I reckon I can say we have had a jam packed day. First up we had a quick stop at Lone Pine Memorial where we took a sort of tracing of the names on the walls and I also left a veterans association banner at the shrine on behalf of Geelong. From there we went up to Chunuk Bair (which we all had fun trying to pronounce) and had a look at where the New Zealanders fought and took the hill. George also made friends with a dog that seemed to enjoy his cheese and biscuits. From there we went to a house in a small village where the great Turkish leader, Ataturk was based.
It was good fun watching Bennett try to get through the door that was about half a foot too small for him. We then drove about 20 minutes for a quick stop at the Hill 10 memorial and then continued on to the rusting wreck of a landing craft. By this stage we were all pretty hungry so we went back for a lunch of fish as it is Good Friday. After lunch we headed for Cape Helles and saw the British Memorial. It had a huge tower in the middle of it which impressed me. Then we went to the French Memorial to pay our respects. It was interesting that they had crosses and not headstones; and they were made out of barb wire pickets.
We continued on to the official Turkish memorial where there was a huge 41.7 Meter monument that overlooked the Dardanelles.
And we finished up by visiting the Redoubt memorial.
When we got back everyone but Kate, Dave and me went for a swim at the beach. They got back to a hilariously funny poem written by George.
It has been a busy day and I am not looking forward to the early start tomorrow.
This Bennett fella sounds like a top bloke! The Zahn kid sounds pretty cool too.
ReplyDeleteHi Zahn. It sounds like your having a ball and visiting some very interesting and different places. We are all very jealous and wish that we could be with you. I don't have to tell you to enjoy yourself so stay safe and see you when you return.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog guys and girls - love it.
Regards, the Jackman family