Jellyfish Soup

When you’re loading camels up with scuba tanks, you know you’re off on an adventure.

Loading scuba tanks onto camels at the Blue Hole, Dahab.

Enough of an adventure, in fact, to overcome my longstanding aversion to camels, first developed in the Mauritanian Sahara where their Chewbacca howls and the Satanic buzzing of the pestilence of flies that follow in their stinking, growling, flatulent woke me, without fail, at dawn.

One of my few complete Arabic sentences, in fact, is “No thank you. I do not want a camel.”

Z riding a camel, Bedouin style, in Ras Abou Galoum.

The boy, who learned to ride Bedouin style in Petra, has no such aversion to conquer… Particularly not with two other kids to show off to.

View of mountains, beach and sea in Ras Abou Galoum, Sinai.

Ras Abou Galoum is a beautiful spot, there’s no denying it.

But what are three modern kids to do on a deserted beach for two whole days with no computers?

Z’s used to time offline, but that tends to be when we’re actively doing stuff (riding horses, climbing mountains, trekking…)

Would the digital detox kill all three of them?

Kids on the beach at Ras Abou Galoum.

Well, the digital detox didn’t quite go as planned, it has to be said.

Our dive guide had not two but FOUR mobile phones, one an iPhone complete with episodes of Achmed the Dead Terrorist which he, as an Egyptian, finds a) hilarious and b) excellent training material in English idiom.

And L had somehow managed to smuggle a Nintendo DS aboard his camel.

Boys swimming off Ras Abou Galoum.

Still, they snorkelled over an absolutely lovely coral lagoon, as bright and fresh and colourful as I remember the Blue Hole being ten years ago, and, but for a stonefish lurking at 5 metres, quite ridiculously safe.

In Ras Abou Galoum, there are blue triggerfish that don’t attack, even when they’re nesting. Even the clownfish, usually quite hilariously assertive over their anemone nests, don’t feint at you.

And the purple jellyfish that bloom all over the national park at this time of year? Stingless.

Children's hands holding a purple jellyfish in Ras Abou Galoum.

Diving, I caught one in the water. It felt, well, rubbery. Surprisingly solid. And not in the least bit slimy, more like a pencil eraser than anything aquatic.

The eels in the eel garden were smooth and firm, and a long, green sea cucumber felt like fun fur.

Kids and Bedouin making a fire on the beach at Ras Abou Galoum.

Late in the afternoon the Bedouin who provides tea, food and mats and carpets set up a campfire, and the kids sprang into life, fetching flammables and tending the fire.

The reason for a fire in temperatures way over 40?

Bedouin tea by the fire and carpets.

To keep the tea warm and fend off the flies.

Or, of course, if you’re a child, to cook jellyfish on, using a tin can you found on the shore.

Hunting jellyfish with shells and tin cans: Ras Abou Galoum.

Up and down the beach the three of them prowled, collecting jellyfish after jellyfish, and transporting them in shells to their fiery doom.

Carrying a jellyfish in a shell.

Chuck in a parrot fish beak and some seaweed. Roll in sand. Place on a board that is destined to burn.

And you have a scent as if someone burned the ocean. Amazing.

Barbecuing jellyfish.

Sitting in the twilight, with the mountains of Saudi Arabia glowing pink across the Red Sea, I thought, “I like this life of ours.”

Shack on the beach at Ras Abou Galoum, the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the distance.

And lying under the moonlit, desert sky with only a gellabiya between us and the shooting stars above, falling quietly asleep in utter safety, I realised that even modern children, like these three, can make their own entertainment out of absolutely nothing.

Just like we used to, back in the day before computers ruled our world.

16 Responses

  1. Talon says:

    Sounds like an awesome adventure!

    • Theodora says:

      It was absolutely fab, Talon! And the diving was amazing, as well… Thinking of doing another 2-day trip to a different beach near here next weekend…

  2. Heather says:

    Love it. LOVE IT!!! I’m having a particularly jealous couple of days…. here I am, still stuck in Joburg – and reading all these glorious stories! C’mon house – SELL already! PS: Added your story to my FB page, “Living Differently”. 🙂

    • Theodora says:

      Thanks, Heather! Much appreciated… I suppose you’ve had all the adventures you can have in Joburg?

  3. Phil says:

    I knew this post was going somewhere special when I saw that there were scuba tanks being loaded onto camels. Nintendo DS on a camel!! It doesn’t get much better. Or maybe it does with the jellyfish dinner and smell of burning ocean. Fun post, Theodora.

  4. Shut up–camels carrying scuba tanks? How awesome is that? Only my two favorite things in one setting! Cool experience–minus the jellyfish soup =)

    • Theodora says:

      Bwahahaha! I completely forgot you had camels in your blog name! The diving was excellent, actually — lovely easy drift dives, with a lot to see for Sinai.

  5. oh i LOVE this!! i esp love the photo of z on the camel, looking all Indy. did they EAT the cooked jellyfish? and?

    • Theodora says:

      Oh god no. They just cooked it and mauled the poor thing. It went down to a small ball of rubber. Quite fascinating.

  6. jelillie says:

    Thanks for taking us on the journey

  7. Geoff H. says:

    Hi Theodora,

    I’ve always been fascinated/petrified by jellyfishes (got sting 3/4 times) I never touched one though, it always touched me first ^^
    Made me laught to see you throwing them into the fire!
    Cheers

    • Theodora says:

      Hello Geoffrey! I’ve been stung as a child, but not as an adult. The sting-free ones are super cool, though…

  8. jill says:

    Particularly love your description “And you have a scent as if someone burned the ocean. Amazing.” I can so envision the whole scene. What an amazing adventure!