Weather: fine & sunny, cooling breeze - 30deg
After another very nice dinner last night (included in the price of our
room) we spent a relaxing hour or so on the Stargazers Deck. It's a 10 x 12m open solid concrete deck
built on top of the restaurant. The
furniture is solid wood and like everything else in this place, always
immaculately clean. A few tastefully
placed flower pots complete the picture. It looks directly out onto the main (Third) ridge of Gallipoli, with
ANZAC Cove etc being on the other (sea) side. My room opens just about right onto it so it is perfect for that early
morning coffee or late stargazing. Breakfast is not until 0800h so I have plenty of time to fill in after
getting up.
The minaret of the local mosque is about 100m from our rooms so we hear the
call to prayer (very loud and clear through speakers) at 0500h. I'm generally stirring by then so it doesn't
bother me, but for some it's a bit rude. I suspect that this mosque uses a timed
recording four times a day as it starts a bit abruptly and sounds exactly the
same every time. The village has a tiny
population of 50, so it's a wonder they can support a mosque at all. We don't see many Muslims praying openly
while we are out and about during midday prayers; I saw only one
yesterday. Not sure what that
indicates; maybe that they are not as devoted, don't know? Of course Turkey is a secular state. We do see a fair number of ladies in the
full burka. I wonder how many of them
are visitors from the Middle East?
Fred had an upset gut overnight so he's not feeling 100% today. We have been very lucky thus far with very
little illnesses amongst the group. We
certainly haven't lost any person-days through illness.
First stop on today's tour was a small Turkish symbolic cemetery towards the Southern tip of the
Gallipoli Peninsular. The Turks had
recently redone the cemetery and used the shape of the traditional Turkish
helmet for the headstones. Each headstone had the name of a town / city where soldiers who had died
in battle had come from. Some of the
places were from nearby countries. At Cape Helles
(the Southern tip) itself there is an enormous cemetery containing the graves /
memorial of about 60,000 Turkish soldiers killed in action just in that part of
the campaign. The headstones here are
made out of marble with 32 names on each etched into glass panels. It's very well done. The Çanakkale (Gallipoli) Martyr's Memorial
is located here also and stands 41.7m high. It is currently being refurbished. While we were walking around this area there was a large squad of (200
<>) Turkish Army recruits in uniform on a visit. When they were finished they marched them
away singing some sort of patriotic and / or marching chant. They looked and sounded pretty tough. Like us they have an excellent reputation to
uphold.
The Brits landed right near the tip of the Cape
(S Beach) on 25 Apr 15. This area was
later taken over by the French Army.
We often think of Gallipoli as an Army campaign but there were 34
significant Royal Navy ships sunk here too, many with the loss of all
crew. Just in the Cape
area alone there were 20,504 British and 248 Aussie soldiers killed, staggering
numbers. There is an Allied memorial,
which names all the ships that were sunk and the Army units involved in the
Gallipoli campaign, not far from the main Turkish memorial. It is also currently being refurbished.
After this we were ready for lunch so we stopped at an outdoor restaurant
that mainly serves pancakes. We sat
under the cool shade of the grape vines and had the potato pancakes with some
salad and a fresh lemonade. They gave
us some complimentary dessert which tasted like polenta mixed with honey and
crushed walnuts. It was all very nice
and the whole thing for the five of us cost A$23.
We then drove the 10km to Suvla Bay for a cooling swim (I just had a paddle) in the Aegean Sea. Suvla Bay
was the Brits last attempt to salvage something out of the Gallipoli disaster.
It was an amphibious landing on 6 Aug 15 lead by an incompetent Lt Gen named
Sir F. Stopford. After a week of
inaction and mismanagement they sacked him. This debacle also lead to the sacking of the overall commander Gen Sir
Ian Hamilton, however by then (Oct 15) the damage had been done and the
campaign had descended into a serious of stalemates. Obviously they weren't granted their
Knighthoods because of successes in the battlefields, must have inherited them
from Daddy. Lions lead by Donkeys. The only real success of the whole campaign
was the withdrawal; the Turks didn't twig that it was happening and there
wasn't one life lost.
After the swim we'd had enough for the day so it was back to Gallipoli
House for a shower and rest.
Another great day in Turkey.
Looking across to Third Ridge Gallipoli from the deck of our hotel
Turkish Cemetery on Gallipoli Ridge
Part of the Turkish WWI cemetery at the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsular
Graves
Etched glass headstones
Turkish Army recruits honouring their fallen
WWI gun emplacement overlooking Gallipoli Straits
A restored WWI trench
