Leaving Bozcaada, again with only light head winds so still motoring, we started to feel we were within sight of our destination of Istanbul, although still some 130 miles away. As we entered the Straits we could clearly see the Turkish war memorial on the northern side and further to the NW the smaller and less dramatic British memorial. The Dardenelle Straits are about 40 miles long and at there narrowest only a little over a mile wide - at Canakkale. At this point there is up to 4 knots of opposing current so slow progress motoring up in a yacht. The Dardenelles lead into the sea of Marmara and 100 miles across to Istanbul, then through the Borphorous Straits into the Black Sea that is bordered by Turkey, Bulgaria,Moldova,Ukraine,Russia and Georgia.
Going up the Straits we called up Hassle Free Tours (reference Lonely Planet) and found they have a daily 6 hours tour to Gallipoli that left at 1245 hrs each day. We booked and realised that it was going to be a close call for us to make it pushing the current. Anyway we got into the small town basis area, stern into the quay and said to the guy is it ok if we see you later and then ran for the tour company office. As it happened this tour joined up with the tour that left Istanbul in the early hours and it was running over an hour behind schedule so they put us into a small bus, onto the ferry and across to Eceabat on the northern side and then to a waterfront restaurant for lunch and a beer. The tour eventually lasted over 8 hours and we got back to Savarna around 2100 hrs.

The real poppies growing at Gallipoli
The Gallipoli (or Gelibolu to the Turks) peninsular runs the full length of the Dardenelles and the allied forces plan was to land on the eastern side, get control of the bottom half of the peninsula and then get access to the strategic sea passage of the Dardenelles and then control the shipping traffic to Russia. Our tour guide was an expert and clearly he had read every book ever written on the Gallipoli history. The peninsular is now a national historic park and houses 31 grave sites which are now well maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and numerous momuments. Every hill and ridge has a name. We started the history tour in a boat off Anzac Cove on a warm, sunny day with only a slight sea breeze.


Site where Anzac day dawn cewremony held
Our guide pointed out to us the various geographical features and was able to name the various commanders who had lead troops at different ridges. Lone Pine is the hilltop at 400 metres above sea level, that saw the Australians seize control on the day of the Gallipoli landing. It is the site of the Australian memorial and a large graveyard.


Australian monument at Lone Pine Ridge
Upwards and along the ridge (called Johnston's Jolly) for 3 k's and we came to Chunuk Bair, the highest point on the peninsular and taken by the Kiwi's but only held for 2 days until they retreated. Between 6 and 9 August 1915 28,000 men were killed here in the fighting between the NZ Mounted Rifle Brigade and a Maori contingent and the counter attack lead by Mustafa Kemal (known as Ataturk. After this battle Ataturk was promoted to General and he went on to become the founder of modern Turkey. His photograph is in every government and office building in Turkey (it used to be of the Queen in NZ before we embraced multiculturalism). Ataturk allegedly said to his men "I am not ordering you to attack I am ordering you to die, other troops and commanders will come to take our places." He was apparently hit by shrapnel in the chest but it hit his pocket watch - otherwise he would have been killed and what then would have happened?
At Chunuk Bair the NZ Government has erected a large memorial and next to that is a huge statue of Ataturk as you can see from the photo below.


New Zealand monument at Chul Bair with Ataturk looking on
Overall there were over 500,000 casualties in total, many bodies were never found and many are in mass graves. It was very sobering to walk among various of the well kept graveyards and to read the inscriptions - the youngest I saw was for a 14 year old Australian boy. The Gallipoli campaign lasted for 240 days from April to December 1915 and some 89,000 soldiers were successfully evacuated without the Turks realising the Allied forces were withdrawing.
In several places around the National Park were large, identical semi circular walls containing an inscription in English, on some, and Turkish on others. It is a quote by Ataturk:
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent your sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears: your sons are now lying in our bossom..... after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
The Turks did not enter the second world war.
We met a couple of Australians on the tour from Port MacQuarrie (they do not know you Ben) and we discovered that she worked with a former employee of Richard the Shipman 72 owner. How we ascertained that is far to complicated a story to repeat here.
At Canakkale we were tied up next to the only other yacht there - a Belgium Halberg Rassy called Nehalennia owned by Eric and Marlene with their two dogs on board, one being a very friendly German Shepherd.
So it was that Sunday 12 June saw us depart Canakkale for the 60 mile passage to somewhere on the island of Marmara in the Sea of Marmara and the halfway point between Canakkale and Istanbul.

Cheers
Keith & Pam