Happy Birthday Alex! Today our gorgeous little Chookie turns 11 in Turkey. We celebrated wholeheartedly in Brisbane last Sunday, so today felt more like an extension of the celebration. Regardless, she was excited to have some of her favourite gifts with her – Llama Pyjamas and a super cool beanie, which both got a workout. Note the excitement at now having to include a toe in the age count!!!!
Andrew got out early to try and capture the Dardanelles at dawn – a stunning time of day in any town.
The statues of Turkish war heroes surround the model of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Eceabat, and the model that shows the small distance between the Turkish and ANZACs…
With the ANZAC Commemoration tomorrow, it was always going to be a strange day in the area. There are police of every type every where, security checks, road closures, whistles and just general craziness. We decided to get the ferry to Canakkale, the venue of the only 5-star hotel in the region – it felt like Brisbane during the G20 with the snipers and police, except in contrast to Brisbane the Turkish locals opted to stay. I suspect they go through this on some scale every April.
We decided to venture to Troy… along with thousands of other tourists. This made it difficult to fully appreciate the space and the history, but we head back later in the trip. it was also quite a challenge to fight our way back amongst the dignitariies – if it wasn’t for Chook I dont think we would have made it back.
Without doubt, the highlight of the ferry trip was seeing STS Young Endeavour, which I sailed on in 1993 – a life changing experience. As a naval ship, she often plays a ceremonial role so it was great to see her here for the ANZAC Centenary.
Tonight we head to Gallipoli for the In preparation for the Dawn Service. Forecast is for 8 degrees and clear, but with the wind and the fact we wont be able to move it promises to be extremely cold… but nothing compared to the experience of the ANZACs as they ran up the beach 100 years ago.
It’s now 6:30pm and we’ve been in the bus queue for an hour to enter the first of four security check points. Looks like its going to take a while, but a comfy warm bus is probably a good option!
Cheers, M & the Bunch xxx
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