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[Page 10]
August 1st continued We has our photo taken after the guide and the owner of the camels had argued for a considerable time and to which we had to put an end or they would have come to blows. The Sphinx was a few yards to our right, the Pyramids which are said to be 450 feet high a little further on. The guide got donkeys for us and we got aboard and speaking for myself I felt ashamed to get on the poor little animals, the saddle nearly slipped off as I got on and I found difficult in keeping my balance especially when the donkeys began to gallop.
The guide did not say where he was going, so we followed him blindly into the dusty desert all mounted on donkeys with native boys running behind us with sticks to make the donkeys go. The sand was very difficult for us to walk in but the donkeys did not seem to be bothered in the least. We passed sand dunes and mounds, a native cemetery, villages and some Indian wheat cultivations which were irrigated from Sarduffs, these are scattered all over the place and are about 12 to 30 feet deep and from 6 to 10 feet in diameter. When we passed one large brick building well covered in with trees, the guide informed us that it was an English Company.
Our guide was fairly intelligent but his English was far from perfect. He told us that the natives work by piece work and not time, they have two harvests in the year. After a long and rather tedious journey on the not overly comfortable mounts we arrived near some ruined pyramids and our guide took us up to the tombs of the old Kings of Egypt who had died hundreds of years B.C. The walls were covered with carvings of all kinds of animals, donkeys, camels, cows, cows being slaughtered which by the way means that they pull its tongue out.
The vaults which contain the bodies are carved out of solid granite of great weight and covered with a massive lid of same material, the sides have carvings and are polished. We visited four of these tombs built underneath the ground and then went to a native house close by and refreshed ourselves with a large water melon.
Our return journey was uneventful but rather wearysome , McDonalds saddle slipped round when he was offering the guide a cigarette. The guide had not eaten anything all day and did not smoke till 7 of the clock, he then looked at the sun and asked for a cigarette saying he had come to the end of the fast of Ramadon.
Our guide also had a long drink of water which he obtained from the first native village he came to. We had travelled at least 19 miles on the poor donkeys over the rough sand. We then returned to Cairo by tram and had dinner. The guide kindly informed us that if we required a good lady" he could get us one. A card by some means was placed in each officers tint with a name and address on.