大象传媒

After our sort stay in Tivoli and the visit to Rome the div. continued on its way south to Taranto.

We travelled by train in a fairly cramped style inside dirty goods waggons,in very hot, and rather unsanitary conditions, but at least we were out of it for a while, so despite our grumbling (The PBI's right!)we were reasonably content.

At Taranto we boarded the good ship "MV Batory" a Polish vessel which in happier days sailed I believe from Gydnia in Poland to the USA. It was an uneventual crossing, the Med. was on it's best behaviour and I WASN'T SEASICK! so I was able to enjoy my meals on board,in fact the food in the mess was for me quite good, quite different from the usual army grub because of the Polish cooks I realised afterwards,though not everyone thought that way,as there was some complaints to me that it was inedible.

We had the 8th Argyles with us and at night their Pipe Major would entertain us with sword dancing and playing his pipes, I love the pipes and whenever I hear a reel being played and recognize it as one that was played on the trip I can still picture in in my mind the scene on deck.

The train journey to Qassasin from Port Said on the Egyptian State Railway was far more pleasant than our Italian trip as we were in proper rail coaches that were well ventilated.

The rest camp was very big in the middle of the desert,well set out and organized, with Cinemas, NAAFI club, and other amenities, such as showers, which we needed as it was very hot, most of what we did was either in the morning or evening when it was cooler.
And of course there were the flies ,everywhere it seemed to me,crawling all over your body if you'd let them looking for moisture, of which we had plenty, sweating as we did! It was a very unpleasent feeling them land on your skin, a feeling which unless experienced is hard to explain I'm sure anyone reading this will know what I mean.

Then there were the vendors who came round trying to sell food, They appeared to be all named either Abdullah,or Mohammed, at least that is what they answered to when called them!

They came by calling out Eggis! Datus! el Bananis! I don't recall anyone buying anything from them, though they must have done some business in the camp.
The eggs iIknow were hardboiled and looked like pigeons eggs they so small, I hate think what the hens that laid them looked like !

We had excursions to Ismailia a town close by, went swimming in the Bitter Lakes, very salty so it was easy to float. Drove by the the wrongly named "Sweet Water Canal"
were we saw everything being done in it from washing, drinking, to other unmeanchionable activities, and of course there were the ubiqitous flies having a field day.

Then came the great day when we went on leave to Cairo,and I must say I and the fellows I was with had a great time, I think we covered most of the sites, including the Cairo museum, climbing to the top of the tallest minaret,eating Groppi icecream,drinking Stella beer, haggling over buying souveniers.

And of course the main attraction going to see the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza.
Which will be in part two of this story.

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