In the early 80s I joined an old style conventional freighter in Detroit up on the Great Lakes as second mate. She had 8000 tons of bagged flour, along with some other cargo bound for Egypt. It was October, beautiful weather had a nice passage through the lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.
We were in Alexandria Egypt for over two weeks, unloading the flour. it was very labor-intensive, the bags were loaded into slings, then using the ships gear loaded from the hatches to trucks on the dock and unloaded from the slings.
The ships officers were able to arrange watches so that each one got some time off. Cairo and the pyramids were a popular destination, but it didn’t appeal to me. A few hours down the coast was the town of EL Alamein where the North African campaign of World War II was concluded.
Arranged for a car and driver and a couple of us headed down there. A 2 lane Highway with very little traffic, the Mediterranean on one side and the desert which resembled a moonscape on the other. It seemed rather paradoxical that thousands had died battling over this real estate.
We visited the British/Commonwealth memorial/cemetery first. There were thousands of graves, along with stonework memorial, very serene. This being a desert environment, rather than grass the ground cover was like pinkish pea-stone. It was here we met the only other visitors of our trip. An older Scottish couple, he had flown there with the RAF and was visiting some of his fallen comrades. It was very moving, but due to the circumstances didn’t encourage much conversation.
We went to visit the Italian and German memorials. On the way, our driver stopped at a small house,brought along a man to unlock the memorials. Each one was very nice, Had representative graves in mausoleum-tomb type affair, nowhere near the magnitude or size of the British memorial. Both sites were very nice.
As I mentioned, we only came across the Scottish couple. The whole experience was very moving, and quiet. The term serene doesn’t describe it as the thoughts and emotions, I experienced were quite powerful.
The ride back to Alexandria was quiet, we were lost in our thoughts.
Kevin G
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We were in Alexandria Egypt for over two weeks, unloading the flour. it was very labor-intensive, the bags were loaded into slings, then using the ships gear loaded from the hatches to trucks on the dock and unloaded from the slings.
The ships officers were able to arrange watches so that each one got some time off. Cairo and the pyramids were a popular destination, but it didn’t appeal to me. A few hours down the coast was the town of EL Alamein where the North African campaign of World War II was concluded.
Arranged for a car and driver and a couple of us headed down there. A 2 lane Highway with very little traffic, the Mediterranean on one side and the desert which resembled a moonscape on the other. It seemed rather paradoxical that thousands had died battling over this real estate.
We visited the British/Commonwealth memorial/cemetery first. There were thousands of graves, along with stonework memorial, very serene. This being a desert environment, rather than grass the ground cover was like pinkish pea-stone. It was here we met the only other visitors of our trip. An older Scottish couple, he had flown there with the RAF and was visiting some of his fallen comrades. It was very moving, but due to the circumstances didn’t encourage much conversation.
We went to visit the Italian and German memorials. On the way, our driver stopped at a small house,brought along a man to unlock the memorials. Each one was very nice, Had representative graves in mausoleum-tomb type affair, nowhere near the magnitude or size of the British memorial. Both sites were very nice.
As I mentioned, we only came across the Scottish couple. The whole experience was very moving, and quiet. The term serene doesn’t describe it as the thoughts and emotions, I experienced were quite powerful.
The ride back to Alexandria was quiet, we were lost in our thoughts.
Kevin G
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
