Battlefields and Football – Part 2 The Somme and Amiens

I had a good nights sleep following my early start the previous day and I headed off to the Menin Gate which was just round the corner from my hotel. I wanted to take a few photos and the previous day the weather and light hadn’t been right. I spent around 20 minutes taking pictures and reading some of the names which are carved all over the Menin Gate.

Soon, I was off and heading south towards the area around the Somme. As with the area around Ypres, there are countless cemeteries, often along very small, muddy roads. My first intended destination was the Hawthorn Crater. This was one of the mines that was detonated underneath the German lines at the start of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The explosion was captured on film and is often shown in documentaries about the Battle of the Somme. After driving around the area for a while, I still hadn’t found it, although I had driven along Sunken Lane which is the access point. Eventually, I came across the Newfoundland Park Memorial & Visitors Centre and stopped there. This was part of the British and Canadian Front Line on 1st July 1916 when the Battle of the Somme commenced. Some of the trenches are well preserved and from the Caribou Monument, you can get an excellent idea of the landscape and the direction of attack. It is also frighteningly obvious how far the soldiers were expected to move across open ground in the face of cannon and machine guns.

By now, I had clocked up quite a few miles on what my SatNav called roads but what were in fact muddy tracks. If you chose to take a self-drive tour, just be aware that a number of roads are not suitable for vehicles, especially in the rainy months.

At Newfoundland Park, I was given directions to help me find the Hawthorn Crater and as it happened I had driven straight past it. It wasn’t long until I was back and found the access point along a very muddy field. At first I was hesitant but decided it was all part of the experience. I got to the edge of the crater but it was very over grown so I didn’t venture too far and I was soon on my way to my next port of call, Ulster Tower. This is a memorial to the Ulster Regiments that performed so well on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The tower itself is home to the Irish couple who look after things. It used to be possible to climb to the top of the tower but sadly due to insurance restrictions, this is no longer open to the public.

Nearby is the Thiepval Memorial which is the largest British War Memorial in the world. Every 1st July, a major ceremony is held here to honour the dead. The memorial can be seen from quite a distance and there is also an interesting visitors centre with information about the battles fought here.

Nearby, is the South African Memorial at Delville Wood. The memorial was to all South African battles, not just those in World War I. One particular story that caught my eye in the visitors centre was that of a soldier in one of the native regiments. He was awarded the Military Medal for his actions when he was a prisoner of war. He was being held on a ship in a harbour. Somehow he had managed to acquire some explosives which he had hidden in a sardine tin. When the opportunity came, he did the explosives amongst some barrels of fuel. The explosion caused such damage and confusion that the ship eventually sunk and the soldier managed to escape. After walking for 23 days, he reached the safety of British Lines.

As with all the memorials, Delville Wood is sacred ground but I found this place in particular to be very peaceful and appropriate. I’m not really sure what made Delville Wood stand out for me but for me, there was just something a bit special about this place.

The afternoon was getting on now so I headed towards Amiens where I was staying that evening. My last stop of the day was a brief one at the site to the east of Amiens where the Red Baron was shot down. There isn’t actually much to see except for a small notice board by the side of the road. The site can be located by a nearby factory with a prominent chimney. The story of the Red Baron is one of the first I heard about regarding World War I so although there wasn’t much to see, it was something that I wanted to do. The Red Baron was a German air ace called Baron Manfred von Richthofen. Between 1916 – 1918, he shot down a total of 80 Allied aircraft and was eventually shot down but ground fire from an Australian unit on 21 April 1918.

By now, the weather was turning bad so I headed off to my hotel in Amiens for the night and my Battlefield exploration was over.

Explorer Travel Battlefields – http://www.battlefields.explorertravel.co.uk/

Must See Recommendations: Newfoundland Park Memorial & Visitors Centre, Lochnagar Crater and Delville Wood.

Battlefields and Football – Part 2 The Somme and Amiens

Battlefields and Football - Part 1 Ferries, Northern France and Ypres

My latest trip abroad was one of these things where everything fell nicely into place. The planning started when England announced a friendly against France in Paris. Now as Paris is my least favourite city in Europe, it was always my intention to spend as little time there as possible. A quick bit of research showed that driving was a far more attractive proposition that driving so I decided to combine it with a bit of a self-drive tour of some of the Western Front battlefield sites. On my return journey, I also managed to arrange a meeting with a company which will probably lead to a new venture for my business (but more of that in a later post).

