No security

A necessary trip to Luxor early this Friday morning, opened my eyes even wider to some grave and worrying times.

Caleche carriages appeared to be abandoned at the side of the Corniche, creating a feel of a Caleche cemetery. The heavy steel rods that the horses are chained to most of the day as they pull these once ornate, but now battered and unkempt carriages, rested upright, awaiting the return of the horse. I counted almost 30. Where were the horses? Some were tied up to trees, tired, thin and thirsty, standing in their own mess, as the rope was too short to move very far.

Even though it is Friday morning and there are relatively few people staying in Luxor, the streets were filled with the shout of 'Caleche Madame' and the clip clop of the shoes on the asphalt.

A caleche with 4/5 tourists crammed into the hooded carriage, thundered by us. The horse has no way of stopping quickly in that situation and the people would all be terribly injured if they hit a car/crashed. The animal would be in a very bad way too. But no one polices this, no one cares.

The horses were skeletor like, I couldn't eat the felafel I had bought, it made me sick and I threw it away. It would take months of constant eating to bring these animals back to health.

As I walked towards the train station, a horse had given up and could not go on anymore. It had collapsed with the caleche still attached. The young owner and fellow drivers, tried to free him as his breathing became heavy. As they pulled him off of the steel rod, they punched him to make him stand up. It was at this point we had to leave. It was too much to bear and they would not listen to us, as we pleaded for them to leave him for 5 mins and to get water.

What can we do? The animals are dying through lack of food and heat exhaustion.

An hour later, we saw the same caleche and driver with another horse, so what happened to the other one? I imagine, it has been tied up and forgotten about. The machine is broken, it can be fixed and can no longer be used. Without Tourism in Luxor, many more will be in the same situation, as people struggle to literally survive. I hear many saying that they do not even have bread for their family. With things as bad as they are for the people, the animals have little hope.

When travelling to different Countries, think about the animals and what they have to endure. This link is a great guide. Equine

The image doesn't relate to the subject, that would be too distressing for you to see. But it shows that we feel vulnerable and insecure here...as we wait for change.