TCD MS 11290/20 folio 1 recto
[Begining missing] [?November-December 1917]
My old friend the hippopotamus in the Cairo Zoo is in great form also the pelicans who are having great fun now chasing the countless teal and shovellers who are living in their pool.
I had an uneventful journey back and stayed a day at Ramleh and a day at Latron on the way.
All about Ramleh are wonderful fruit orchards but it is a bad time to see them as all the oranges have been brought in and the almonds are not yet in flower. A French guard put me up for the night in a shed and were very polite and obliging, unfortunately we couldn’t understand one another much.
At Latron I stayed with W Heyes who came with me last leave. He has been getting all sorts of old engines and boilers into working order which the Turks broke up in their retreat. Certainly he has been remarkably successful and has all sorts of wonderful makeshifts rigged up to make them go.
We invited a doctor up to help us consume the game and each ate 2 teal and a snipe the rest we sent to the C.R.E.
It is just starting to rain and my [- ] is beginning to drip. This is cheerful as it is a practical certainty that this will continue for the next three days however we’ve any amount of clothes now and dont mind.