Bowler war diary, 21 May-July 1917 / William (Bill) Gordon Bowler - Page 39

[Page 39]

About like hornets. At 6.30 a,m we anchored in Plymouth Sound, and prepared to disembark almost immediately. The fog lifted just before we entered the harbour, and we had a fine view of the coast. There does not appear to be any rocks or cliffs like the Australian coast but the red clay covered with green grass runs right down to the water's edge. Just opposite the breakwater is Plymouth Hoe, where Drake played his famous game of Bowls He was not playing the day we arrived, so we did not see him. No doubt, Saturday afternoon would be the best day to catch him. We landed at Devonport (Gt Western Railway Docks) at 11 a,m, and entrained for Tidmouth, Salisburty Plains. As we passed through the railway stations and towns near Devonport, hundreds of women and girls waved flags and handkerchiefs to us. Very soon we were travelling through beautiful fields surrounded by green hedges. It was a beautiful fine day, and the country was looking its best. We crossed numbers of streams with quaint stone bridges spanning them here and there. In the country parts of Australia they talk in miles, here it is acres. After seeing the miles of wheat paddocks between Sydney and Melbourne, with their post and rail fences stretching away as far as the eye could reach, the small fields surrounded with hawthorne and honeysuckle hedges, looked strange. The country looked like a huge tiled verandah. We saw field after field of wheat and oats, with thousands of red poppies growing amongst the ripening grain. Everywhere women were working in the fields, and they all stopped to wave hoes, aprons, etc, and we yelled cooees until our voices refused to act. Men were only seen at rare intervals