Gallipoli

Monday April 11th 2011

Georgie and I caught the coach at Eminonu at 6.30am to travel 5 hours to Eceabat which is on the Western side of the Dardenelles, on the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was rainy, but scenery was beautiful once we left the city. There are many little areas of apartments just popping up everywhere along the way. So many houses and people!!

We arrived at Eceabat and were met by TJ who runs the tour company we were travellin with. he is Turkish, born and raised in the area so is very knowledgeable about Gallipoli and the whole area. He is married to an Australian from Corowa. They have a Turkish rest. there. She is in Aus running it at the moment.

Our Gallipoli guide- Kenan Celik OAM

We had lunch at his guest house and then set off on our tour of Gallipoli. We were honoured to have as our guide, Mr Kenan Celik OAM who is Turkish resident and expert on Gallipoli. He has lectured in Asutrslia and around the world on the subject and has taken people such as Bob Hawke, Quentin Bryce(last year when she was in Gallipoli) and many other famous people. He is a lovely man, very gentle and gave us a completely unbiased view of the whole campaign. he began with the whole history of why it all happened before we visited the sights.

Beach (Hell Spit) Cemetry

John Simpson Kirkpatrick

 Words cannot explain how one feels when visiting Gallipoli- One can only begin to imagine what it must have been like. It was freezing an drizzly the day we were there so, those poor soldiers on those bitter days.

View across Anzac Cove to the
beach where they landed

Schrapnel Valley Cemetry

                                                     The whole site is beautifully cared for and they were preparing forANZAC Day so there was lots of mowing, gardening, erecting grandstands, etc.

Anzac Cove

All I thought about was the futility of the whole exercise and the extraordinarily rugged terrain the soldiers and horses were expected to cross and survive in- unbelieveable!!

Standing where they landed- freezing

Setting up for ANZAC Day

Reading this makes you weep. Ataturk certainly was the saviour of Turkey- and they honour him so much today- and I really think rightly so.

Moving- the Mehmet carrying the Johnny
back to the allied trenches

Lone Pine

Trenches

The Nek- where the last battle was
fought- the trenches were only about
50 metres apart- if that.

Monument to Ataturk

The visit to Gallipoli was truly wonderful- there were many different Aussies from all walks of life. Some were looking for the graves of relatives- one girl on our tour found the grave she was looking for in Scrapnel Valley- the name says it all doesn't it? I am pleased I went before ANZAC Day as I think it is so crowded, but this time gave one time to think and look without the huge crowds. It was an emotional day but absolutely worthwhile. Just a shame we can't learn from it and have world peace.