The Ham Nomads

14 May 2015. <TR> Eceabat; Gallipoli —

At first light we found we were in the midst of a crowd of tents. We had heard them arrive at about 10pm last night, but they had settled in quickly — obviously used to setting up camp efficiently. It was a group of young people in Peugeot cars. Turns out that they were the Peugeot 205 Fanclub of Poland, and they were here on a club tour of Turkey. They were obviously having great fun, and they picked up stakes before we left the Kum Campsite for the day.

Anzac Cove, from Ari Burnu

Today, the reason for our being on Gallipoli Peninsula — a visit to Anzac Cove. This turned out, as expected, to be a most moving experience. The place today is a beautiful and serenely quiet, a far call from the situation 100 years ago. We were able to park at the Cove, and were able to walk about freely. The whole battlefield is sacred soil, both to the Anzacs and their allies, and to the Turks. We have mentioned before how friendly the Turks are to Aussies and New Zealanders, and this is nowhere better exemplified than in the words of Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatürk), placed on a large memorial at Anzac Cove:

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives; you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side, here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."

The cliffs that faced the landing.
The outcrop, 'The Sphinx' was so called by the Anzacs, who had trained
under the shadow of the Sphinx in Egypt

Suzie exploring the wall that describes the whole campaign

We wandered Anzac Cove, meeting there a Sydneysider who was here for this year's Anzac Day service — his grandfather had been one of the men in the first landing. After the chaos of Anzac Day, he was appreciating the chance to walk the site today in peace and quiet.

We visited a few of the cemetery sites, all of which are beautifully and carefully tended. The soldiers have all been left where they were originally buried, and a headstone has been placed on each identified grave — but there are also a lot of memorial headstones at each cemetery, where the inscription says 'Believed to be buried in ...' And we often forget that there were soldiers from different armies fighting side by side — in Ari Burnu cemetery, on the beach at the south end of Anzac Cove, we found headstones for Muslim members if the Indian Army, who were in the Mule Corps supplying our front-line troops.

There is a large cemetery in Shrapnel Valley, the valley through which most of the supplies and reinforcements came in, and which was constantly under fire.

We went on up to Lone Pine Cemetery, possibly the most poignant of all the sites. It is here that a fierce battle for the strategic plateau, identified by a lone pine tree, took place in August 1915.

Lone Pine overlooks the major Turkish site here, the 57th Regiment memorial. We were amazed at the number of tour buses arriving here, disgorging groups of adults or of schoolchildren, who have come either to pay their respects or to learn about an important part of their history. The other day we wondered at the number of tour buses on the Gallipoli Peninsula — well, here's the answer.

Another statue of a Mehmet carrying a wounded Johnnie from the field

After a most moving day at Gallipoli, we returned to the campsite. We found there that they were in the process of filling the swimming pool - by direct pumping of water from the Aegean! And the sunset rang down the curtain on a perfect day!

Distance driven — today, 30 miles ( 48 km ); to date, 20,251 miles ( 32,591 km )