Author: Catherine Davis

Leave up today, much too soon in some ways, but just as well in others as Cairo is not exactly a cheap place to stay in. I left Cairo by the eleven o’clock train and arrived at Kantara at three. It was a very pretty journey through well cultivated country. We had our own horses meet us at Kantara.

We hadn’t been in camp for more than half an hour before an order came in that the brigade was to stand to, as the Turks were reported to be attacking Hill 70, which is about six and a half miles away. About two hours later an order came in to saddle and harness up and go over to the east bank of the canal, and to my great disgust I’ve been ordered to stay behind tonight, issued with ammunition, and told to guard the camp stores and all the horses and men of the brigade that are left behind. So I’ve been flying round mounting guards and picquets and at present don’t know whether I am standing on my head or my heels.

Kenning has just come back with the report that our outposts at Katia are cut off and the enemy have captured a whole brigade of our cavalry. He seems to think that I shall have to come on to them with all that’s left tomorrow.

Not much sleep tonight I don’t expect.

I had a very slack day today sitting about in the hotel gardens. We walked to the Ezbekiah Gardens which are very pretty. I went to tea with Tara at the Empire Nurses Club and afterwards walked round the town a bit with her. We had dinner out in the hotel gardens tonight, it was lovely and cool, there was a military band playing in one part of the gardens and a string band in another. A rather odd dance afterwards, but we didn’t know anyone to dance with.

We left the hotel at nine and took a motor to Giza; there we got onto camels and took a guide on a donkey and rode up to the Pyramids. We climbed the Pyramid of Giza, well worth doing, as the view from the top looking over the Nile valley is lovely. It wasn’t difficult as far as the climbing went, but very hard work as it is 450 ft high. When you are climbing it doesn’t seem to slope out as you’d expect, but looks absolutely sheer. Then we rode round the Sphinx and after that rode out to the Pyramids and tombs of Sakkara which are nine miles away over the desert. It was really quite comfortable on the camels, and the motion not at all bad, but a bit jolty when we trotted. We passed a large herd of grazing camels, with several foals with them, though there wasn’t a lot to graze on.

When we got to Sakkara we went down into the Temple of Teti, and underground vaults with a lot of Egyptian carving on the walls. Then we went down into the tomb of the Sacred Bull, very large underground tunnels and chambers. You have to take candles down. There were a good many enormous polished and carved coffins of granite. The sides were about a foot thick, the mummies had been taken out of them and are in the Cairo museum. Then we went into the Pyramid of Unas; you had to crawl down an underground passage about four feet high which branched into various chambers with the walls covered with carvings of quaint Egyptian figures. The most interesting of the Sakkara Pyramids is the Pyramid of the Steps, though you can’t climb it; it is six thousand years old.

After that we stopped for a bit to eat our sandwiches and then rode to Memphis and saw a Sphinx which was only discovered three years ago; also a statue of Remises. To get to Memphis we left the desert and came down into the Nile valley. Very pretty indeed and well cultivated. We went through one or two native villages, but we always did this at a smart trot as the stinks were perfectly awful, no drains of any description at all I should think.

After Memphis we rode out to Badrachine and there left our camels and got into a train for Cairo. We did fifteen miles on the camels altogether.

It took us about an hour in the train from Badrachine to Cairo, very pretty all through the Nile valley. After dinner we got hold of a guide and drove through the very lowest parts of the Arab town. The streets, or rather passages, were just wide enough for our gharri to go through. It was a wonderful but quite indescribable sight seeing these Arab natives absolutely at home, and I wasn’t sorry when we’d got through. After that we persuaded our guide to take us to see the natives smoking hashish, which is the same as opium. This habit is I believe forbidden and there are very heavy punishments, but it will be pretty hard to stop I should think. As they only do it in secret our guide had to pick up an Arab who knew a den where they were smoking. We went into it, the guide going in first to explain we were only coming to see it. You saw a lot of natives lying about, mostly half asleep and others sucking at great long pipes. They were very keen for us to try it, but as there was only a sort of big pipe of peace which was passed around from mouth to mouth we weren’t having any, and also I believe it makes a white man dead drunk at once or feel so energetic he wants to go and fight someone. So we politely declined. They showed us the raw hashish, which is very like a peppercorn and you put two or three in a pipe of tobacco, and smoke.

Woke up at about 8! It felt very funny to be in between sheets again. We’ve gone properly bust and taken a room with a private bathroom attached. So this morning I revelled in the first hot bath since I left England. There were several kites making a lot of screeching in the tree outside our bedroom window; also several hoodies as tame as anything.

After breakfast we took a gharri and drove to the British H.Q. Savoy Hotel, where all officers coming to Cairo have to report. I tried to see Gen. Malcolm there but they told me he had left for England. I got some money from the National Bank of Egypt and then went to the Empire Nurses’ Club to see if I could find Tara; who wasn’t in, so I left a note.

Then we took a guide, and went to see the coronation mosque; it is a modern one, about sixty years old, a wonderful sight, the most lovely decorations: domes, marble, wood carving and inlaid work, chiefly ivory and silver in cedar wood. We had to wear funny sort of shoes over our boots while we were in there. Then we went to see an ancient mosque, the Sultan Hassan , not nearly so gaudy, but still awfully fine architecture. We went up one of the minarets (250ft high) where we had a most gorgeous view all over Cairo; you could see the Pyramids, the Nile, the citadel and countless domes and minarets of mosques. The guide told me there were 400 mosques in Cairo. The number of kites is extraordinary, as common as sparrows in an English town. The reason why there are so many is because they are strictly protected as being very nearly the only system of drainage there is in some parts of Cairo.

Then we drove down some low Arab quarters till we came to the Arab bazaars: narrow passages with high houses up each side, but the whole effect wonderful as it is just a blaze of colour. You could see the natives doing inlaid work, working brass, bronze, and silver. In fact, it wouldn’t be difficult to spend a fortune there; some of the silk Kimonos and things hand worked by the ladies of the harems were perfectly lovely, but the smell and heat were against staying there long.

During lunch at Shepheard’s I suddenly became aware of Hodges at a table close to us. He didn’t recognise me till I spoke to him; it must be four years since I saw him.

After lunch we took a gharri and went to the Museum. The only interesting things to us ignoramuses were the mummies. We saw the one of Ramses III who is thought to be Pharaoh the — horribly blackened and shrunken skin, but the hair and teeth and finger nails still preserved, wonderful embalming.

After the Museum we drove over the Nile to the Zoo, a very ordinary and rather mangy collection of animals but the flowers and the trees in the gardens were lovely. We had tea there and then drove back to the hotel for dinner. Very nice having a band playing during dinner.

After that we went to the Kursaal where there was a revue called “All In Khaki”, quite an amusing show though all the cast was composed of blacks, Japs, and French. The performances went on till midnight.

Orderly dog today. Gun drill six to eight, skeleton work just with the b—, but no guns on wagons.

Franklyn and I have got a few days leave, so we started for Cairo by the 7:30 train from Kantara this evening. Had dinner in the train. The Cairo line leaves the canal from Ishmailia. We arrived in Cairo at midnight and have taken a room at Shepheards Hotel.

Battery Gun drill from six till eight this morning. Franklyn and I were doing F.O.O. work and registering targets on a zone the other side of the canal. Bathed at midday.

Took Kitty out for an hour’s hack this evening, she was very gay. The divisional bands played this evening.

It’s not been quite so hot today as yesterday, and there has been a nice breeze. A mail came in this afternoon and I had lots of news from home.