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[Page 31]
Part 2
Extract Dairy on route
Cairo, Egypt mostly.
Since last month have completely changed our surroundings. From a sea of water we have been transferred to a sea of sand. We are now camping on the desert under the shade of the great pyramid "Knut or Gizeh" near the village of Mena.
We arrived at Alexandria on Dec. 3rd & were put on a train at 9 a.m. – reached Cairo 2 p.m., had a piece of bread & cheese & half a cup of cocoa supplied to each man: loaded our baggage on to trolley cars & left at 5 p.m. for Mena which is 10 miles away. By the time we had our baggage into camp it was 8 p.m.
We rolled up in our blankets & slept in the open on the sand. A heavy dew fell, which made our blankets quite wet. They never get rain here; the dews which fall wet the ground as though a heavy fall of rain had taken place. At Alexandria we were not allowed leave (We had it though) but on some of the other boats leave was given to a number of men. There was quite a number of German boats in habour; they had been captured since the war commenced.
The approach to Alexandria by sea is very pretty. The land is low & sandy. The city stretches for about 9 miles along the sea front. There is a fine light house