TCD MS 10515 folio 75r
[May 6th 1916]
compelling us to make a broad detour instead of striking a straight course direct across the sands. This lengthened the journey by at least five miles. Worse still will be the effect during the subsequent days. For the normal distance from this camp (Khamsieh) to Nasiriyah is two days march, but the advancing floods will lengthen it to three days.
How like a great sea is this broad expanse of waters? No land is visible as we stand upon its brink; nothing but water extends into the far horizon; flotsam and jetsam drift upon its surface and gentle waves roll upon its desert shores.
At last in the distance we saw our destination. We actually saw a definite place distinctive in the desert by a grove of palm trees. This was an