Spectacle in the sky

While riding my bicycle today out in the desert, I discovered a wonderful spectacle in the sky: hundreds of huge birds where rotating in the air.

„Spring… migration period… they gather for their flight to Europe“, were my thoughts. So fascinated was I, that I got off my bike to watch their ado. Out there, between the Inner and Outer Ring Road there is kind of a tree nursery and above it, the birds were rotating. So there I got off my bike a second time and walked a few steps into the plants to see the birds better. Some of them were gliding softly and silently over the bushes, apparently searching for food. I was impressed by their wingspan which reminded me of the eagles and condors I’ve seen before. More and more of those birds gathered in the sky, they danced unsystematically round and round, while other groups joined them. I stood still for a long time, listening to the reed’s swoosh and watching the birds.

My knowledge about birds is rather limited – a lack of knowledge that I’ve wished to eliminate for years -, although sometimes I’d prefer to be a bird myself. Thanks to some research in internet I am 95% sure that it is about the Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus), a raptor. The size and the rust-red/rust-brown colour of the wings and its black edge fits. An internet source says that the Marsh Harrier hibernates in Egypt along the Nile valley (elsewhere south of the Sahara and in Southern Africa). So have they made a stopover today in Hurghada above the tree nursery?

Here is a link for more information about the Marsh Harrier and some pictures. Unfortunately, I haven’t had my camera with me, but I’ve memorised the spectacle in my mind.

PlanetSolar in Hurghada

Facebook informed me that a very special boat is supposed to be anchored in Hurghada for some days. A boat operated by solar energy only!

I absolutely wanted to see it and on my day off I went to the Marina to take some pictures. And of course because I like the Marina: it’s a quiet and neat place.

So there she was, the PlanetSolar: she looks like a huge utopian bird on the water and was surrounded and marvelled at by other on-lookers. The PlanetSolar stopped over in Hurghada for five days on her trip along the equator and endowed Hurghada with a touch of the big, wide world.

I looked at her in amazement and secretly felt a certain pride and sense of home seeing the Swiss cross and the Swiss flag – although I am not a Swiss citizen… Here are some of my photos. There is also the link to PlanetSolar’s homepage for those who want to know more about the boat, its team, the log book and more…

Traffic full of surprises

Road users in Egypt have to anticipate everything, including the impossible. That’s daily routine, that’s normal. Egypt has not for nothing one of the highest rate of deadly road accidents.

Hurghada has divided roads, thanks God! After a bad, deadly accident recently, traffic was quickly redirected on to the opposite lane. Without signs, without traffic police, just like that. So there were cars, microbuses and lorries on the same lane, driving across each other. At the same time, cars continued turning into the lane from right where there was suddenly two-way traffic. Consequently, we saw two lines approaching, one going onwards between them!!!! Bloodcurdling! I closed my eyes and simply hoped that everything would go well.

And why do cars, microbuses and lorries back over longer distances, against traffic on the divided roads? Sometimes, because they missed to turn off. Sometimes however, because some hundred meters further on, there is a mobile police check point. Thus, when the driver’s documents are not ok or not existing, or when his car has actually been unfit to drive or has been stolen, there is only one solution: lop off. Backwards of course. So why, I ask myself every time, does the police not command someone 500 m prior to the check point? The traffic control would be much more successful. And the dangerous fashion of backing the car would tremendously be reduced.

Each to his own

Tourists from I-don’t-know-where are strolling idly beside me. They are only flimsily dressed which is not unusual. They wear what people where on holiday: sleeveless t-shirts, shorts, sandals, sun glasses, sun hat and sun burn.

Unusual however, are these kinds of clothes with these temperatures: 19 degrees Celsius in the shadow and a cool breeze. As much as I looked surprised in the past at Egyptians wearing a lumber jack or a warm jacket, do I wonder nowadays about tourists dressed as we were in midsummer.

