Final stop is Fromelles. The site of the first battle involving the Australians on the Western Front and the place of their first tragedy. There is something special about the Cobbers Memorial, something that symbolises what we would like to think Australians are still all about. Again when you look at the flat open fields that the soldiers had to cross you can only wonder at the mentality of the senior officers in charge. We also visited the Pheasant Wood Cemetery which is the newest on the Western Front and is a result of the work done to find the missing Australians buried by the Germans immediately after the battle.
Given our train didn't leave until 17:00 we opted to stay at one of the bars/cafe's in Fromelle whilst Christian dropped of one of the other couples off for their early train. This was interesting and certainly the locals didn't seem to mind (the bar owner gave everyone a simple promotional gift). The bar was a combination of bar, newsagent, general store and meeting point. Was funny (uncomfortable for the girls I would imagine) to see the rather hard core pin up calendar hanging behind the bar, something that you wouldn't see back home. Refreshing the political correctness has quite got everywhere yet, if a little confronting. As it turned out the traffic was still as bad as yesterday (plus some other issues with Eurostar check) and what should have been a 45 minute wait went on for about an hour and a half, lucky we had plenty of time to spare.