While waiting for the train at Port Said we were pestered by Arab vendors/beggars trying to sell the same junk the boat Arabs had, only we were far closer and could see what was offered. These Arabs lived in dirty ragged tents beside the rail tracks, their dress in a similar condition. The Egyptian police treated them very roughly, would shout and argue for a short while then fly into a fit of temper and lash them with a whip and throw them off the platform. You could not help but feel sorry for them.

We got the train to Kantara; the train mostly ran parallel with the Suez Canal and very barren land. Kantara is on either side of the Suez, which we crossed on a huge ferry and, as I crossed I could only wonder as to the sense of personal pride of accomplishment De Lesseps experienced on completion of it in I869.

We went through Palestine Customs at Kantara which was also only a matter of form. They were not even interested in my jar of sugar. We had dinner at a NAAFI, a military canteen run by civilians and boarded a train, a comfortable one I might add, to Gaza. This train ride was mostly through the Sinai Desert and continued throughout the night and the best part of the following morning. It was a wonderful sight to see the sand stretch for as far as the eye could see on either side of us. Now and then, in the morning, we could see a camel train of ten or more camels weaving their way across the sand following a trail; God only knows how, it was just like a picture.

Later in the morning we noticed a few bushes in the sand, then gradually more and more until we were in cultivated land, mostly orange groves which, of course, I was seeing for the first time. The Arabs use Cactus to divide the fields as we do with stones in the west of Ireland. In Gaza young Arabs selling oranges 20 for 2 I/2 pence surrounded us. We had a breakfast in Gaza consisting of a scotch egg (hard-boiled egg rolled in minced meat and cooked in bacon), bread, butter and tea, which went down well not withstanding the fact we had eaten snacks on the train.

We boarded trucks to continue our journey to Sarona Camp, outside Tel-Aviv, our destination for training. Unfortunately the trucks were covered for our protection against the weather and any other unpleasantness we might encounter, so we did not get to see much of the scenery. We had an armed escort since arriving in Gaza until we reached Sarona.