Yesterday . . .

. . . included an unusual collection of activities. A trip to the Valley of the Kings with some British tourists. We had hoped to accompany the famous “Mut Lady” on a research expedition to the tomb of Thutmoses III but her schedule of classes and end-of-term exams caused her to cancel. So, the rest of us visited the interpretation site and some of the famous decorated tombs.

By mid-afternoon a short-cut through the fields to the ferry resulted in chance encounter with a mysterious native woman with gold hair carrying a magical wand.

Her manner was mysterious and she predicted that early the next day many large coloured balls would fall from the sky! . . . .

A small boat was hired for the river crossing – landing near the refurbished and lengthened “SUDAN” – a restored paddlewheeler. In this boat the President of France, Sarkozy, and Carla stayed on during their last visit to Luxor.

Days Between Time

Between our efforts of trying to finish "this" or complete "that" are the days not unlike the eddies in a river's stream. Here we turn slowly in circles and tend to minor tasks that are close at hand. The views on such days are simple but busy as they are on this day which included a trip to the bank, to the cell-phone office, to a grocery store and back again across the river. The trip back begins with a short video of the motor launch leaving from below the winter palace.




These motor boat trips across the Nile cost 5 L.E. for locals such as myself (about 80 cents). This Time Traveller's frequent dealings with airline companies pursuades him to add a 1 L.E. "fuel surcharge" for any destination significantly off the straight line path across the river.

Despite recent development projects, parts of the West Bank of Luxor still have a rustic view to them.



It is difficult to imagine how the Nile must have teemed with abundant wildlife in ancient times . . . as we are reminded of by this view of a water hen passing the boat.



On the final road back in the 39C heat, there is yet another example of Egypt's agricultural fertility. Before the banana trees grow and begin to shade the land with their large leaves, the land can be used to grow another crop simultaneously - in this case either eggplant or zucchini.

Mountain Views

Since my Chinese made elliptical exercise machine has some maintenance problems – it has become a challenge to maintain satisfactory fitness for my cardio-vascular system. The solution is to bicycle to Quorna mountain and quickly sprint to the top of the 1000 foot high hill. Another solution is to slowly stagger to the top of the mountain while breathing frantically and listening to my heart pound against side of my chest. Yesterday I took this second option with my former secretary, who is presently studying to be a tour guide – with her first aid training she is fully qualified to escort aging tourists.The Time Traveller’s wife was relieved of her mountain climbing duties - preferring her computer with visions of pottery sherds dancing in her head.

Upon arrival at Deir El Medina (The Monastery of the City) we documented some exhibits in the tourist rest area.

Near the top of the mountain we practiced making YouTube videos – soon to appear on the internet.

After her graduation, El Muwazafa (The employee) will appear on the Web as the Famous Tour Guide - “Mut Lady” – so named because she was raised beside the Sacred Lake of Mut Temple near Karnak.

Here she is practicing a “wrap” for future web videos.

Memory Lane

In Luxor, as part of the City’s ongoing development plan, the last wall along the ancient road linking Luxor and Karnak temples has been removed revealing a clear line-of-sight between these two famous locations. Soon this messy row of bricks and excavations will be restored to its former glory and tourists will be able to recreate the ancient festival parades along its length.



When one tears away at the old heart of Luxor’s town, one never knows what is to be found. Right beside the old apartment building featured in an earlier blog I discovered a dairy farm with ten water buffalo quietly munching away at old sunken feed troughs dating to at least 30 years ago when the area was still pasture.

Water sticks together . . .

. . .and pulling it apart has a chilling affect on air and apartments.

The new evaporative cooler – purchased and installed for less than 400 USD has been tested with good results. At 38 C outside the chiller kept the apartment in the mid 70s Fahrenheit.

The Psychrometric Chart below combines enthalpy calculations in a combination intended to allow prediction of the expected cooling. The chart shows that with outside air at 120 F (50 C) and 20 % relative humidity, we may expect to have between 75 F and 80 F inside the apartment – more or less.

The charts of average temperature and humidity for Luxor suggest the system might keep the apartment cool right through the heat of the summer – for about 100 watts of energy and a few gallons of water per day. So far, we have only tested it o 38 C. We shall see – Preferably our new renters will discover how well it works!

Egypt’s electrical energy use has been steadily increasing as a result of growing population, disposable income, and air conditioning. But it won’t be hard to reduce energy use here. The flat landscape and compact urban environments are perfect for electrical vehicle usage. Photo-voltaics could generate sufficient power for distributed battery charging. Most buildings south of Cairo could use evaporative cooling. The simple solutions applied at our apartment here in Luxor could reduce upper middle income household energy use to a fraction of present use.

I have some local engineer friends who have just had their government project concelled by the ministry due to a shortage of funds. I am meeting them next week – maybe I can suggest they start their own “Green Company”.

From Beach - to Abyss

A shock – I am suddenly thrown 1200 years back in time – to modern day Egypt. I am back in Luxor, and I discover my wife has been entranced by a mysterious cat named Calypso and spends her days blogging and eating cookies shaped like Lotus flowers. The apartment has been ravaged by contractors. I must fix it in just a few weeks – before this odyssey takes me from 8^th century heat to the cool of Canada. Must . . . not . . .look at Cat . . . . must not . . . .eat Lotus cookies. . . .

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To enter this abyss of dark time, I have crossed a line of conflict – the “Clash of Civilizations” pitting the corrupt counter-intuitive wasteful Western Ways against the Blissful Way of righteousness untroubled by consciousness. This conflict presents a moral and ethical dilemma that threatens to force us into opposing camps . . what camp shall we follow?

Camp 1 - The Corrupt Western Way . . . .

Camp 2 - the Blissful moral path of righteousness . . . .

Tough call.

Jonathon Livingston Seagull

A few generations ago ancestors of mine went to the sea in ships on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and hauled their cod fish over the gunnels while being bounced in waves and beaten upon by rain, wind, fog, and occasional large pieces of ice. Since then, the sea still holds a firm grip upon the descendants of those struggling Irish expatriates – myself among them. A few days by the beach leaves me most of all with a feeling of belonging and not knowing why. Someday soon I shall come back here and fly along these dunes and listen to the surf crash below me.