Diary of George Booley, 5th Battalion, AIF, 1914 - Part 5 of 8

we were up bright & early in the morning 
as we had to be on the train by 8.A.M 
we took very little calling & even shouldered 
our kit bags besides our equipment 
& rifle without much growling, we  
were all packed aboard barges & towed 
to the shore some 300 yards away, the  
rest of the chaps gave us a great cheer  
as we left, I was as pleased as a school 
boy to get my feet on land again, we 
formed up & marched up through one 
of what appeared to be a main street 
& round some dirty places to the station 
by what I saw of Port Said I was not  
at all struck with the place, it appeared 
quite in keeping with what 
I have heard of it & that is when  
East meets West one can expect 
the worst of both sides together, as 
were marching up one of the streets, 
we got a last look at the "Orvieto" 
she looked grand, she has to go on to 
Alexandria with the remainder of the 
Battalion. The people seemed a bit  
surprised to see us come marching 
down the street singing. It's a long  
way to Tipperary", the streets are narrow 
& the buildings high & the tramp of our 
feet & our singing rattled around &

made a great noise, in due course  
we got to the Station & aboard the train 
here we got our first experience of the 
cunningness of the Natives & how they 
will rook you for everything they can 
at the Station they began to sell beer 
& by the time we got going most of 
them chaps began to see that the  
Natives, or as we always call them 
Niggers, had got much the best of  
the first encounter. I bought a paper  
here, the proper price of it was 1/2 Piastre 
but they charged 3' for it that was more 
than double the value of it, I thought 
we would be travelling through 
desert & barren land, but in this 
I was much surprised, the train 
was about the queerest train I had 
ever seen, there was plenty of room 
inside, but they did not smell too 
sweet, I mean the carriages we were 
in, from the outside they looked 
something like cattle trucks that 
wanted painting badly. I soon 
gave up the idea of reading the  
paper as I was running first to 
one side then the other at last 
I sat outside on the platform, so 
that I would not miss anything

All along the line we saw patrols of 
Indian troops, for about 40 miles the  
line runs back alongside the Canal 
to a place named Ismaeli that is 
near the Bitter Lakes & our Chaplain 
has since told us that it is there 
where Moses crossed to escape from 
the Egyptians, as I am not very well 
up in my Bible reading I may have 
things a bit mixed but I think that 
is what he said. All the way down  
the Canal we were passing the  
other transports going on to Port 
Said, if you get the Atlas you  
may be able to follow our movements. 
Ismaeli is a fairly big place but as  
far as I could see the population 
was mostly Natives, there is or was  
a big Military camp there, mostly  
Indians, soon after & we saw some 
Armoured trains here the first I 
have seen, a man would be fairly 
safe inside it. Soon after we left 
Ismaeli to my surprise we came to 
well cultivated land with water  
channels or as they are called Canals  
here, it all looked like the Biblical 
pictures one sees in churches, like

the ones we used to see in the Salvation 
Army barracks at Kew, you see 
a Native, (hard to tell whether it is a  
man or a woman) standing in the  
middle of a mob of 30 or 40 sheeps, the  
sheep are different to ours, they dont 
cut their tails off & they all have black 
faces & no wool on their heads, then a  
bit further over you see another chap 
with two cows or bulls yoked together 
on a bit of a wooden plough, the Yoke 
& plough are the one thing & the animals 
are about 6 feet apart, then you  
come to a place where they are pumping 
water, the pump is a big wheel 
with with buckets all the way  
round on it & the work is done by  
a cow hitched on to a pole & goes  
round & round like our horse works 
they dont seem to have ever changed 
their ways from the old days. What 
took our eye most was the Camels & Donkeys 
The farms are all laid out in small blocks 
some of Maize, Sugar Cane, Cotton, some kind  
of Clover & what I took to be rice, vegetables  
grow splendid, but what took my eye 
was every time you saw a Donkey or Camel 
you would see a native, generally a kiddy 
sitting near looking after it, they have  
no fences at all to tell where one place

starts & another ends, on our way down we 
passed through some big towns but rarely  
saw an Englishman or woman, some  
of the places you can smell them long 
before you reach them, their houses  
are built of mud, & as far as I can see  
the roofs of them are only maize stalks 
piled up on top, when you come to a  
villiage you cant tell one house from 
another, they are all built one on to  
the other & just a little alley way running 
here & there through them, as  
far as I could see the animals all 
live in there too as you see sheep, goats,  
donkeys, cows, & all kinds of things 
all about, the fowls live in amongst  
roofs of the houses, & such fowls  
they are like bantams, you should 
just see the eggs from them, they are 
like pigeon eggs a fellow could eat  
a dozen of them easy, one of the places 
we passed through was Tel-el Kebir 
the scene of a great Battle in days 
gone by. I forget the exact time it 
took to come from Port Said to Cairo 
but I think it was about 5 hours, 
it seemed the shortest 5 hours I ever 
put in travelling & I was surprised 
when I saw on looking out of the

