ANZAC Day - Wednesday 25 April

I am a little pissed off at the moment with both all my hotel connections and also Google Blogger. This is the third or fourth time I have tried to write this post over the past few days and each time, I suppose because it takes a little while to type on the iPad compared with a laptop, I am logged out either by my Internet connection or by google blogger itself. I have tried several times to save my progress, which it does; however, I seem to be unable to find my draft after I am logged out. So, apologies to those who have been checking up on progress of my blog; and haven't found anything there, but that is the reason why I have been trying to update all my days so far today. I had recently finished my ANZAC Day post, which was a really long one, when I found I had been logged out by the hotel. I have to rely now on my memory and the heaps of photos I had taken on the day at various points to jog my memory. Woke up at an ungodly hour by the alarm clock and also by the hotel where we were staying in Amiens at 3:00am. Usually on an ANZAC Day I either stay up all night and not go to bed or get up at 4:30am and catch a taxi so I can be at the Shrine of Remeberance in time for the Dawn Service. 3:00 am was a little bit of an awakening for me, but I was ok for most of the day. I was surprised though that the hotel where where we were staying started to provide breakfast from about 1:30am onwards. I suppose with the amount of people staying at the hotel, aside from the 50 on our tour bus, that were attending the Dawn Service at Villers Bretonneux, must have warranted in doing so. Got onto the bus at 4:00am and it was a 20km drive to the National Monument in Villers Bretonnuex. Walked along the lit pathways to the top of the hill where the monument is and it is a rather imposing structure. Was able to get a seat close to the front, but I couldn't really see too much. I could see the bugler at the top of the tower play the Last post, but couldn't really see any of the people making speeches unless i tilted my head from side to side all the time. The big screens off to the side were useful. I must admit I became a little unfocused when one of the dignitaries gave his speech totally in French - I got the gist of it here and there with the very basic French I have; but I think the cold got the better of me. I ended up weariong my Copperfield winter rugby top - which was surprisingly warm and heavy - my polar fleece and waterproof rain jacket. Also had a scarf I had purchased in Paris - I can't find any woollen scarves here at all and had to do with fashion type things - also had some possum gloves and also, as I had forgotten to pack my beanie, I wore the tour cap which did the job for the morning; but will post home. Usually, I tear up with ANZAC Day services - more so the marches than the services themselves - this was quite emotional, but no tears this time; but still very happy to be there. Sng a few hymns - I've never been religious and haven't attended church services (apart from weddings and funerals) since the age of 11, when I had the option of choosing competitive tennis or church;) but I surprised myself on somehow knowing the words to the Hymn 'Guide Me Know O Great Redeemer' and of course, knew the words to both verses of 'Advance Australia Fair'. The service concluded at around 7:00am and had just enough time to go up the front and listen to the school band play (they were really good) and also listen to Warren Snowden - Minister for Veterans' Affairs and member for NT give an interview for a television station. By the time after walking through all the crowds to get back to our meeting spot; or half an hour was already up. I knew that we were coming back to the Monument on Thursday, so didn't worry too much about going up to the top of the tower and looking at all the graves. Went to Le Hamel, where the MAor, his Deputy and the local townspeople gave the 3 tour buses a really good breakfast of bread, cheese and salami, fruit, croissants and other pastries and some decent coffee. Speeches were made by several people including the History teacher from Dubbo again, the Mayor of Ipswich and Will Davies. We then moved off to march up to the French monument at the top of the hill in the Village, laid some flowers and sang Le Marsailles. Then onto the Australian memorial quite a fair hike up (were in buses this time) and the Mayor chose me, alongside a schoolgirls and the Deputy to lay a potted wreath at the base of the memorial. I must admit that I probably spent too much time wandering around the recovered German trenches and taking snaps of the hillside - I was intending on putting these onto transparencies and placing arrows of direction of troop movements, but after looking at my photos afterwards, I don't think that the quality of shots is there. Could hear over the microphone - we all had headsets - that people were making a few few funny comments "Caroline's late again" and our Historian, Will, telling me to move on. Got the clP from the whole bus again, as I tried to sneakily get on board from the second half of the bus lol! Saw the Third Division memorial and also Dernancourt cemetery. Then it was off to Pozieres where we stopped, very briefly at the cemetery there. It was the only 2nd highly walled cemetery I had seen on the tour so far - Tyne Cot being partially high walled, was the other. Onto lunch in Pozieres at Tommy's and had a long look at the recreation of the German trench in the back yard of the pub. Shells were piled high and many artefacts from WWI were there. picked up some pellets to take back to work from the bar area. Went off to Courcelette cemetery, where proof lay in the fact that Commonwealth War Graves Commission do do their work. This was the first time we had seen anyone over the past week doing any maintenance on the grave sites. They were doing some mowing and reengraving of some of the headstones. I have been impressed with the fact that all the cemeteries we've visited, they've been immaculate. Back to Pozieres and to one of the sites I had most wanted to visit on the trip; which was the site of the battle for the windmill. There was more Australian blood spilled at the windmill site than almost anywhere else in Australia's involvement on the Western Front and it is considered to be, by some historians, to be Australian soil. After Pozieres, want just outside of the town and looked at the First Division monument and Rock of Gibraltar. Then we were off to Mouquet Farm, one of the places I had studied extensively in one of my Australian War units at university. It was great to see the site of the quarry and also where the farmhouse was located (it is located in a slightly different location now). Am starting to put imagery into my mind of places I've studied, but had never seen apart from prints and lithographs. Last stop was Lochnager Mine - one of the biggest craters from WWI. Much bigger than Hill 60 and Caterpiller Mine. Stopped there very briefly, and bought some more pellets from a vendor off the side of the road who was a relic hunter. Got back to Amiens at about 4:30pm, totally whacked and craving sleep. Went to bed by 5:00pm and was up again at 8:30pm; where I toured the town, asking heaps of locals where I could buy a packet of cigarettes (again, you were right David Dangerfield about my starting smoking in Europe). Finally was directed to alongside the train line, a very seedy area; where I went into several dodgy bars and finally found a place that had a whole heap of men sitting around watching the football. Got back to the hotel, craving food and got a small buffet meal. Met up with a couple of the blokes from the your and had some drinks (am drinking gins / gin & tonics quite a fair bit lately) and was in bed by about 11:00pm. A very long, but memorable day! :)