Thursday 26th Left Aden 6 am this morning and are making good time towards Suez. We arrived at Aden yesterday morning and coaled. This port is a most interesting picture. The headland is composed of rugged towering iron bound jagged hills and the town climbs along the side and to the front. Streets and quays run along the waterfront and white robed natives are continually hurrying to and fro. Occasionally a camel lumbers along with an absurd pretence of dignity. This is a garrison town and fortified towers cling to the rugged mountains while from the smooth hill tops countless ventilators jut from the ground speaking of underground chambers. Little groups of white tents show encampments of regular soldiers. Not a vestige of green showed anywhere to lighten the dreariness of the scene. The sandstone hills and ravine showed sand-drifts had accumulated everywhere, the whole being a fair promise of the inhospitable desert land inland; the land of mystery. The natives here again are eternal and do everything. Traders come out in small boats jabbering and gesticulating and we bought Egyptian cigarettes at 1/6 per 100. Native crews coaled our ship working in a dense cloud of coaldust, shrieking and jabbering like myriads of flying foxes. We were on guard yesterday and I had the satisfaction of being posted near the bridge this morning. I saw Aden emerge from the mists in the grey dawn and the sun rise slowly behind the iron hills painting the heavens in splashes of colour. It was a beautiful sight. We drew out of the harbour at 6 am and before that, in the early dawn, other ships of our convoy went out past us to the sounds of Australian cooees which wafted back and forth between ships. This evening we passed Perin[?] and the Straits of Babel Mandeb[?]. Tea was served at 5.15 pm and lights out at 6 pm. We will be passing a Turkish fort at about 10 pm tonight and things may be lively. We are now settling down into tense waiting.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 01:17:16 +0000
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