WESTERN DESERT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21248, 19 October 1940, Page 8

WESTERN DESERT

CAIRO TO ALEXANDRIA DREARY DESERT HIGHWAY SCENES ON THE WAYSIDE (Official News Service) We left early one -morning in a small English motor-car and as we slipped out of camp the sun was shining brightly and all seemed to indicate a hot day’s motoring at least till we could feel the cool breezes of the Mediterranean that were over 100 miles away. We sped out of Cairo and on c own the seven straight miles to Mena House. Mena House is one of the fashionable hotels for the peacetime visitors to Egypt. It is within a few hundred yards of the Sphinx and the two pyramids. Before \\ e reached Mena House the sun supped behind a mist and as the load, gently descending, approached tee hotel, a wet thick fog enveloped us. The contrast from the warm morning sun to the grey wet and comparatively cold fog was felt at once. Speed had to be reduced. At times the visability did not extend beyond 20 yards. Into Range of Hills The road round Mena House turns north across the desert and for a few miles up a gentle range of hills. Here we hoped to leave the fog behind. But it grew thicker and colder and for 30 miles, save for a fitful sight of sunlight, we were compelled to drive along hampered by the elements. At last we came out of the fog into sunlight and were soon speeding along the most monotonous road that man ever made for car. The road is straight for stretches of 30 or 40 miles and then again for similar distances. Yellow arid desert on each side, no vegetation worth mentioning, and not a sign of man or animal. Running parallel to the road is a telegraph line, and the posts as we flashed past seemed only to increase the monotony of the route. Midway to Alexandria is a huge restaurant, Halfway House, sited on a rise, and from there we halted and gazed over gently undulating but still yellow arid waste lands. First Human Being The first man we met was an Egyptian motor-cyclist standing by a dead camel. From the injuries on the beast it appeared that it had been too disdainful of some heavy motorlorry. We lunched by the roadside and placed our small oil burner inside an empty bitumen barrel, for a breeze was blowing, and being New Zealanders, we wanted tea with our lunch. Then came the first sight of human habitation. It consisted of Bedouin camps; though camps is hardly the word for a permanent house. The residences consist of canvas or skin coverings—large low-ceilinged tents, not high enough for a man to stand up in. There we saw the women and the children in and about these tents. It struck us as curious, but from that time till we had almost reached Matruh the women were all dressed in bright red long-skirts or fustaans. Bedouins’ Good Name These Bedouins have earned a good name with the troops in the Western Desert. They are shyer than their Egyptian brethren who live in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria, and so far as we could learn, they were honest. It would be difficult to classify their means of livelihood, but farming is the nearest description. There is some ploughing with a single wooden plough which seems only to scratch the surface, and all the families have their tribes of boats. Some, if not all, have camels and we saw these haughty creatures bearing great loads of produce across the desert. The women were all shy, but the men waved in a friendly way as we sped along. Many of them carried old-fashioned muzzle-loading muskets, to them, precious possessions. At last we ran towards the environs of Alexandria and saw in the distance, past a very unpromising suburban area a city rising white and beautiful, with every now and then a glimpse of the blue waters of the Mediterranean.

We soon ran into the city, over dreadfully rough, stony streets, narrow and tortuous and well filled with the most careless pedestrians ever conceived for the torture of motorists. We reported to the A.P.M. as in duty bound; filled the tank with benzine and drove out again, but along the waterfront where there were sights that filled us with pride and joy. and which would have filled the Italians with hatred and fear.