21 – 27 May 2015
CANAKKALE
GALLIPOLI
This is a long post so lots of fotos to keep you interested, I hope
Taking a tram then efficient metro train to the bus station showed
us just how seamless the public transport works here and how big Istanbul really
is, with the Otogar only mid way across this huge city of 14 million people. Another
grey rainy day, so perfect weather for taking a long distance bus. Only a few
touts here at a large parking lot with many companies spread around a large
parking lot – very organised. We are
heading to Chanakkale town, used as the main base for anyone attending the
ANZAC service, as the peninsula has limited accommodation being a national
park. One bus company were booked out until that evening which worried me
briefly but tried the next company & got a ticket to jump straight onto a
bus! Easy as! Great travel – aircon/heating, screens on the back of each seat,
usb to charge up your gadgets, tea & coffee served along with snacks by our
very own bus host who is sporting a natty bow tie. A quick ferry ride across
the ‘Narrows’, the name given to the strait between Canakkale & the
Gallipoli Peninsula, then we easily find the Yellow Rose Hotel, very close to
the Old City clock tower. 
Our dorm is on the 5th floor – ever so
steep hauling - -and the dorm itself with over a dozen beds was as cold as
charity with only chinese acrylic blankets, from a huge pile to keep warm.
Better than nothing, so piled them on and slept in thermals too.
The peninsula here is getting ready for the annual influx of
tourists attending the service and especially this year with 10,000 ticketed
attendees, but not too many have arrived this early: the hotels here all
advertise nightly screenings of Gallipoli and a Chris Master’s doco on
Gallipoli, so we ask the manager what time he will show the movie here – his
reply, “anytime, you are the only people here” which made us laugh. Over the
next few days, more Australians turn up in town & the majority of people
are wearing hats or shirts or jackets identifying their various tours,
organisations and associations – Mal suggests we get some shirts made up with
‘The Unknown Tourist’ so we won’t feel left out.
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| Catching up with friends |
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| Nothing without Brad Pitt, right? |
Conversations here centre on people’s ideas of what security
will be involved for the service, experiences registering to attend and family
or own previous experiences of Gallipoli or Defence forces. One young Australian
defence force member has a service ticket, BUT no transport in, against all
advice we have all received but he is determined to attend on his limited funds
so he is very happy to walk in on Friday and we wish him luck. The days leading
up to the service see us exploring the old town – they have the Troy movie set ‘Trojan
horse’ here and my first Turkish bath is a wonderful experience – gotta love a
hamaan, just like being a baby again, being scrubbed & washed. 23rd April is Children’s Day and National Sovereignty Day -
a public holiday - so local schools are practicing parades and one night we seriously
rug up to watch an outdoor concert with very popular (judging by the audience
reaction) performers.
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| President's yacht |
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| HMAS ANZAC |
My booked tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula includes all main
cemeteries and battlefields – Turkish and & Allied – all contained within a
very limited area due the invading landings being so unsuccessful. It is now a
national park and very well preserved and I visit infamous battlegrounds and heavily
populated cemeteries – Chunuk Bair, Lone Pine, Plugges Plateau, Quinns Post,
The Nek and Hill 60. This website shows you the views, so much better than I
can do justice from my photos http://www.anzacbattlefields.com/gallipoli.htm
I have some hand knitted red poppies to lay at graves today,
during my tour, created by ladies from the Cooper Trefoil Guild (Girl Guides),
to honour soldiers’ memory and the occasion of the Centenary on their behalf. I
was thinking of ways to ‘anchor’ them at the graves, and hit upon large hair
pins which worked a treat.
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| Peninsula terrain |
It was a long & very interesting day to see an
area first hand that has long been commemorated in our Australian society for a
landing invasion that seems to have been doomed from the outset. There were
many deaths on the both sides and many stories of courage, of contacts forged
across battlelines and ultimate sacrifices made by all participating armies and
navies. I found it humbling to see the landscapes and topography where they
battled and could only imagine the hardships and sorrows this landscape had
witnessed.
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| Trenches |
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| Before the big day,, in front of the Sphinx |
Being within the peninsula meant seeing the security set
ups, grandstands in place with tv cameras etc and some rehearsals for the
service. There is much discussion about the seating and how we should get in
early to get a seat to avoid having to sit on the grass. One keen man tells me
that he is travelling to all battlefields this year including the Western Front
and how he is going to be on the first bus to get a seat because he heard organisers
will keep back the last 4000 people who are travelling down from Istanbul after
midnight, then at 2am and again at 4am they will let 2000 people through to
make everyone on the grass ‘squeeze up’ to accommodate them.
Another woman
tells me that they booked 4 years ago, regardless of whether they got ticket,
they were going to come to the Peninsula at this time anyway! I also find out that the peninsula will be
closed at midnight tonight for the Turkish Army to sweep the area and keep it
contained and secure for the service – serious stuff. This means the Guide and
Scout camp I wanted to visit will also be under the lockdown with no one moving
in or out. Scrap that idea now too.
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| Trenches |
23 April at the hotel we all watch a very young Mel Gibson in the Gallipoli movie and there is a full crowd in the hotel now although we still have the very cold dorm to ourselves. Canakkale port has the HMAS Anzac harboured here, there is a Kiwi ship and of course the Turkish Navy is adding to the excitement along with the Presidents boat. Though no sign of those Australian Surf Lifesaver paddlers who were going to paddle around the peninsula and I doubt they will be making a landing during the Service.
