Last day in Turkey

The ferry that took us to Gallipoli

Crossing the Dardanelles

First sign of Anzac Cove

A brave young man who found a donkey and used it to transport the wounded from the battleground

Such a beautiful place

Lone Pine Cemetery

The width of this road divided the Tukrish army from the Allied Forces.

The NZ memorial

We even found a Wellington there.

This morning we  crossed the Dardanelles by Ferry (took about 20 mins) and visited Anzac cove, Lone Pine cemetery, and Chunuk Bair. Thankfully the crossing was smooth but we had to stand outside to avoid the hawkers trying to sell us scarves and T shirts. We learned lots about what happened there with the NZ and Aust troups and we certainly felt the sadness of the loss of all those young lives. Turkey lost a whole generation of young men, 350,000 of them. Our guide said that there is a gap in medical and other professions where that generation should have been.

There are many cemeteries there, Turkish, Australian, NZ and smaller mixed ones for smaller groups who were killed together. They are all peaceful and beautiful. It's so sad to see the ages of the men on their graves. So many under 20 years. And it was amazing to see how close the Turkish and Allied lines were. Where we stopped I counted only 20 paces between them .

I don't know how the NZ parents had the courage to say goodbye to their young sons as they went off to fight. And then to have so many of them die needlessly because they landed in the wrong place just is unimaginable.

We are now on the bus to Istanbul. About 2 hours to go. Our tour is finished tonight and we will be picked up for the airport at 7.25am for our flight to Egypt. I am really looking forward to this. One of the things I most wanted to do on this trip.

I haven't been able to load photos on yesterday's blog so will try again tonight, and for this one.

Not sure how the internet will be in Egypt. We will be on the boat for 3 nights but hopefully will be able to manage some info for the blog.

We are along way from the earthquake in Turkey. It is in the same region as the terrorist attack earlier this week. Poor buggers.