Thanks Deano, your nav is better than mine, I had another look at my photo #775 which shows the OM quite clearly. The development in 70 years is amazing, I recall nothing east of the camp except the APL lines but the 2020 satellite view shows it packed tight with property.
School ended at lunchtime and when our parents couldn't/wouldn't stump up the shilling fare for the Bedford QL gharri to Steamer Point lido we took the one-mile track to the camp pool on the fantastic beach along the east side of the Aden peninsula. Pool has long gone and beach is now the Layali Dubai Tourist Park. Station standing orders decreed that personnel and families should not swim off the beach which was home to shark, sting ray, barracuda and venomous sea snakes, but we did.
On the way back we could wander into the civil airport to inspect transit BOAC Argonauts, Hermes and beautiful TWA Constellations, together with Daks operated by Aden Airways and Ethiopian Air Lines. There was no taxiway so no time was wasted on backtracking, with a burst of outboard the Daks spun round in front of the RAF hangars and lifted the tail for their trip back to the civvy apron. We once found a friendly baby camel wandering near the pool and took it home with a view to keeping it on the back verandah but our parents wouldn't allow it.
Who needed Facebook, Instagram or TikTok? The height of excitement for me was the rare Saturday morning parked beside a Brigand with a bowl of petrol, a couple of brushes and 72 plugs from its Bristol Centauri. Today this would be considered dangerous child exploitation leading to lasting trauma in adulthood which probably explains a lot …
Only aircon we knew was when my dad pinched the cooling trolley used to lower aircraft temps before departure and ran its long hose into the flight offices. I suppose we became accustomed to the heat; the houses were well designed and are still doing their job today. Inside we slept on a charpoy, the wooden frame strung with rattan netting, just as we had in India four years before. To avoid company at night we sometimes stood the legs in Players 50-cigs tins part filled with paraffin which deterred the ants and the few cockroaches which escaped Ahmed, my pet land crab.
I see Aden's average temp is around 32C with humidity 70%. People pay good money to obtain higher temps than this in Spain, Turkey or Greece, too hot for me so if lockdown ends we'll maybe try the Layali Dubai Tourist Park, doesn't seem too busy at present
