Adrian and Alys Travels: Gallipoli Ceremonies

So it was an early start this morning. The bus departed Istanbul at 0630hrs. It was a 3 hour 30 minute bus ride to the peninsular. About 10km out the bus was stopped and all passes were checked and validated. We were given a bus number for the trip home. From there we headed to the town of Eceabat for lunch. Security was tight even here many km from the commemorative sites. We had originally planned to do some tours around the various sites in the area, but (predictably) they were all closed off for VIP tours. I saw later that John Key and Tony Abbot + hangers on had been touring the sites. So away from there after lunch to head to the site proper. Another screening checkpoint and we were dropped by our bus at a holding area about 3km out from ANZAC Cove. Everyone was held here until authorisation was given to go down to ANZAC Cove starting at about 4;30pm. You could walk the 3km down of go in a shuttle bus. Being there quite early and being bus number 45 (of about 300) was helpful. So were were down at the site After passing through more security) by about 5pm with plenty of choice in seating. So we settled in to some good grandstand seats and the long wait began for the dawn service starting at 0530hrs. From 7:30pm on the 24th the big screen started showing entertainment and the military band played a few items. The temperature keep dropping, but we had been well warned about this and had plenty of warm clothing on hand. It was actually quite nice to be there knowing something really special was coming up. At one stage during the night a couple of historians came on the stage and lit up various parts of the peninsula talking of the events that happened there. At the end of a special night, the dawn service started. It was all over in just over an hour. It was great to be there, and the emotion really struck home when the national anthem was played and one realised just how lucky we were to be there for this special moment in this special place. So after the service it was the walk/shuttle up to Chunuk Bair about 6km all uphill to another holding area. This area was right beside the Chunuk Bair memorial itself. Before and between the Australia Ceremony (starting at 1100) and the NZ Ceremony at Chunuk Bair (starting at 1345) there were Turkish remembrance services. Both Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair are important sites for the Turks, in fact Ataturk was wounded at Chunuk Bair (he was saved by his cigarette case). So the Chunuk Bair site was being visited by a whole army of Turkish Scouts. There must have been thousand and thousands of them. Like at home, it was great to see these events being participated in by the younger generations. At about midday we are allowed in to the site. Again we lucked in with the seating and got seats right behind the VIP's. We were seated about 30 feet from John Key, Tony Abbott and Prince's Charles and Harry. The service was all finished by 3pm and we were moved back to the holding area to await the busses. How it worked was that the busses travelled up the hill, stopping to load passengers at Lone Pine, then continuing up the hill to Chunuk Bair to load the rest of their passengers. We were told this could be some wait. We are also advised that the busses could be slightly out of order. The first bus number called was 296 - so they weren't kidding there! This was probably the most frustrating part of the trip. The day was over. No sleep for 36 hrs now. And all you could do was wait until your bust number was called. It eventually was - at 6:45pm. So it was an 11pm arrival back at Istanbul for the best of sleeps! It was certainly well worth it to be there for these special occasions.