Read on for more of your recollections of Aden
Page 2
Snorkeling on any of
the good reefs around the bays (most notably between the little
island off Ghadir bay and the mainland; off observation point;
submarine point and in and around the blue grotto).
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The beaches and
anything to do with the sea, swimming or fishing.
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The paddling pool
Tarshyne beach (bear in mind I was 4 at the time.)
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Any place where there
was a bunch of Aden kids; the club, pool and beach are
all up there.
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Fishing at the end of
the long promenade/jetty beside the Seamans mission
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My favourite place in
Aden would be the rocks behind the old bungalows. They were
the first family housing in Little Aden. The Family Pavilion
was at the end of my street. I used to climb up to a shallow
cave at the top and sit and do my homework and look out over the
town.
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The Swimming pool
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Snorkeling, in a
group, off submarine point with Dave M, Adrian Meiras and Jackie
Degg ( I think) when we saw a couple of sharks off in the gloom
which were about seven or eight feet long (fisherman's tales!). One
of the group panicked (mentioning no names - but not me) and made a
dash for the shore making so much foam, fuss and bother that any
hungry predators would have been immediately interested. I remember
laughing so much that I could not stay submerged and had to
recover on the surface with the other two also laughing,
watching as ?? clambered up on to the rocks, now safe. Fortunately
nothing in the sea was particularly hungry but it was difficult to
persuade ?? to come back into the water so we gave up and all
went back home. It could have ended somewhat differently I
suppose but you don't think of that sort of thing at the time.
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I don't really have
one except the day we left Aden last view was of the salt mills and
lights.
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The journey to the
hospital in an ambulance with no suspension after I broke my leg
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Falling into the sea
while fishing. I leaned over to get a better look at a moray eel and
toppled over. I've never moved so quick in my life.
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The wait at the
airport to board the plane back to boarding school at the end of the
holidays. Lolly pop specials full of children of varying ages. I
spent most of the journey to the airport from Ghadir, over the
wadi and causeway to the airport in tears, wishing my parents would
change their minds and allow me to stay.
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All I can think of
is the time my then boyfriend (later husband) drank too much at a
dance. He got very silly, threw an orange and hit Bill
Deakin's wife Rosa in the head. Then he left the hall and went
to sleep somewhere. My future brother-in-law escorted me home
muttering embarrassed apologies. Not really very bad.
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It happened in Egypt,
on the way back to the UK in August 1964 from Aden. We were on a
BOAC De Haviland Comet coming into Cairo Airport, as the plane
crossed the Nile a flock of birds rose up in front of the plane and
caused a massive bird strike. It knocked out 2 engines, the plane
landed extremely heavily and ran off the runway. We evacuated in the
usual fashion, everyone for him/her self and made it to the terminal
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The worst, the very
worst moment was when I stood on the stern of the ship carrying me
to Australia and watched Jebel Shamsan disappear under the horizon.
I had been prepared to spend my life in Aden but I had become too
dangerous. It was where I had gone to school, grown up,
married and had a child. A big part of my life.
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My 1st haircut with a
cut-throat razor, wielded by the Greek lady hairdresser near the Rex
café.
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The tinned butter we
had to use one holiday - disgusting!
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The cave around the
back of the escarpment above our house in Buckingham road. I was
always a place of intrigue but in all the years I never went more
than about ten feet into it....or as far as daylight penetrated. You
always had the feeling that there was someone/ something in there
watching you. It was a geographical/geological exploration tunnel
from the look of it.
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Traveling along the
cliff road seeing the broken walls and smashed cars in the sea below
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Going to the hospital
to visit my dad who had broken his ankle in a tennis match ( my mum
had just passed her driving test and the hospital road was steep
with a hair pin bend)
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On the BP beach, the
big raft. I was always scared to go under it. I don't know what I
thought was in there, but it bothered me
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Surrounded by
thousands of crabs after I sat down on the beach one night
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I once climbed the
hills behind the houses (I think it was called the Asses Ears) and I
was absolutely petrified of height. It was something I just
had to do but once was enough. I was shaking like a leaf for
about an hour after getting back down to earth.
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I remember the endless
parties we held throughout the school holidays. Each one held at a
different house. All very innocent, nothing more than "Spin the
Bottle" and "Postman's Knock.
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I had a very scary
experience walking around the cliffs by the sea watching the lovely
coloured fishes swimming by. There was a thin piece of rock
with a groove right by the sea and I was balancing like on a tight
rope to step across it when a sea snake reared up and plonked itself
straight in front of me about 2 inches from my foot, just missing
me, as you can imagine I was petrified and white as a sheet, my
husband Brian did not see it and wondered what had happened and I
could only point and he was scared too, we walked back to land
watching all the time to see if it or another would appear but we
were safe, it was only afterwards that I read that sea snakes are
the most venomous and had it bitten me I would not be here telling
you this tale. Thanks for keeping in touch and I do enjoy
reading tales of Little Aden, I did spend 6 years of my life
there(1958-1964). Heather Campbell(Pitt)
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I spent some great
times spear fishing with Jackie Degg around Ghadir Bay and
Observation Hill . I never caught anything. The one day that sticks
in my mind was our fishing trip to the refinery power station
outfall . After a very short period of time Jackie's father appeared
and told us to get out of the water. We then found out that this was
the inlet to the power station water treatment plant. We
didn't catch anything there!
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Surfing off the
beaches in Ghadir and Bandar Sheikh on our surf Lilo's or pieces of
packing cases.
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Reading the arrivals
page of Jottings to see which day our friends would be arriving for
the holidays.
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