A real scorcher today, by 9 o’clock in the morning it was 106 degrees in the shade and reached a climax at 3 pm by being 117 degrees. Tried to bathe in the morning but it was too hot to enjoy it. Osman, the native who comes down with things from Port Said, says it hasn’t been as hot for a good many years. There was a scorching hot breeze (khamseen) this afternoon which made things worse. We lay and gasped and dripped, only moving just to see the horses watered and fed. I hope we don’t get any more days as hot.
A large French trooper full of Japanese troops went down the canal this evening. I wonder if they are going to France?* Bathed about 7:30, but still felt just as hot afterwards.
*I heard officially later that they were French colonial troops from Cochin China, bound for Salonika.