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| All lettering on the Peninsula was stolen and some hastily replaced by the Oz Govt in time for this anniversary |
24 April and there are a lot of people up early & the
ferries are doing double time today across the Narrows to Eceabat and the Gallipoli
Peninsula. Plenty of Australian & NZ service personnel on board my ferry, in
splendid dress uniform putting those of us in civvies to shame. Disembarking at
Eceabat a long cavalcade of buses passes through the main street – it’s the
Turkish President Erdogan and I am very sure he was waving at me when he passed,
although some Turks were not quite in the mood to wave back – they were more
concerned at the ‘signal’ dropout caused by security blocking as he passed.
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| On 24 April, lines & loos |
After
a bbq lunch for the arriving masses from various local areas, the buses began
to turn up – hundreds of them - and we get bus 119, to begin a slow trip around
to an initial entry point for ticket validation and bus registration. Then
drive around to the next entry point where we leave the buses and shuffle
through in our hundreds to Mimosa Park, a large waiting area complete with
large screens to keep the masses amused whilst waiting for your bus number to
be called. Then you line up again to shuffle through more security screening –
only people are sent through the metal detectors – bags are sized up, vaguely
unzipped or opened and then handed through with no other check! Receive your
souvenir poncho, program & promo material then a slow walk past ANZAC Cove as
the sun is setting, through to the service arena. 
Plenty of good seats in the
stands available so Mal & I settle in for very long wait. Wrapping up in thermals
and sleeping bags we stay warm and thankful that the weather stays dry. Thousands
more people arrive through the evening and as predicted, 2am and 4am see the
push for more space with the arrival of people held back at the waiting area. In
our seated area there was just nowhere to put your head to nap so we stayed
awake throughout the night watching screened docos & shorts shown on the
large screen and a varied program of music, storytelling etc. but by the time
dawn arrived we were exhausted! Once the
dignitaries started to arrive by their hundreds including Turkey’s President,
Australian and NZ Prime Ministers and Princes’ Charles and William the rising
sun slowly began to cast light on the Sphinx, a rock formation above ANZAC Cove
just after 5am on the 25th April.
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| Breaking dawn |
The crowds settled quickly and
solemnity takes over with introductions, speeches and an army Chaplain conducted
the final commemorations. It was very solemn, moving and I kept having to pinch
myself that I was really there, at Gallipoli for the 100th ANZAC
Day.
As the haunting Last Post sounded faultlessly and the Service ended, the dignitaries
filed out to their transport (& breakfast?) and organisers now had to move 8,000
Australians to Lone Pine & 2,000 Kiwis to Chunuk Bair for their respective
services. Bus numbers are again used to slowly funnel everyone out the same way
we came in, but this time there is a slow walk up Shrapnel Gully.
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| Walking up Shrapnel Gully |
The sun slowly warms up, layers removed,
especially with the exertion of climbing up after sitting for so long. I could
never imagine this walk under attack, although we do have Turkish soldiers
stationed every 200 metres or so, who have been bivouac’ed out here for the
past two nights just to keep us all ‘safe’.
As I am Australian, my ticketing has allocated me a ‘stand’
at Lone Pine, the scene of "some of the fiercest" fighting the
Australians experienced during the campaign with over 10,000 men killed from
both sides. The ground captured during that battle amounted to a total of about
150 metres across a 300-metre front - such depressing statistics that only
reinforce the futility of war.
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| Lone Pine Memorial |
My stand has a lovely view of a large screen to one side of
Lone Pine’s Memorial. Dignitaries all arrive and at 11am the Australian Service
begins with the entry of Australia’s Federation Guard forming a catafalque (I’ve learned a new word) party
around the Tomb. We get speeches (Tony Abbott,
Charles Windsor et al), and very solemn commemorations.
The Last Post was again
played beautifully and then it’s all over! Dignitaries are shuttled off over to
Chunuk Bair for the NZ Service at 2pm, while we settle in at Lone Pine for a
mighty long wait as the buses won’t start their slow trip around the Peninsula
to pick us up until after the Kiwi ceremony has finished.
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| Special wreaths from special people - note the Prince of Wales |
There is a large
electronic scoreboard to show bus numbers when they randomly arrive – Bus 118
is called very early so I fear that this may be a bad sign. Imagine for hours
& hours hundreds of bus numbers are randomly called and shown on the screen
– at one stage, the letters BINGO are screened which raises a few laughs
amongst the now exhausted crowd. By 6pm our bus 119 is broadcast and we wearily
troop aboard, back across the narrows on the ferry and straight back to the
hotel for a well-deserved sleep.
A simple last day here for a tour to the Troia
archaeological site, with another bbq with nearly all Australian tourists on
board. Troy is the setting of the Trojan War
described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two
epic poems attributed to Homer.
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| Patricia in the middle |
During the bus ride I chat to a couple of Australian
women who lived on the corner of the court I grew up on – Patricia Birtrip, who
taught me to make daisy chains when I was very young! What a small world it often
turns out to be!
Troy was ok, but easily missed, due to the fact that the fable
is just that and the city excavations were carried out by a wealthy German (but
novice archaeologist) who sunk a lot of money into the digs to make a name for
himself but destroyed a lot of what was there with his uneducated assumptions.
But it continues supporting the tourist trade with busloads visiting. 
PS Learnt all
about Turkey’s views of the Canakkale battles and one of the heroes, Cabuk Seyit
who singlehandedly carried three artillery shells weighing 275 kg to a 35mm gun
so it could continue firing on the Allied Fleet. One of the shells hit the HMS
Ocean which later sunk. Following the
repulse of the naval assault, he was publicised as an iconic Turkish hero.
Afterwards when he was asked for a photo with the shell that he famously
carried, Corporal Seyit could not move the shell no matter how much he forced
it. He reputedly said these famous words "If war breaks out again, I'll
carry again." After that his photo was taken with a wooden shell.
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| Kilitbahir Castle |
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| View across the Narrows |
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| Ferries across the Narrows |
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