Cairo, which was pitched on the ground near the Egyptian Army Barracks
at Abbassieh. Life there was very pleasant and the joys of a town were
very much appreciated by every one after our months of exile.

We were not left long however to enjoy ourselves, and after about a
fortnight at Cairo we again entrained for a station on the Suez Canal.
Little did we then think it was the first move in our long trek into
Palestine.

We arrived at Ballah West on the 17th February and got our first
impression of what our life in the desert was to be like. The weather
was very broken and not too warm, but moving about constantly in the
sand was very tiring and depressing. We had had the experience of sand
at Aboukir, but that was at the side of the sea where one is quite
prepared for it, but at Ballah it seemed to be different. There was
nothing but sand on every side except for the thin strip of water, the
Suez Canal running north and south.

After about a week in camp on the west side of the Canal we received
orders to move to the other bank and relieve the 31st Division, who at
that time were occupying the canal defences. After some confusion which
arose through the orders which had been given to us not having been
issued to the 31st Division, relief was carried out and we saw the
"Great Wall of China." This was a trench revetted by sand bags, running
some miles to the east of and running parallel to the Canal. Its
tactical uses we never could understand. Days were spent trying to
clean up Ballah East; had Hercules been with us he would have diverted
the Canal through the Augean camp.

On March 2nd the Battalion took over posts from Ballah to Kantara; the
work was not arduous, being mainly to see that no unauthorised persons
visited the Canal to put mines therein. Everyone bathed and one officer
caught a mullet on a white sea fly, but no more; he always felt sure if
he were to fish at the right time he would get a good basket, but his
dreams were never realised.

Several officers who had been wounded or sick now rejoined us, including
Captains Brand and Beckett and Lieut. MacLellan, also a draft of
officers from the 3rd and 4th H.L.I., consisting of Lieuts. Parr,
Strachan, T.B. Clark, Burleigh, Grey, Buchanan, A. Le G. Campbell.

On Sunday, March 12th, the Battalion was transferred in barges up the
Canal to El Kantara, where "A" Company was already on detachment.
Kantara was the starting-point for the advance across the Sinai