~ Off to Abhur (Obhur)

Salam alaikum warahmatuLLAh,

"Look! Allah has ordered the ocean not to cross THIS boundary & it obeys..

& when the order is lifted.. then there comes what u call tsunami."

.. amidst the wild whooshes of calm waves, someone whispered near my ear, pointing towards the beach line of the Red Sea.. & the words sent thankful chills down my spine.

alhamduliLLAH, for Imaan, for life & love, for family & friends & for every blessing He has bestowed upon us..

A flash trip to Uroos_bahr_ul_ahmar 'the bride of Red sea'; Jiddah (literally meaning 'Grandmother' - a name taken up because of Amma Hawwa alehi salam; Eve alehi salam resting abode) ended up in an awesome day out of 4-5 families at the red sea itself.

Red sea; so named for its dramatic red coral, possesses warm, safe and fish-abundant waters & has a pleasant climatic aura about it thats ideal for swimming, sailing and fishing almost all year round.

After praying Salatul Jum'ah, we headed off to north Abhur.

Our picnic spot was Abhur creek also called Sharm Obhur (where sharm means the creek.. & not the urdu one :p)

People spell it with an 'o', but i'm pretty comfortable with my spellings, & besides its an arabic word so..

The word literally means 'sailed' & a sixth century traveler 'Ibn Juabir' talked about his experience in Abhur waters in his travelogue like so;

أرسينا بمرسى يعرف بأبحر, وهو على بعد يوم من جدة, وهو من أعجب المراسي وضعاً وذلك أن خليجاً من البحر يدخل إلى البر والبر مُطيف به, من كلتا حافتيه, فترسي الجلاب منه في قرارة مكنة هادئة. فلما كان سحر يوم الإثنين بعده أقلعنا منه على بركة الله تعالى بريح فاترة, والله الميسر ولا رب سواه. فلما جنَّ الليل أرسينا على مقربة من جدة وهي بمرأى العين منا. وحالت الريح صبيحة يوم الثلاثاء بعده بيننا وبين دخول مرساها, ودخول هذه المرسى صعب المرام بسبب كثرة الشعاب والتفافها

not that im perfect in my translation.. but if you could try your best shot, now is your turn :p

Its an 11 km long beach, less than 30 km from main city & is studded with fantastic sites well-supplied with hotels and resorts.

Jet-skiing & scuba diving enthusiasts are no less in number either.

People say they hit the sunny beaches where they occupy themselves keeping the sun off their skin, the saltwater off their bodies, and the sand out of their belongings... but that wans't the case here.

Not only did we dip.. we dipped deep :p

.. & with a biryani, sweet rice (xarda), tea & some cake we throughly enjoyed our stay there.

oh & there was a camp setting up too, for those who needed a time off from all the fun.. it remained vacant for almost all the while though :p

We have had a lil competition of hold_your_breath_underwater thing & gladly i won :p alhamduliLLAh.

(an approx 60 sec of turmoil, had me wondering about the water-boarded victims.. May Allah rid the captives from the captivity of their evil captors.. amin)

Its true that by and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacation-less class... seriously.

.. we left the shores behind in the evening as the sun prostrated for Maghrib :)

A day out on fantastic sunny sands - and the rest of the year on financial rocks : /

All in all, an epic experience..
& alhamduliLLAH for that.

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Other bits of the album:

Take a peak at my full-screen Abhur gallery slide-show. [click 'Show Info' in left upper bar in there, to view the captions.]

or enjoy this cool 3d wall down here instead;

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