Item 01: James McCall Young diary, 9 November 1917-22 April 1918 - Page 41

[Page 41]

on the road to the camp while we were resting on the roadside a darkie gave us some very good tumbling turns, in fact he did turns I had not seen before. I also saw a donkey hooked to a water wheel walking round and round, it was blindfolded with a great piece of sacking so as it could not see when the boss walked away and would keep going, it seemed very strange to see an irrigation farm right in the street, it was the only place where there was something growing, you can see for miles and not a blade of grass, only sand and stones and hills. There is a great number of Flying machines up in the air. When we reached camp we were given five blankets to two men & eight men were alloted to each tent. 5.30 we had tea, native bread, bully beef and smoked tea. After tea we walked around the camp and then came back to our beat and made our bed and slept like a log until next morning.

Thursday Dec 13th
was awakened by the sound of aeroplanes flying over the camp, lay in bed watching them circling around, got up at 7 AM and had to walk about a ¼ of a mile to get a wash. very cold everyone growling how cold it was during the night about twenty flying machines up at the same time, some looping the loop, others going round and round like a corkscrew. 8 AM had breakfast. More bully beef. 9.30 first parade after the various duties had been detailed we were dismissed. 10 AM had to fall in again were told we were going to get leave for the afternoon but were informed later that it was cancelled. 12.30 AM had dinner (boiled bacon, potatoes and onions) then sat down in the sun for to help digest it. more airoplanes flying about. There are some very pretty little birds hopping about the camp very much like our ground larks only