The trip to Gallipoli was organised by the same company we went through Europe with so everything was planned and somewhat organised. I say organised because at some points it was like a bunch of blind shepherds herding a bunch of cats but we all got to where we were supposed to be with no harm done.
A five hour bus trip after a 7am hotel pickup got us to Eceabat, which is a town of 5,500 people and is the closest settlement to the battlefields. A light lunch was provided as part of the ticket price and into the bus again in a group of about 12.
The trip took in all the significant landmarks and areas of the campaign, and at each stop our guide explained the site and what happened there.
Anzac Cove beach
The whole area has been declared a national park by the Turkish Governenment. 36,000 hectares in total are not allowed to be developed, only farmed in continuation of its current use. 2,000,000 visitors a year visit the area, and numbers are increasing of people from all the countries involved in the conflict.
The Australians were famous for a battle which took place in August 1915 at an area called Lone Pine. This was to be one of the only successes of the whole campaign. The main battlefield was an area the size of one footbal field, around 100 metres. The Australian memorial now stands there and is the cemetery of 1,167 soldiers and the memorial to 471 soldiers whose identity remain unknown.
Lone Pine Cemetery
The New Zealand memorial is at Chunuk Bair. This was the sight for another August battle in 1915 which the Wellington battlion would suffer devastating losses. Out of 760 men who reached the summit of the hill during the attack, 711 were either killed or wounded. When the NZers were relieved by British soldiers, the Turks counter attacked and the position was lost. It was after this that the commanders really began to realise the futility of the whole campaign and evacuation plans were seriously considered.
Chunuk Bair. A simple but nice memorial.
Chunuk Bair cemetery contains 632 New Zealand graves and 850 names on the memorial for those unidentified. A fitting final resting place, being the highest point captured during the battle with a impressive view over the Dardenelles.
Dardenelle Straits in background.
Another sobering place to visit but beautifully presented and maintained cemeteries with the memorials as well. To see the country that the Anzacs had to fight in against strong defensive positions was incredible to even imagine. It was hard to believe such carnage occurred in what is now a beautiful place, unlike Auschwitz it wasn’t haunting but rather peaceful and a feeling of great respect for the fallen. Overall a real credit to the Turkish people and well worth the trip.
We also went to a new museum dedicated to the Gallipoli campaign. At a cost of $20,000,000NZD it was an impressive beast and was made up of 10 mini movie theatres that each played a 10 min clip depicting various parts of the campaign. It was from the Turkish perspective obviously but was very interesting and quite different from the other museums we have been to on our travels. Lots of artefacts and other such stuff from the battles too. The whole museum is shaped like a Battleship too which is a cool touch.
Through no endeavour of our own our accommodation for the night was a B&B run very tidly by the local mayor and his wife! The travel site Trip Advisor informed us of this after we arrived which explained the man on the couch wearing his blue suit! Very minimal English was spoken by everyone there, but with a combination of smiles, guestures and other actions we had a massive dinner which we ate every scrap of to be polite and a filling breakfast. The whole setup was a little odd though as we were the only people in the whole place! Next morning we had asked the company who took us through Gallipoli if we could get a taxi to this museum which was a 10 minute car trip from the town itself. We were expecting a crummy local taxi, but once again we had great luck in having the managing director of the tour agency personally drive us there and back in his very modern and stylish black Mercedes! Like most nationalities we have encountered on our trip, the Turks are very friendly people and they will do anything to see you right.
mickeyandjess 