I admit: I am among those now who wear a lumberjack or woollen pullover at temperatures of 25 degrees and feel quite comfortable with it! Crazy? Come and spend a winter in non-isolated buildings where the temperature drops to 16 degrees Celsius at nights and climbs to 18 degrees for the lucky ones! J

Finally in paradise

It needs either good luck or a certain effort to make it to paradise. Or rather both.

Lucky I was, since it was offered to me. However, it was not love at first sight although I had been here before. For my swim trainings.

And I had to make big efforts: I cleaned many hours in order to get rid of the carelessness of the previous tenant. It was awful. I became ill, had to fight against food poison. And I had to pack my belongings and move. Everything at once and all mixed up.

Yet, it was worth it: I live now in paradise. Precisely in “Paradise Village”, an Italian compound. It’s a neat residence with Italian trattoria, German bakery, small supermarket, swimming pool, terrace and a small garden. In the afternoons, chill out or Italian music is discretely played. People greet each other – something I as a “country bumpkin” missed a lot. The first friendly “Buon giorno” almost left me speechless. The second one opened a chat with a French lady.

It’s an oasis of privacy, cleanliness and friendliness. It’s finally a place to recover, to relax, to be and to stay. A paradise amidst Egypt’s daily chaos.

Fruit- and Vegetable Market in Dahar

So many mandarins and strawberries! Yummy....

Police state Egypt – what is left over?

Police. Police everywhere. At each corner, in front of every bank, every museum, every hotel, machine guns moved up against, checkpoints every few kilometres. This is how I saw Egypt when I came here first in 2006. I was shocked, since I had seen such a scene only once in my life: 1987 in Chile.

The police oppressed, harassed, blackmailed, tortured and killed. Khaled Said, a young Alexandrian caught the police in dealing drugs, took pictures and uploaded them on internet. His life was the prize he had to pay. Yet before, he was badly mistreated and tortured by the police. Police said that Khaled had been trying to swallow a packet of Marihuana in order to hide it. Following this, a scream went through the country and many consider this abuse as the last straw that finally led to the huge upheavals starting from November 2010.

So this is how Egypt’s police looked like until 25 January 2011. Since then, they have virtually disappeared. Almost. They come back to attack or shoot protesters, to haul journalists away, sometimes also in order to protect state institutions – in which they partially succeed. Anyway, it was neither before nor now their duty to protect citizens.

As a concession to the protesters, SCAF promised in March 2011 to reform the police (central security police). This did not happen. The last 12 months are a sequence of promises not kept.

Prisons are stormed and highly dangerous inmates flee. The gas pipe to Jordan and Israel is getting set ablaze regularly. Gangs roam across the country, commit raids and burglaries, kidnap and demand ransoms. The smuggling of arms has become a popular business – quite every decent citizen is carrying a weapon. Others do it anyway.

The police – with few exceptions – just watched the football disaster in Port Said. Eyewitnesses say that police men refused to open the emergency exits reasoning that they had no order for doing so. Videos in internet show that the emergency exits had been WELDED.

These days, Egypt saw an accumulation of bank robberies and since the disaster in Port Said, further police stations and prisons have been attacked, prisoners released and weapons stolen. The police defended themselves fiercely and some were even killed in the shootings.

Today, the ministry of finance was set on fire – a further catastrophe in a country that is almost grounded. The police, the state (at present the SCAF) have neither energy nor power. Their power was oppression, intimidation and torture – but this does not work anymore, Egyptians are fed up with this. The police state is falling apart, is in a state of dissolution, but the police do not know any better…

When today I was pushing my trolley out of the supermarket, I saw only some steps in front of me a bulk of police men. Police men with bulletproof waistcoats, arms and cars. Some important men got off. I slowly walked to the taxis. My driver asked me if I knew what had happened inside? I had no idea! He mumbled something of a bank robbery. Rumours. False alarm. Nothing happened. The governor visited the mall. This indeed needs a huge police presence.