Egypt - Life Along the Cairo-Alex Desert Road

5/15/2012 The three hour drive from Alexandria to Cairo continues through suburbs, farmland, and new road construction.

The familiar arches signal that McDonald's is in town.

 This building sat in an area under construction and the Coca Cola red signage was hard to miss.

 There was a lot of growth and construction.

 Looks like a bottling plant is here. I didn't taste a local Coke, so I can't talk about the differences from the Arizona coke taste.

 A mosque serves the area.

 This looked like a local business/manufacturing area.  In the front, toward the bottom of the photo, you can see that a farmer's market has been set up.  In the distance, apartment buildings can be seen.  (The red brick with the concrete floors and walls will be seen throughout the tour.)

 This is a set of apartments that look like they are still under construction. You can see rebar sticking out from the top of the building, waiting for the next floor to be added.  The yellow and white buildings in the front have been finished with stucco but the ones further back are still in the brick, block and concrete stage.    I don't know what the tires are doing, stacked on the roof, unless perhaps that is a safe place to put the spares.  I did notice that there were many satellite dishes on the roof.

It looks like the rugs from one of the apartments are draped over a wall, drying.  I can't imagine what it would take to wash something of that size.

The roadside stands were frequent along the highway.  There were a wide variety of products for sale.  This particular stand had what looked like walking sticks. Also, note that there is a speed hump in the road to slow the traffic in this area.

 A closeup view of the walking sticks.

This is a common layout along the highway.  The highway, a barrier, a dirt road, an irrigation canal, and then the farmland.  If you look closely at this photo, you can see a donkey pulling a cart.  Also, another bird "dome" is on the right side of the photo.

Another roadside stand. This one has watermelons.  In the background from left to right you can see an apartment building, a road on the other side of the farmer's stand area, what looks like a soccer goal and an open field, walled in areas with flowering trees, more "under construction" apartments with the rebar sticking out of the top, and a bird dome.

 This is the type of activity that made me nervous. Easy pedestrian access to a highway.  The road is separated by a wall and people could walk from the farmer's fruit stand up a dirt path to another roadway.  It looks like a woman is walking with the groceries (probably fresh food for the day) while the man walks with the child.  A group of men are interested in the van. I can't tell if the men were getting out of the van, getting in to the van, or trading something with the van owners.

 Here is a different setup.  The barrier divides the highway with another paved road.  The stands are setup on one side, and straddle the barrier so that one doesn't have to get off of the highway for a stop.

 A closeup view of the highway stands shows that this is a "Highway Cafe", complete with comfortable seating, a variety of items to purchase, and the familiar Hookah Pipe (sitting on the wall, to the right).

We have been riding for a while and the area is still green and populated.  There is writing on the barrier, but I can't tell the difference between "Keep out" or graffiti.

It was interesting to see what was being transported to market. Some of the trucks had open beds so we could see all of the action.  This looked like oranges.

This looked like a red fruit.  Apples? Pomegranate?

This truck was carrying something white, or wrapped in white.  Comparing the three trucks, I wonder if there is a customary "height restriction".

In between the towns, huge fields lined the highway.  You can see the watering system at the far end of the field.

Wow, this truck is loaded!

We approached an over pass still under construction.  It looks like a grander highway plan is in the works.

 Very nice design in the concrete.

 A mosque served the local population.

This closeup view shows the domes and maybe a peak in to the interior.

The journey from Alexandria to Cairo continues with many new sights.

Reference map