Adding pictures on the bus back to the Ferry.
5pm.
Rest to follow.

Amazing, amazing day!

OK, just added all the photos.
It's nearly 10pm.
I think the only way to do this is list the places we went today and fill in the gaps as I can.

Left the hotel for a short walk along the water to the Ferry at 8.30am.
I was shouting out in the bus for a 7.30am start.
( Pulia did offer either 7.30 or 8.30am. I wasn't just shouting.)
But no avail.
There are a lot of older people on the bus and some of them are very,very unfit.
And they don't like the heat.
So no early start.
On the ferry across The Dardanelles. ( !!!!! )

Suvla Bay.
ANZAC Cove.
Beach Cemetery
Shrapnel Valley.
Kabatepe War Museum
Lunch
Lone Pine
The Nek
Walker's Ridge
Chunuk Bair
Ferry
Shower
Dinner
Blog

I am going to read the paper now.
I'm bushed.
Air con on.
Warm and muggy night.

Oh... decided not to do the wreath laying ceremony early tomorrow.
They are leaving at 4.45am.
And I had such a marvellous day today.
That's enough for me.
We are also skipping the 1/2 hour visit to Troy and the 90 minute round trip bus ride.
Emily and I will have the whole day to ourselves in this magnificent place and are off exploring.

Brilliant day.
Exceeded expectations.

Xxx

Getting very, very cross with Travel Pod.
Keeps losing what I have written.

It's Thursday now.
30 degrees and a magnificent day.

Our first stop was Sulva Bay.
This is where the broadcast is done each ANZAC Day.
How was it Meagan, watching the sun rise with the Sphinx towering there behind you?
Magnificent.

There were a few steps down to the beach.
And I was there.
On the beach.
There was lots of time to wander, take photos, talk, gaze around and up and out across that magnificent blue water.
So many thoughts ....

Up to the low, long white wall for the photos...
ANZAC

Then onto ANZAC Cove.
Lots of time.
I couldn't believe we we so close to the water and only a few steps down and we were there.
Yesterday at V Beach, we were high up on a cliff.
Getting down to the beach was near impossible.
Here, it was totally different, a few steps and ...
On the beach at ANZAC Cove.
A bit of sand but mainly those rounded rocks, every size imaginable, everywhere.
No seaweed.
Just sparking clear blue water.

Now this was very emotional.
Just gazing around.
A lot of time doing that.
A LOT of time doing that.
Trying to imagine what it would have been like to land in this little place all those years ago.

Then, I picked up some small rocks and sand.
Then I took off my shoes and socks and paddled in the water.
That was great!
Who would ever have thought that I would be paddling in the sea at ANZAC Cove?

( Slippery though... it's those rounded rocks, they will get you every time!)

But it was fun, just gazing down the coastline.

Beach Cemetery.
On a lawned slope leading down to the water.
Magnificent old tree.
Simpson's grave is here.
He was 22.

Onto to the Cemetery at Shrapnel Valley.
This is where I took the photo of that headstone.
Very moving.
And you really could see the gully and where the supplies had to be run up the hills via this gully.
We had a great view down the gully later from up near the Nek.
The terrain is unbelievable steep and tough and hot and rugged.

All the cemeteries and memorials are spectacular in their simplicity.
And beautiful in the immaculate way they are maintained.
And the headstones make you cry.

Onto the bus to the Kabatepe War Museum.
Interesting.
Great displays
And wonderful information on both the Allies and the Turks.

Lunch.
Everyone else was a bit peckish.
We were fine.
Probably because of the 2 croissants, 2 bread rolls, 2 small chocolate cakes and some roll (2) that has a Frankfurt inside it, that I stole from breakfast.
Hey, it's a busy day"
Gotta have fuel.

Lunch was very nice though
At a hotel that Prince Charles has breakfast after the dawn service.
So it was very nice.
We were seated outside under an enormous veranda.
Lots and lots of long tables.

Then Emily and I did a bit of a walk around.
This is also a caravan park next to the sea.
Absolutely beautiful beach and facilities.
Funny. No idea that the beach was so close.
And to top it off, there are turtles swimming in the small creek that you have to cross via a wooden bridge.
You should have seen all the heads pop up like periscopes every time someone stopped to look over the side of the bridge.
They are fed bread from there, and don't they know it!
Amazing sight.

A bit of "they've just resurfaced the road, they won't let us drive to Lone Pine"
And they wouldn't either.
So our driver, Ilban, ( We call him Capitan!) took the bit between his teeth and crashed through the barrier.
( Well, he dodged a few witches hats ....same thing.)
And we were off to Lone Pine.

Wow.
What a place.
How emotive is this?
Do we just see images of this our entire life?
Is that why it is so embedded in the psych?
Just spectacular.

Lone Pine was wonderful.
The magnificent Pine tree just there, amongst the headstones.
Everything you had ever seen in photographs.
And it just hits you.

We had as much time as we wanted here.
That was very nice.
We wandered.
Signed the Visitor's Book.
And you quietly read headstones and try to grab a little bit of each and every life.

I stood in the shade of that magnificent pine tree and just tried to take it all in.

These men thought of family and friends at home, of a girl or, perhaps a boy.
Times change.
Looking out over this sacred place, you wonder.
The ordinary soldiers in the trenches, on both sides, worked it out.
.... people, just people.

Then we went to The Nek and Walkers Ridge.
The view down from these places really gave you an appreciation of the harsh, steep terrain.
It looks almost impossible to climb on a cool day, with a guide, backpack and plenty of water.
Let alone the conditions 100 years ago.

Our last stop was Chunuk Bair.
The New Zealand Memorial
The words on the stone memorial are so moving ...
"From the uttermost ends of the Earth."

Two quotes I remember from reading about the battles ...
Soldiers writing home ...

"Of all the b******s of places in the world, this is the worst b****** of them all."

And, as the area of 'No Man's Land' was piled with bodies so thick that you could not touch the soil as the next charge went out of the trenches,

" Land is very dear here."

What struck me so much at every site we went to, were the glorious views.
Out over the ocean ...
Down the hills to the beaches ...
Looking over the beautiful blue sea to the Islands ...

And how very sad it was that 100 years ago, young men would have occasionally caught a glimpse of the same sights and perhaps, wished that it was just an ordinary day on top of an amazing ridge in a far, far away land.



Goodbye Cobber and Thank You.

Lest We Forget