Easter Monday, 3:30am and I’m woken up by alarm and I have to quietly sneak out of the house without waking up everyone. Thankfully, there was little overnight snow so my car didn’t need too much sorting out before I was en route to Dover for my 7am ferry crossing to Bolougne. Everything went smoothly and I arrived in France as planned and headed off towards my first destination, the V2 rocket complex at Eperlecques. This was one of a number of sites in northern France where the Nazis launched V1 and V2 rockets at Britain in 1944. Eperlecques was the target of a massive air raid which destroyed part of the complex. There is a large chunk of the roof that was blown away plus a number of craters in the woods which can still be seen. Entrance to the site was 7 Euros and wandering round, exploring the site and listening to the commentary will take around 30 minutes.

From there, my next stop was to the area around Wormhoud and Esquelbecq where around 65 British soldiers were massacred by the SS after they were captured during the retreat to Dunkirk. The massacre occurred when the men were moved into a barn and grenades were thrown inside. Survivors were shot although 15 men did escape. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any of the memorials so I moved on to Brandhoek cemetery.

Brandhoek is were Captain Noel Chavasse is buried. Capt Chavasse is one of just 3 men to have been awarded Britain’s highest award for bravery, the Victoria Cross. In addition, he was also awarded the Military Cross. I’m currently reading a book entitled “In Foreign Fields” by Dan Collins and it is about soldiers who have been awarded medals in Afghanistan and Iraq. When you realise what a soldier had to do in order to be award an MC, it really makes you realise what a brave man Capt Chavasse was especially when he was a member of the Royal Medical Corps and never fired a shot during the war. His awards were for rescuing men in danger. Brandhoek is one of the countless little cemeteries in the area. At one point, I stopped at a cemetery on the Somme which was in the middle of a farmers field. I scanned the surrounding countryside and counted another 7 cemeteries. Each of these cemeteries could have anything from 500 to 2,500 men buried there so its not long before you start to appreciate the number of men who died here.

My next stop was close to the village of Passchendaele at the largest British Military Cemetery at Tynecot. More than 12,000 men are buried here. From the cemetery, you can see for a few miles in all directions across fields and it seems hard to imagine the carnage that was there 90 years ago. The visitors centre gives a history of the area and the names of some of the dead and missing are broadcast quietly over speakers.

From Tynecot, I started to head back towards Ypres stopping at Hill 61 (Sanctuary Wood) on the way back. There is a small museum and some preserved trenches here. During my trip, the weather wasn’t kind and although it was nothing like as bad as conditions would have been during World War I, the bottom of the trenches still looking pretty horrible. It cost a few Euros to get in and this was the first place I really started to see the effects of the infamous mud

My next intended stop was the Hooge Crater. As earlier in the day, I struggled to locate it but I did find a small independent museum called the Hooge Crater Museum which had a fascinating collection of artefacts including a British Ambulance and a Victoria Cross. By now it was only about 2pm but the snow was coming down quite hard so I decided enough was enough for the day and headed into Ypres to my hotel. However, my sightseeing for the day wasn’t over as I still have to see the famous Cloth Hall which was all but destroyed (since fully rebuilt) and the Last Post ceremony which is carried out at 8pm every night at the Menin Gate. I always find the Last Post a very haunting and moving thing to listen to. After it was finished, 2 wreaths were laid by young British soldiers and this was followed by a recital from Laurence Binyon’s “For The Fallen”

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The last time I had heard that was at my father’s funeral so it was quite moving for me to hear it again.

Must See Recommendations: Tynecot Military Cemetery, Sanctuary Wood, Last Post at the Menin Gate

Explorer Travel Battlefields – http://www.battlefields.explorertravel.co.uk/

Battlefields and Football - Part 1 Ferries, Northern France and Ypres

Finnish Tourist Faces Prison

I was browsing the news this morning and I came across a story about a Finnish tourist who faces jail in Easter Island for defacing one of the historic statues there. The story is below (reproduced from Sky News) and I have to say, I fully agree with the authorities about this. Tourists must not damage or deface these things and if jail is the punishment that is required to get this message over, then so be it.

