So after a two hour boat ride and three hours on a Turkish Bus (first trip of many to come) we arrived at Cannakale just across the water from the Galipoli Peninsula. We had an very moving day touring the battle fields and the monuments with a lovely guide who's grandfather and great uncle had died during the Gallipoli campaign.




The landing beach - now a little narrower than then but even then it was tiny and must have been terrifying - our guide explained how the first boats to arrive ordered the soldiers over the side in full kit while still in deep water and many drowned.






The new memorial sight where the service is held every year - from where we are sitting we could look up the impossible steep terrain that faced the ANZACs.







Our lovely Guide Captain Ali (former Turkish Navy) helps Katie with the Brownie wreaths at the New Zealand memorial at Chunak Bair.









Chunak Bair - the New Zealand Monument has the honour of sharing the site with the giant Statue of Mustapha Camal - Attaturk (father of Turkey) after leading the Turkish army in defeat of the allied campaign he went onto lead and modernise Turkey. The NZ monument is also the only allied one not designed by the British architect - instead an NZ architect built it using influences from Egyptian temples with tiny slits in the side designed to let light in on certain days of the year.






One of the many grave sites with graves of Australian, NZ and Indian troops. All beautifully kept.







The remnants of the NZ trenches near the Lone Pine Cemetary - the furthest that the troops reached inland. We sat in the shade and contemplated the aweful conditions - barely enough water to drink so no chance of washing, uniforms in tatters and full of lice, bad food, dysentry. Terrible losses on both sides, by the end of the ten month campaign the will to fight was gone. As our guide said it was the beginning of nationhood for the Turks as well as the Australians and the Kiwis.




Symbol of respect that the soldiers had for each other whatever side they were on - A Turkish soldier carries an Australian to a medical base.









Gallipoli was a very moving experience, we have many more photos and will produce a more detailed collection for anyone who would like to see more - in particular we a have pictures of the stunning terrain as seen from both sides and photos of the lists of names on the monuments, especially of Otago regiments.

And so to Turkey

First stop, Istanbul

Hot and sunny - in the high twenties but with a gentle breeze we all loved Istanbul. The Sultnamet area was clean and calm, dominated by the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia with lovely gardens and fountains it was a great contrast to the chaos of Cairo.

The entrance to Taksim palace - original home of the Otoman Sultans now home to an amazing jewel collection (including the fifth largest diamond in the world). Highlight for the girls was discovering spinning tops.

Turkish flags fly everywhere from giant ones on the tops of hill to this slightly more modest version on Aya Sophia (a huge church built by the Emporer Domition in AD 500ish and still in great condition with original mosaics.

By the Bosphorus and very hot - just about to discover the delights of apple tea.

Aya Sophia by night - the eveings arouns Sultanamet where lovely with music, dancing by a whirling dervish, food stalls and a steady stream of people drifting through the gardens.

So after Cairo it was a plane ride to the far south near the Sudan border, a rise in temperature to about 35C and the stunnining first sight of Abu Simbal. It was very wierd to actually be looking at something you have seen pictures of so often. We were not allowed to take pictures inside - which was full of heiroglyphics and carvings all in colour, the girls were as amazed as the adults - it was so frsh that it was hard to believe it was over 3,500 years old and the fact that the whole thing was moved is even more stunning when you see the size of both temples.

Here are a a few pictures







The Temple built by Ramses II, and the temple next door dedicated to his fourth wife (he had about fourty wives, 15o kids and lived to be 96 - not bad going he also signed the world's first peace treaty with the Hittites from Turkey but pretended he had beaten them in battle).



Detail of the sun god , and another one of us doing the stand in front of something famous and smile thing.


Then it was off to Luxor for the Cruise bit...........

In the city of Cairo

A little more on Cairo

Imagine a city of 22 million people, most of whom have a car - especially ancient Ladas or Fiats. Then imagine all those cars driving around the city and totally ignoring give way rules, traffic lights, stop signs, in-fact taking no notice of any road rule. Then imagine five lanes of cars all trying to get into a two lane road. Add in a few buses where people jump on and off while they are moving and pedestrians who just walk across the road as if nothing is there. One of the guides said that in Cairo you need three things to drive - good brakes, a good horn and good luck. Going in a taxi or car is a real experience - although no one seemed to get mad!

The whole effect is noisey, smelly, with a constant symphony of car horns and squeeling breaks.


Now a word from Katie -

"I thought the bazaars in Cairo were annoying because everyone wanted you to buy something but the good thing was that they started off with a high price then went down and down to your price. We went to the Great Pyramid of Giza and I went inside and it was really scary. I went camel riding and that was really fun."


Katie in the doorway of the mummification temple by the Sphinx.


Katie in Cairo - on the hotel balcony.



Street scene - bread seller on a bicycle.


We also visited some beautifull Mosques the girls and mum had to wear head scarves and we all removed our shoes.

Al hazir mosque Katie and Libby

Street outside the Mosque.

Watch the next posting for our trip to Abu Simbal....

The sights of Cairo

They say a picture tells a thousand words so here is a little picture story of Egypt.

Crazy Cairo, a brown city, noisy, dirty, the most incredible traffic - but kind of fun too.



Of course Cairo means pyramids - like this very old crumbly one at Sakkara.







To these the famous ones!





And of course

you have to ride a camel





Mum too










and don't forget the sphinx

That's the first entry - will now try and post this before I lose it - will be back with more soon.

Cairo - a short movie

Cairo is a busy city - never seems to sleep. Here is a short movie taken from our hotel room looking out over the river Nile. Noise, cars everywhere.....