This is a diary from 1960. The actual entries are in typewriter font. Added comments are in red. The photographs are from that date, some in colour (expensive in those days).
26th January
Another uneventful day. Australia Day; the menu at dinner was composed of dishes with Australian sounding names.
[They were probably the same dishes as every day with only the name being changed. We certainly didn’t have the kangaroo, crocodile or emu steaks that later became fashionable in haut cuisine. After the initial novelty of shipboard food menus became rather samey - although at our ages we were always hungry enough to eat what was offered.]
[‘The Barren Rocks of Aden’]
27th January
Arrived at Aden at 0610. I was on deck to see the tugs come along and moor us. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Aden isn’t as barren as I have been led to believe. [Ken and Ian had constantly described ‘The Barren Rocks of Aden’].
We went ashore [With Ken and Ian - they knew their way around.] by launch at about 0900 and immediately went straight to the native quarter. The whole place seems to be full of smelly goats. The natives are not so insistent upon selling their goods - although there were a few bum-boats around the ship - as the ones in Port Said.
[The entrance to Crater City]
We got a taxi at the bus station to take us into Crater City. This is the main town of Aden, where one can buy goods - especially optical goods - very cheaply. We bought this £35 typewriter for £18.
[The Aden Constabulary]
[£18 = NZ36.00. This refers to the typewriter upon which the daily notes were typed (the earlier handwritten ones up to this date being later transcribed). It was an Olympic portable typewriter in a pigskin case and we used it for many years after. I tried to get it for £16 until the shop owner, waving his hands around in frustration, went to his office, came back with his receipt files and showed me that he had paid £16 for it! At that, I had to borrow £2 from Ken because, to avoid temptation, we’d deliberately left the rest of our fortune on the ship.]
Our taxi driver was a dirty, unshaved looking character with a bright orange turban on. He wanted to take us everywhere but where we wanted to go. However we finally got to the crater. It is an extinct volcanic crater and most of the natives live there. It is incredibly hot and dusty. It is mid-winter there at the moment and yet the temperature was nearly 90F. The entrance to the crater is a cleft in its side where the main road goes through. Aden has very little flora growing. The civil engineering achievements are quite something and are a tribute to British enterprise.
[Local freight carrier.]
When we returned to the quay we hired a little boy who could not have been more than 7 to carry our parcels for us. His name was Mohammed [Of course!] and he was very loyal to us while he was in our pay. There were many British servicemen in Aden. We met two service wives. They seemed cheerful enough but it must be a lousy posting for them. We finally sailed at about 1600 after the ship had taken on fuel and water to take us the next 5 or 6000 miles to Fremantle in Australia.
© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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