The rooms are
dirty, and the cooking execrable.
There is nothing to see at Suez, but still we went for a ramble to see
that nothing. We cleared our boxes and our letters, and then went on
ankle deep in sand to the one European house, the railway station, the
Arab quarter and the bazaars, where it is occasionally possible to
pick up rather interesting little curiosities brought by the pilgrims
from Mecca and Medina.
_Thursday, April 26th_.--Such a sunrise as this morning's you could
only see in Arabia or Egypt. There is a peculiarity about desert
colouring at sunrise and sunset that can never be seen anywhere else.
We had sundry visitors during the early morning, and before ten
o'clock we were in the Canal and steaming on at regulation speed. As
the sun rose the heat became intense, 96 deg. in the shade under double
awnings. So far from there being a cool breeze to temper it, a hot
wind blew from the desert, like the blast from a furnace. I stood on
the bridge as long as I could bear the heat, to look at the strange
desert view, which could be seen to great advantage in going through
at the top of high water. Sand, sand everywhere; here a train of
camels, there a few Arab tents, now a whole party shifting their place
of abode; a group of women washing, or a drove of buffaloes in a small
tributary stream.
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