- Joined
- Aug 15, 2012
- Bikes
- KTM 613 EXC, BMW R90S & Dakar, MZ250, Norton 16H, Honda - 500 Fs & Xs, DRZs, XLs XRs CRFs CT110s etc
2015 was the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign. At the time I was living in Dubai and running a rather intensive corporate improvement programme for Dubai Airport - which was looking to demonstrate it was capable of borrowing, ahem, US$32 billion to replace the world's busiest international airport (DXB) with what would then be the worlds busiest international airport (DWC). Dealing with reforms to what was probably the Middle East's most complex IT setup, legal, finance, supply chain reforms (oh the stories I could tell - but I see they now say they are "one of the leading procurement departments in the Middle East" - for which I am happy to take a bow). Anyhow... life was pretty full-on - so, a couple of months after the official ANZAC Day ceremony at Gallipoli, (ANZAC being the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) - it was Ramadan and things were slower than normal at work, so I skived off for 3 days on one of the corporate jets, flew across Iraq, Syria and on into Turkey.
Dinner was a local delicacy. Ram's testicles
I hired a GS800 in Istanbul and headed southwest.
Definitely some strange town names
Its a 300km run to Eceabat... and I managed to score a major dump of rain along the way. I had helmet, gloves and a pair of riding boots - no decent riding gear and certainly no rain gear - it was shirt and trousers stuff. Oh well, shit happens. I got wet, but rode on after a roadhouse snack
I stopped at the first evidence of the battle that I saw, the Akbas Cemetery and Memorial - which in 1915 was the Turkish 19th Division's mobile hospital, serving as dispatching hospital for wounded being to sent to Istanbul. If I remember correctly, about 1,200 of them never got past the hospital... and it is now one of many war graves cemeteries on the peninsular - with 31 of them being Commonwealth War Graves.
The Turks have done a great job with memorials and battlefield information on the peninsular. The story of this guy, who saved the day for one fort was fascinating - and it is celebrated in a couple of different memorials.
Just looking at that photo reminds me of how much I hate fat-arsed bikes. I like soft bags, close in. Stack 'em higher, not wider. I like to lane split / filter. I'd already had one incident in that regard.... filtering through Istanbul traffic, the bike started to lean. Oops - sorry mate... I'd bagged a car - fortunately an old one, rather than some knob's Merc.
Anyhow, it was into Eceabat and I found a guesthouse and got into a refreshing ale. The staff were going to take me up on my offer of a beer too, but suddenly got Ramadan remorse and backed out. No worries... I'll drink it. Turns out our former Prime Minister, Johnnie Howard, apparently stayed at the same guest house. They had his photo on the wall. Plenty more to see in that town, but it's north of the battlefield. One interesting memorial there was a diorama of one part of the Gallipoli campaign. Life expectancy in this area was measured in minutes. This is an accurate representation of how close the trenches were there
In all, there were over 500,000 casualties in the Gallipoli campaign. Over 56,000 dead on each side. Riding through the battlefield the next day, the hair was standing up on the back of my neck the whole time. The place stirs with the souls of young dead. I'm not a religious man, but I sure as hell felt the presence of those lads who never came home.
Dinner was a local delicacy. Ram's testicles
I hired a GS800 in Istanbul and headed southwest.
Definitely some strange town names
Its a 300km run to Eceabat... and I managed to score a major dump of rain along the way. I had helmet, gloves and a pair of riding boots - no decent riding gear and certainly no rain gear - it was shirt and trousers stuff. Oh well, shit happens. I got wet, but rode on after a roadhouse snack
I stopped at the first evidence of the battle that I saw, the Akbas Cemetery and Memorial - which in 1915 was the Turkish 19th Division's mobile hospital, serving as dispatching hospital for wounded being to sent to Istanbul. If I remember correctly, about 1,200 of them never got past the hospital... and it is now one of many war graves cemeteries on the peninsular - with 31 of them being Commonwealth War Graves.
The Turks have done a great job with memorials and battlefield information on the peninsular. The story of this guy, who saved the day for one fort was fascinating - and it is celebrated in a couple of different memorials.
Just looking at that photo reminds me of how much I hate fat-arsed bikes. I like soft bags, close in. Stack 'em higher, not wider. I like to lane split / filter. I'd already had one incident in that regard.... filtering through Istanbul traffic, the bike started to lean. Oops - sorry mate... I'd bagged a car - fortunately an old one, rather than some knob's Merc.
Anyhow, it was into Eceabat and I found a guesthouse and got into a refreshing ale. The staff were going to take me up on my offer of a beer too, but suddenly got Ramadan remorse and backed out. No worries... I'll drink it. Turns out our former Prime Minister, Johnnie Howard, apparently stayed at the same guest house. They had his photo on the wall. Plenty more to see in that town, but it's north of the battlefield. One interesting memorial there was a diorama of one part of the Gallipoli campaign. Life expectancy in this area was measured in minutes. This is an accurate representation of how close the trenches were there
In all, there were over 500,000 casualties in the Gallipoli campaign. Over 56,000 dead on each side. Riding through the battlefield the next day, the hair was standing up on the back of my neck the whole time. The place stirs with the souls of young dead. I'm not a religious man, but I sure as hell felt the presence of those lads who never came home.
