge). After 15 minutes walk, he arrived to the Metro station and drove till 'Mubarak' Station, as usual he was delighted watching people talking with themselves and a couple of sellers offering newspapers and magazines.
By 9:30am he arrived to the train station, both Moleria and Omar blamed at him for coming some minutes late, anyway the three of them went obviously to pick up the... microbuses located outside the train station. After Piero completed his breakfast with a fat 'taameya' (falafel) and a cup of 'asab' (sugar can), these 3 adventurous agreed on following the microbus inviting to 'Mansoura, Mansoura... Mansoura!'. The first couple of hours showed a magnificent piece of the Delta: green and canals everywhere, farmers riding their donkies, etc (like a Netherlands without rain). On a sad note, I witnessed couple of guys throwing their cans of soda through their windows.
By the time they arrived to Mansoura, they had some snacks and decided to have a small lemons juice before leaving the city and start backpacking. However, their taxi driver seemed not to get the motto 'keep it simple, interact with locals', since he drove them to a hotel called '4 seasons' (written in English). No problem, Omar just repeated the magic words 'akhua' and then the guy took the to a right local cafe. Afterwards, they made a walk to the microbus stop and they took one to Ras El Bar. This small town located in the Mediterranean Sea was the next objective.
The Delta opened its arms again and showed them an incredible landscape, adorned by mosques every 5 minutes' ride and some other farmers leading their sheeps to the other side of the highway. Some kilometers before arriving to Ras El Bar, the microbus kindly dropped them in an agricultural area, so Moleria took the lead and started getting inside one of the fields. Some pictures were taken, including some of a young guy that suddenly 'joined' them and followed them for the next 30 minutes.
This picture was taken when meeting a family in one of those farms. They invited our 3 travelers for having lunch, but they rather continued walking (the civil status of Moleria would have been in risk, if one of the guys would have shown interest in her!).
The way also showed them a small canal (see pic), and they decided to make a walk closer to that 'smelling lake' (they realized afterwards that it was a zone of water treatment). It was nice, but dangerous, a couple of them got stucked into the mood. By 5pm, they decided to arrive to Ras El Bar, so they captured the attention of a pick-up and the guy drove them to their destination. Without doubts, what a beautiful landscape! full of farms, a canal beside the road, a couple of small canoes in there, the fresh wind touching their faces...
Ras El Bar welcomed them with a small meeting of the AIESEC local chapter there, in the night, they went out with some local friends and had some fish, fatir. The night was spent sitting in front of the beach, having some relaxing talks and a glass of wine. Moleria was surprising the others with her stories about US driving regulations (there is a rule for almost every action, and a fine if you don't accomplish it!), so much different from the free, chaotic regulations in the Peru and Egypt...
The way back: check out the same path but with other eyes...
Next day was spent to see the place where the Nile flows in the Sea, for enjoying the beach, for having fatir as breakfast, and for taking a microbus back to 'Mansoura, Mansoura!... Mansoura!'. They took the same way, some other farmers were riding horses and carrying fruits somewhere to the South. In Mansoura there was a break for lunch and afterwards, Omar, Moleria and Biero took any microbus which dropped them in any small town in the Delta: they realized its name was Meet Ghamr. By seeing the reaction of the people there, it was clear that they were not used to backpackers, since they were extremely fun and friendly. Our backpackers took a 'moto taxi' to one side of the Nile, got some shisha on the other side of the Nile (which now belonged to the town 'Zefta') and jumped into the Nile! Moleria and Omar went beyond and wanted to cross it! fortunately, an spontaneous rescue boat came to pick them up.
The way back to Cairo was very relaxing: driving in a public car, watching the sunset from the window, admiring the 'grey Delta' (downtown of Cairo) and enjoying a swimming pool in a friend's house. As they agreed: "in 2 days, we managed to be in the water of the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile and a pool". Isn't it a real meaning for diversity?
What is happening to the Delta now?As part of the urbanization process, the Nile Delta also suffers from the increase of towns and main cities in its surroundings. I find it a bit sad, when I see that a meter of green area is converted into an unplanned house of cement. But on a more happy note, meeting people there overpassed my expectations. I have been convinced about the solidarity and pace mood of Egyptians since the first day I came here, and traveling in the Delta just proved it again. This big garden is definitively worthy to visit, and I still think that creating a network of youth hostels is a cool business to think about! (it is very easy to find transport from one place to the other). But if you do so, please be responsible and do respect the locals!
Durante algunas tardes, regreso a la biblioteca para recoger algunos libros que leer antes de dormir. Mi objetivo es bien claro "Seccion Ninhos"... me siento y mi mundo se convierte en imagenes de animales, plantas y oficios, todos plasmados en libros coloridos y con muchos dibujos. Para asi aprender las palabras nuevas que me permitiran algun dia coger los libros de filosofia e Islamismo ubicados un piso mas arriba. Algunos otros ninhos se sientan a mi costado, y de vez en cuando me quieren ofrecer sus crayolas para ayudarlos.
