Private J. D. Caves: The Long Journey Home
20 August 1941 Maadi, Egypt B Coy Nth Inf Training Depot 2nd N.Z.E.F. Middle East Forces
Dear Mum & Dad,
I have now been over here three weeks. Life has fallen more or less into a routine with many fatigues and guards which fill a big part of a soldier's life. On guard here, one is not cursed with mosquitoes thank goodness - we miss the toads and mongooses and bats but have in their place little lizards - small sand-coloured and extraordinarily fast moving when disturbed. Gypsies come through the camp occasionally with their donkey drawn carts and sometimes on camels. They have these rubber air horns like the old motorbikes, and on a busy road through the camp the din is weird and wonderful. Like the honking of geese or a dog loose in a very mixed farm yard.