Day 29 - Canakkale to Istanbul

After and early start we made the 8.00am ferry across the Dardanelles Straits to Eceabat and drove to Anzac Cove. We stopped first at the site were the hold the Dawn Service on ANZAC Day and read the descriptions along the wall of the war. From here we walked to Anzac Cove were there is a very moving monument next to the graves of the Australian Soldiers with a message from Ataturk who was responsible for allowing the Australians and other countries to come and properly bury their dead, build memorials and hold the dawn services. If you can read it of my photo you should it is very moving.

 

Our next stop was the Lone Pine Cemetery which is also an Australian site and were after the Dawn Service they hold other ceremonies. On this site there is also a pine tree which was planted in 1990  to commemorate the 8700 Australian Soldiers who died at Gallipoli from a seed germinated from tree that was germinated from a pine cone that was sent home to Australia by a soldier in 1915. The tree is the one right next to our bus.

 

Our next stop was the Turkish Memorial to honour the 10,000 Turks who died in one battle. We also stopped at the New Zealand Memorial as we also had some Kiwi's on our tour. Here were you can see the trenches where the Turkish Soldiers dug in. At this site Ataturk was injured and were the British and New Zealand Soldiers advanced up the hill.

All up there are 22 War Memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsular and it is a very moving place. Another Tour bus was also at the Australian Site and some of them sang the National Anthem which was quite emotional. When we were crossing on the ferry a lady asked Noel if he was Australian and she gave him a couple of Poppy badges for us to wear which was really nice. After our visit as we drove along the peninsular our guide played and Australian war song about a soldier who went to Gallipoli which I think brought a tear to even the American, Canadian and South African passengers.

After this we began our 360km drive to Istanbul stopping at Tekirday for lunch. Istanbul city tour and cruise on the Bosphorus tomorrow which will end our tour. Free night tonight so we headed into the square for dinner and had a clay pot kebap which they smash open just before they serve it. J&N