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[Page 12]
February 1916
we went for an all day route march & passed through the village of Tel-el-Kebir. It is only a small place but some of the most foul air I ever smelt were in that place. There are also some big orchards & orange groves for orange are grown in abundance throughout the whole of Egypt. We marched right to the far side of the village & into the desert the other side & had musketry & I put my foot on the first patch of grass since leaving Sydney. On the 25th we had an artillery formation across the desert for several miles & it was very interesting work, then again on the 28th we went into the desert for musketry. On the 29th we had to strike camp & get ready to move again & I was put on baggage guard. before leaving we were issued with 150 rounds of ammunition & from that onwards always carried it. We got into the train at 10.30 am. & went back towards Suez to a place called Serapeum where we branched off & went to a siding near the canal. There is some very heavy sand to get through before reaching the canal but now they are making metal roads. There is a punt & also a pontoon bridge across the canal & it was across this that we had to go. Our camp was about 1½ miles the Arabian side of the canal & was a terrible sandy place. We were issued with a pint of water for 24 hours & sometimes it had to last 36 hours