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[Page 17]
in the Street was in uniform. It was sad to see so many of these men in a noisy mood thanks to the farewell "shouts" of their friends (?). we stopped & spoke to two of the sober ones & they told us they were leaving for G.S.W.A. [German South West Africa] the following day. They told us that they were down on furlough from the front & that it was awful up there. All the water has to be condensed on the coast & then carried by camels & mules to the men at the front & most of the fighting is in desert land. They are only allowed 1 pint of water per man per day & this has to do for everything & as the men said, if you drink it first, you can't wash in it & if you wash in it first you certainly can't drink it – so don't wash. Some of the troops going to the front had never before seen the sea. Dutch burghers from Trans Vaal, & one of these men in their company said "I won't be sick" & they said "how do you know?" & he said "I went to the beach & watched the ocean steadily for an hour & never felt a bit sick, so I know it won't affect me".
A great many of them wore short pants, made of khaki drill just like football pants & socks & boots. When Tingsie daw them she said "look at the man boy scouts" & that is what they looked like.
We went to a restaurant & had coffee & ices & then tried to buy stamps for an Australian Mail. The only place open was an automatic machine at the G.P.O. so getting 3/- worth of pence from the restaurant keeper we set off & it took us just over ½ hour to get them. If this penny didn't go in at a certain angle it fell down a sheet, if it was fat it wouldn't go through the slot, if thin it returned instead of a stamp & every other stamp we got, we had to step aside & let some one else have a turn or we would have caused a block in the traffic. We were thankful when we came to the end of our pence. Then we visited a garage & hired a car for the following day.
The wharf & the docks are about half an hour walk from the town & like Melbourne the goods trains run along the wharves. On our way up we drove round the town & saw Parliament House & other buildings of note. Flower sellers with beautiful native heaths & garden flowers were in several of the streets. Fruit was plentiful & cheap. Beautiful muscatel grapes packed in baskets 14 lbs for 1/9d & we got beautiful yellow Monday peaches for 1/6a per doz. Some of these had the fruit fly in them. Here too we got avocado pears, they look like small pawpaws, but I think they taste like unripe jam melons. We also got a new vegetable here called "bringal" [eggplant or aubergine] – we have only seen them cooked, they look & taste like small cucumbers only not so watery. They serve them fried in batter & tomato sauce.
On Saturday morning we left the boat at 9.15 & with the Sears & the children left for a trip round Capetown. It was a beautiful day & we had a fine big car & drove first to Camps Bay. Electric trams run from the City. It has a beach like Coogee & the drive out is splendid, all along the sea front, past numerous little coves & bays with week-enders cottages dotted about. Shortly after leaving Camps Bay we turned inland & went round the back of the Lion's Head. Here the soil is sandy & covered with short scrubby vegetation with heaths everywhere. There were plenty of yellow bottle brush trees & at intervals patches of cultivation with corn, potatoes, tomatoes, marrows &c growing in great profusion & so on to Houts [Hout] Bay, where we had morning tea. Then we turned back going thro' Constancia [Constantia] & Rondebosch (2 suburbs) where we again picked up the electric trams, which run by another route into Capetown.
From Houts Bay the country was very like England, road splendid, hedges frequent, & continuous avenues of firs, pines & oaks. Some of the oak trees are supposed to have been planted by the Dutch in the 16th Century. They certainly look very old & where a limb has fallen off a neat tin patch has been put on to keep the rain out & its consequent rot. We passed a succession of orchard vineyards & vegetable gardens. The smell of the pine groves was delightful, & there was a big flowering tree with plenty of mauve coloured star-shaped flowers which looked very dainty against the dark pine background. The houses were old & quaint, many with thatch for roof & some were half timbered.
We drove round & through "Rhodes" Estate, past Groote Schuur (pronounced root skewer). It was the residence of the late Cecil Rhodes & he left it to the Nation. Now it is the home of the Premier. We could not go over it as the Botha family (pronounced Boata) were in residence, but General Botha had left the previous day for G.S.W.A. it is a very uncommon looking house but somehow not solidly elegant like an English Mansion & is far too near the road. Near by one the Estate is a sort of free zoo, with poor animals in small cages facing the road, & deer & other animals in big paddocks, there was even a kangaroo.
The road from here back to the town was very dusty, but still free from ruts & holes & we passed many military encampments – Light Horse, Artillery with mule teams & a Field Hospital. The land here is very suitable for camps – sloping ground, sandy soil & plenty of pine trees for shade. So we drove round the back of the Table Mountain into Capetown & once more back to the Ship.
After lunch we left Amy & Peter & went again to Camps Bay. – Here we had afternoon tea & let the girlies play on the beach. They did enjoy paddling & playing with the sand.
At Durban & here too they have cemented shallow ponds high up on the beach pumped full of sea water for children to bathe in, but I didn't let the children go into them for I thought they didn't look too clean. We saw the children from a school having competitive sand castle building, but we had to leave just after they started as we were to leave the Cape at 6 pm.
We got away on time & then came the long steamy trip thro' the tropics. We crossed the line on Sunday 14th February, but did not celebrate it. Children & adults sports took up some of the days, but everyone felt the heat very much. We got a nice cool breeze on the 18th & expect to get it cool now for rest of the trip.
On the 20th we came in sight of the Peak of Tenerife about 4 pm, being about 76 miles off. We didn't drop anchor till midnight & took in cargo all night. Not being able to sleep we got up about 7 & were delighted to get letters from Egypt & England. Some Spanish men were on the boat with their wares asking exorbitant prices for drawn thread work & other trifles. A man kept diving for coins, but did not seem to enjoy it as the water was very cold.
We heard that an English Man O War had left going North the day before so I suppose we are now being patrolled along. We saw some German boats here the Cap d'Ortegal & others & as we left the band on the Cap d'Ortegal struck up the Watch on the Rhine immediately the steerage passengers & first class children got the band to play "Rule Britannia" & just yelled it as we went by.
We were at breakfast & wondered what the singing was. The Captain was furious & the bandsmen had a bad half hour with him. They will not again triumph over their enemies with musical accompaniment – not on this boat at any rate.
Some of the passengers are