Memories of Marsah Matruh
Thanks to Discovery Channel and National Geographic, I’m never swimming in no sea and never ever flying in anything — man made or otherwise. As a matter of fact, I’m reconsidering walking as well.
But my friend Jean is braver. Every now and then she takes off from her hair styling job (or play, as she calls it) to go diving somewhere in the south of Egypt, past Hurgada. She doesn’t seem to mind one bit rubbing noses with dolphins and hammerhead sharks. Now the dolphins I can understand, but sharks? Is she entirely OK with being potential fish fodder? But she tells me Hammerheads don’t particularly like the taste of humans. Neither, I believe, do piranhas. Actually, come to think of it, neither do I.
Jean’s impossibly blue photographs bring back memories of Marsa Matruh. This is (or was) a beautiful beach town 240 kilometers from Alexandria where I first discovered how blue the sea can be and how bad a sunburn can hurt.
When I was growing up in Egypt, we would often drive out from Maadi (a town off Cairo) for seaside holidays to Alexandria and Marsa Matruh.
My first memory of Marsah Matruh is when we stopped over at a café. There, while we sipped lemonade, my brother and two other boys (we traveled with a few other families) whispered and plotted and then came up and gave me a folded piece of paper. Very straight-faced and promising-like. You know. I coyly opened, expecting god knows what. What I got for my troubles was a chutney of squished flies. What are boys about anyway?
Luckily, there are nicer memories to dwarf that one. Marsah Matruh has a clear aquamarine sea. You could see fish around you if you swam out a bit. The water is fairly shallow and safe. But most of all it’s clear. It’s so clear that a woman who dropped her diamond ring, sending it to the bottom of the sea (she couldn’t have been too fond of her husband, I’m thinking) actually got the ring back! My father just dived in, saw it shining somewhere deep, and picked it right up.
A little further west from Marsah Matruh is a rocky ruined place called Cleopatra’s Bath. I remember thinking Cleopatra must have been straight out of her mind if she chose to leave her pink bathtub and come here for a good scrub.
Here are two galleries of photos of this interesting town, which also has some World War II history. http://www.pbase.com/poppieboy/image/21235022 and http://www.picsearch.com/pictures/travel/cities/africa/northern%20africa/egypt/marsa%20matruh.html
And the beautiful photograph of Marsah Matruh is printed with the permission of and thanks to Popko van Meekeren.
How time flies
Two memories that I have, similar to what Dad did with recovering the diamond ring I recovered something a little less significant but harder to fine, the little rubber stopper (black) on an inflatable pillow/raft. And the other was a nasty incident, where I think I threw a small pebble over a wire and smashed the windscreen of a Benz! I lived in terror for the rest of that trip, and Big Sister did not help much, but took full advantage of the situation.
Cheers…Kishore
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