Week 10: restday Gallipoli: touring the Anzac battlefields
While cycling has it's advantages of seeing things missed when zipping by in a vehicle, for example that blur of color was wildflowers blooming, and that goat herd is a collection of goats with so many different colors of coat, or that bird takes flight just as you pass, there are disadvantages too. A cyclist will think twice about whether to see that archaeological site 6 kms off a side road and then will have to return on the same road. As Jimmy Buffet says "go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see". What we see from a bike is different, and the distances not great, but what we see, we see very well. Today though we will be in a vehicle.
For the rest day, we've signed up for a tour of the 1915 battlefields of Gallipoli. After an impressive breakfast included in our hotel, we took a local bus to Eceabat and joined a tour group out of Istanbul. When a cyclist rides in a vehicle and looks out the window at the road, the tendency is to still think like a cyclist. Going down a hill and looking at the next hill, thinks "I would have to start pedaling on the downhill...here....and I would need to shift...here", looking at different points on the road from a different perspective. We join the tour with an excellent guide explaining the history.
Turkey joined Germany late in the war to end all wars (WWI). "Allied objectives of Gallipoli campaign were to capture Istanbul, force Turkey out of the war, secure an ice free sea supply route to Russia and open another front against Germany and Austria-Hungary". This year marked the 100th anniversary of the battle fought by ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corp).
The beaches of Gallipoli where the ANZAC's landed and tried to take the ridges.
This is hallowed ground for the Australians and New Zealanders. Our guide theorizes how this is where the Ozzies and Kiwis realized they were no longer British but became their own nations.