window, the Pyramids, I knew then  
we must be somewhere near Cairo, if I 
told you all the interesting things as  
I saw them on that trip it would fill  
this book, of course there were many 
things too that would not look well  
here that seemed so different to the 
ways of Australians. From many of the  
Stations there were narrow gauge 
railways branching off, & the trains 
were funny looking affairs, I was much 
surprised to see the size of the Cairo 
Station, it is a fine looking place 
all covered in, I did not count the number 
of platforms but there are several, 
the work on the railways appear to  
be done by the Eqyptians chiefly, before  
I go any further I will explain that  
when I mention Natives it there are  
Arabs & Egyptians, the Arabs are the  
ones who generally get the name of Natives 
or Niggers, I am not far enough up  
in the history of the country to say  
which of them or if both belong here 
originally; there is a big difference 
in the Arabs & Egyptians, The Egyptians 
seem to be far more advanced 
in every way to the Arabs, to our chaps 
they are all Niggers, often I think much 
to the disgust of the Egyptians, especially

those who speak English & can understand 
what is being said most of 
them are far from Complimentry. We 
arrived at Cairo very fit for some dinner 
but the we had no ration with 
us, only a German Sausage & a loaf of 
bread we put out of sight on board  
the boat, this we ate soon after leaving 
Port Said, there was no way of getting 
a feed on the Station for us & of course  
they would not let us loose to go & 
buy our dinner, but the Captain 
got us a roll of bread & a small piece 
of cheese, it helped to keep the worms 
quiet for a little while, after unloading 
all our kits & getting them loaded 
on some lorries we marched across 
& got aboard an electric tram, we  
were very pleased to think we did 
not have to march it with our packs 
on a soon after starting out for Mena 
we heard the most diabolical row 
you ever heard, it turned out to be 
for Native funeral they had the body  
in a big boat shaped affair, & as  
far as I could see in the short time 
we were passing it, it was fastened 
to two poles & they carried it on their 
shoulders, & they were jigging it about 
& wriggling & jumping all over the

road, the whole mob, men, women & 
children were jumping & screeching 
& wailing, they were giving the poor 
beggar a lively ride for his last, we 
were told after they dont bury them 
in the coffin affair that is only made  
to carry the body to the grave, when 
they get there they tip him out 
into the hole, if he falls on his  
face, they pelt him with stones 
& make a great fuss, that means  
that he is a bad man & is not to  
go to Heaven, I forget the native name  
for it, if he falls face up then all  
is well, I was also told they only 
bury them 2 ft deep then they build  
a mound over them, these  
things are all hearsay so I cant  
vouch for them. It did not take 
us long to get to Mena, which we  
found was almost at the foot of  
the Pyramids, there is a fine hotel  
here, it is said to be the largest  
in Egypt, at present it is being 
used for a Military hospital,  
there are only 3 or 4 places here, 
all for the convenience of Tourists 
to the Pyramids, Sphinx etc.

We found some stores packed here  
for our use, sugar, wheat, Barley etc. 
we were told by some Terriers 
(that is the name given to the English 
Territorials & a very fitting one when 
you see them) that all these things 
came off a ship captured from the 
Germans. We pitched a few tents  
just for the night as our permanent 
Camp was further out on the edge 
of the desert, after having our bit of 
tea which I might tell you was  
very light, the chaps began to 
disappear & all who were left here 
were about 10 of us a good lot of them  
went in to Cairo on the tram, others  
went for donkey & camel rides up 
around the Sphinx & Pyramids, 
We had to carry water in tubs 
about half a mile, it was very funny 
to see a mob of us getting away after  
water, we would fill the tubs  
& buckets & then we would hire 
a donkey, give the donkey man 
a half Piastre & he carry the water 
while we rode the donkey they soon 
got fly to that & now we have to  
pay them 3 Piastres to get a Donkey

from the tram to our lines about a  
mile. In the morning our work began  
& as no arrangements had been made 
in the way of food for us our breakfast 
was little better than a drink of tea 
& tighten our belts & so it was for over  
a week, I shan't forget for many a 
day, the first sight I had of our camping 
ground, we started shifting our  
dunnage round on lorries drawn by 
Mules &horses, some of the horses 
were real pictures it did seem a 
shame to have such fine beasts 
pulling their lives out on the sand  
some of the horses are no bigger than 
"Teenie" & they pull some heavy loads 
but the mules are the best for the 
work they are splendid, & never 
know when they are done, our first 
view of our camp was a big patch 
of sand, you can imagine our thought  
when we knew we were in for some 
time padding about on the sand up 
to our boot tops, all the lorries were 
loaded too heavy for the animals to 
pull so you would see as many of us 
as could get to it pushing the lorries