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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 21 November 1909
[See Introduction to The Vision and the Voice for background information] [Map of Crowley's travel through Algeria]
A long rest at Tablat, and two good meals. In the morning it rained, and we hung about till 1:20.
A good wayside meal at 4:00 (K80) and a rest. Went steadily on until catastrophe No. 1, the water-bottle dropping from its sling and breaking all to buggery. This serious disaster made us plug ahead, up long hills and down again, to make sure of water. At K94 we camped. Neuburg [Victor B. Neuburg] went off for water and I started making a fire, thus causing catastrophe No. 2, by breaking my knife in hacking at boughs.
The fire thus only half succeeding, we went on a few yards to a ruined barn in which we slept 9-2 approximately. The bitter wind drove us out an don. We had a second roadside bivouac about 3 (K?)—too miserable to make sure of anything!—and a third about 4:45 (K102). We reached Bir-Rabalou [modern Bir-Ghabalou] at 6. Hôtel Rousseau. A beastly night; cloudy, some rain, a draughty wind, faintly adumbrating the Central Asian horror.
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