Luxor Walks and Photos from Egypt.
An 8km walk we enjoyed whilst on holiday in
Luxor Egypt wandering around the Canals out on Luxor's West Bank.
Whilst on holiday in Luxor, Egypt we found it easy to go out and about on our
own and one of the things we enjoyed was having a nice quiet walk out on the
West Bank.
Before leaving for our Egypt Holiday we had planned
that we would be able to walk between as many of the various tomb and temple ancient sites
which are to be found on Luxor's West Bank as possible rather than take
organised coach sightseeing trips/itineraries.
What we did not expect was just how
fertile this area was - fields going quite a distance out into the
desert - lots of trees and shrubs and the wildlife was brilliant. Much
of this due to quite an extensive series of canals in the area - these
allow the farmers to easily irrigate the land with their pumps.
Our unexpected bonus was that we could make ourselves up a nice walk into
the Luxor countryside using the canals to create an 8km or so walk - this is
described below.
It should be noted that we did this walk in a temperature of around 90 degrees and found
this was pretty warm after a while -
possibly it would not be very comfortable to take
this walk in much more heat since there is little shade and for quite a
stretch no possibility to buy a drink.
The only real problem we had with our Luxor walk
was having to convince the taxi drivers on the West Bank that we did not
in fact want to go to any of the ancient sites but were intending to
simply go for a walk - they really did find this hard to beleive for some reason. We
simply walked away from the ferry and headed into the town - as a diversion it is well
worth having a little wander around the town's sidestreets - have a look
for instance at the clearly visible Mosque off the main street on the left.
At the far end of the main street and where the houses/shops have ended take a road forking off
right - the road goes between open countryside and fields as it heads back to the River
Nile and to the Tourist Ferry Terminal.
Not really a lot to see here but
you can sit on the wall under the trees by the police check post and have
a chat with the freindly policemen.
Head back along the road and after a few
minutes look out for and take a small road going off to the right. This
road is quite interesting because there are loads of birds in the fields
and on the right hand side you soon walk alongside a small canal. The
canal was particularly good
because we saw two small crocodiles swimming
across to the far bank. The road soon rejoins the main road, turn right
and continue to follow the canal - there was some rubbish around but also
lots of birds and other wildlife.
Quite soon you reach the next small town -
walk on through with shops and small businesses on the left hand side -
immediately before the crossroads turn left onto a dirt track - now the
canal is on your right. This now becomes simply a case of following the
canal - initially there are houses etc either side but soon you are
walking mostly between trees and fields - there were lots of birds to see
including kingfishers.
Every so often you pass small farms and other tiny houses - this track is quite
dusty and you can get pretty warm walking along here even in 90 degrees
and there is little shade.
The canal is used as a water source for the
farmers to irrigate there fields and you often pass sometimes noisy diesel
pumps sucking the water out and pushing it into irrigation ditches -
really interesting. There is little road traffic on the track - just the
occasional old tractor or an arabaya or a meandering donkey and cart.
Eventually the track turns sharp right and heads inland to finally reach a road.
Turn right and now you have a choice of walking back to
the crossroads on a dusty track which runs alongside another canal or you
can take an arabaya from here which will take you all the way back to the
Worker's ferry terminal.
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Our Main Luxor Page has guides about
visiting Dendarah, Hatshepsut, Tombs of the Nobles, Valley of the Kings, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple,
Madinat Habu, Valley of the Queens, Valley of the Workers
plus Egyptian Train and Boat Photos.
www.foxysislandwalks.co.uk
Before leaving for our Egypt Holiday we had planned
that we would be able to walk between as many of the various tomb and temple ancient sites
which are to be found on Luxor's West Bank as possible rather than take
organised coach sightseeing trips/itineraries.
What we did not expect was just how
fertile this area was - fields going quite a distance out into the
desert - lots of trees and shrubs and the wildlife was brilliant. Much
of this due to quite an extensive series of canals in the area - these
allow the farmers to easily irrigate the land with their pumps.
