Day 23 – Gallipoli
Canakkale
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
A 6.00am pick up from the Mamara hotel in Taksim Square for the beginning of our RSL tour of Galipoli.
A couple of Australian women were also waiting for the Gallipoli tour but once they were settled on the bus they were asked to leave because they had booked with a different tour company. We then spent the next two hours driving around Istanbul picking up the rest of the tour group, with a crazy driver who went through innumerable red lights, and squeezed the bus into such narrow passage ways that the tour escort had to move some pot plants out of the way so the bus could pass through. Anthony got quite annoyed because a couple of pick ups were near Taksim square. We could have slept in!
Once through the suburbs, the countryside opened up to undulating hills with wheat growing and some cattle and sheep. We finally stopped for buffet breakfast about 10.30 by which time we were quite hungry. We had lentil soup, a variety of cheeses, a kind of salami and olives but bread was an additional cost! Back on the bus and by 12.30 we were in Eceabat and lunch of soup, grilled local fish and rice and tomato salad on the roof of Grand Eceabat Hotel with views of the Dardanelles.
This is the gateway to the peninsula and where we finally met our guide. He proved very knowledgeable and spoke very good English with some Australian idioms. We started the tour at the narrows (the narrowest point across the Dardanelles) which was the actual object of the landings, and where Turkish gun emplacements and mines stopped the British and French navies from entering the Dardanelles and thus precipitated the attack.
We then headed to Anzac Cove which the guide claimed was not in fact where the Anzacs landed. He also presented arguments that, in the dark, the Anzacs could in fact have landed at a different location to that intended. When you see the geography and feel the wind you can understand why it could have happened. The guide suggested that in fact this mistake was actually to the Anzacs’ advantage as the only opposing force was a group of 60 Turkish lookouts who each only had 20 bullets so once they expended their bullets they retreated and the other waves of Anzacs landed unopposed.
We then went to the next beach which was called South Beach where he said more Anzacs landed than at the original cove. In fact five beaches were used for Anzac landings.
He also pointed out that more troops were lost at Lone Pine by midday of the landing rather than on the beach itself. He demonstrated this by looking at grave sites on the beach where very few soldiers died on 25 April whilst at Lone Pine significant numbers are recorded.
We then travelled around various sites. The thing which strikes you is the geography of the area and how small the actual battle sites are like the Nek and Lone Pine where today a road separates the Turkish and Anzac trenches.
We finished at Chunka Bar, the highest point the Anzacs (actually a Maori unit) achieved. But they were pushed back because of the lack of communication.
We then started the 5 hour bus trip back, most of which Teresa slept through. The interesting part was George the poor bus driver trying to drop off the passengers at their hotel. Even at 11.30pm on a Tuesday night the place was rocking with not just tourists but locals. The traffic was so bad it was easier to get off before Taksim and walk up to the square and home!
It was certainly an interesting tour but a very long day!
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Travelling with Teresa 