Down to Gallipoli and the Aegean
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
29
68
Trip End
Nov 08, 2007
Behramkale,
Turkey
Friday, September 14, 2007
Anzac Cove
.I hadn't realised how important the Gallipoli battles are for the Turkish people (they call it the Canakkale Battles) - but this is where they forged their identity as a Turkish nation, not as just part of the much wider Ottoman Empire. So the Turkish monuments became an important part of our visit as much as the NZ and Australian ones.
Having the car made it easy for us to get around the parts of the park that we wanted to see at our own pace. It was a gorgeous, sunny peaceful day with the Aegean Sea blue and sparkling and a light breeze to make the temperature pleasant. It was so hard to imagine it as it must have been back then. It was also interesting to compare - in Turkey so much human activity dates back eons and there are so many historical sites, but for NZ with its short period of human habitation, we have very little history - and even with that, one of our more important historical sites is here in Turkey.
Back on the Dardenelles side, we took a short trip down to Kilitbahir, which the guidebook said had an interesting castle. It certainly did - this castle, and the one on the opposite side of the Dardenelles, was originally built hundreds of years ago by Mehmet the Conqueror and reinforced by various regimes after that
Mehmet Turk carries the wounded ANZAC
. Including just prior to WWI, when huge earth bunkers were built along the water front facing into the straits at their narrowest point. It was here that the Turks defeated the Brittish and French plan to force the Dardenelles by send up a massive fleet of warships in 1915. This defeat lead directly to the next brilliant Allied plan to land soldiers onto the Aegean side of the Gallipoli Peninsular........ Going to Kiltbahir also worked out well as there was a regular car ferry across to Canakkale on the opposite side, which was our next destination, but this was a much easier and cheaper ferry to take than the main one up the road at Eceabat, and it made the crossing in half the time.
We had originally thought to stay in Canakkale that night, but the day had been so easy that we arrived at the wharf on the Asian side at 3.30pm. A quick discussion and we decided to miss seeing Troy and head down to Behramkale. This is a very small village, with another set of ruins - the old Hellenistic city of Assos, which was at its peak around 500 BC. It was also a place where Hakan had recommended an out of the way pension. Our directions were good enough to get us there - along a winding narrow, but paved, road, through some pretty dry, rocky country that is still being farmed in more or less traditional ways (there are more tractors around but the donkey is still an important farm resource) and a couple of small, stone house villages, then down a very narrow, only just paved, extremely winding road, with spectacular views out across the blue, blue Aegean and over to Lesvos only a few kms off the Turkish coast. We arrived at the pension, plonked ourselves down in the comfy chairs on the sheltered patio right on the sea with a couple of beers to watch the sun go down and promptly decided to stay 2 nights, not the one we'd originally planned!
The pension is not flash - there are 15 apartment rooms, sparsely but adequately furnished, each with their own bathroom (with hot water - eventually!). But the price is good and it included breakfast and a fantastic dinner - which would have cost us close to the price of the room itself in Istanbul! And the views are fantastic! And we are the only people here!!!!
Only downside is no internet, so you won't be reading this for a while...