A Finnish tourist faces jail after he broke off part of the ear of an ancient Easter Island statue to take home as a souvenir. Marko Kulju, 25, had only been on the UNESCO world heritage island a day before defacing the 'Moai' statue. He is now in police custody waiting to hear his fate after he was caught red-handed by an angry resident.

"He says he planned to take it away as a souvenir," a police official said.

"He could face prison ... but it is more likely he will face a fine big enough to fix the damage."

The famous monoliths have fascinated visitors to the remote area ever since the first Europeans landed there on Easter Sunday, 1722. Hundreds of sculptures of huge heads and torsos pepper the island, which has an area of just 63 square miles.
They were carved by Polynesian colonisers out of the island's volcanic rock from as early as the 10th century, according to UNESCO. The largest standing statue is nearly 33ft tall and weighs 75 tonnes.

Finnish Tourist Faces Prison

Zulu Kingdom Workshop

On Wednesday, I attended a workshop at South Africa House in London. The workshop covered various attractions in the KwaZulu Natal (KZN) area of South Africa and I want to share with you some of the information that was given.

KZN is a large and diverse province located on the north east of South Africa. It is a popular destination with both overseas tourists and South Africans offering great year round weather and a wide range of activities. Visitors can indulge themselves in myriad of wildlife experiences, from private and community-owned game reserves. The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park offers the opportunity to view the traditional Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino) as well as whales in the space of a single day. Humpbank and southern right whales can frequently be seen off the coast from July to November.

In the majestic Drakensburg mountains, you can climb and walk the trails or head north to the historic towns and battlefields such as Isandlwana and Rourkes Drift. Adrenaline junkie can get their fix abseiling the world’s highest gorge, white water rafting, scuba diving among sharks, hiking or mountain biking.

The first presentation of the evening was by an account executive of South African Airways. This award winning airline offers direct overnight flight from London Heathrow Terminal 1 to Johannesburg and Cape Town. From there, you can fly all over the country with a network of domestic connections. As a member of the Star Alliance network, South African Airways can offer connections from all over the UK with their partner airline, British Midland. Their new fleet of Airbus aircraft offer excellent comfort in economy or if you prefer a bit more luxury, why not take advantage of the lie-flat seats which are available in business class.

The vibrant city of Durban is around 1 hours flying time from Johannesburg and is a hugely popular leisure destination. Durban spans the area from the internationally known Umhlanga Rocks in the north to one of the worlds top diving sites in the south – Amazimtoti Aliwal Shoal. One of the most famous attractions is the city’s Golden Mile, a six kilometre stretch of beach-front with safe bathing beaches, famed surf, piers, pavilions, pools, lawns, promenades, luxury hotels, restaurants and lively nightspots. Quality venues are available throughout the city and surrounding areas from self-catering apartments up to magnificent 5* hotels such as The Royal which has been operating in Durban since 1840. Durban also has one of the largest populations of Indians outside of India. In the Victoria Street market, you can shop for African curios, fabrics, leather goods, copper as well as stalls offer bunny chow, samosas and curries at bargain prices.

Bunny chow is one of Durban’s most popular takeaway meals. Back in the old apartheid day, golf caddies (‘bunnies’) were not allowed to use the crockery or cutlery at the exclusive golf clubs. Innovative chefs solved the problem by taking a half loaf of bread, scooping out the middle and filling it with curry. The scooped-out section is used to soak up the sauce. Now, I’m no lover of curry but we were given some bunny chow to try at the workshop and I have to say, it was very good.

It is said that KZN is so fertile because it has been washed with the blood of a hundred battles. Britain have been involved in their fair share of battles in the area, most famously against the Zulus at Isandlwana where on 22 January 1879, part of the British Invasion Force of 1,329 men were attacked and wiped out by 25,000 Zulu warriors. Later in the day, just 139 men fought a heroic defensive action at Rourkes Drift against a force of 4,000 Zulus. 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded as a result of the 11 hour battle and the buildings still remain virtually intact to this day.

At Isandlwana, you can chose to stay at the fabulous Isandlwana Lodge which is carved into the iNyoni rock overlooking the plain on the place where the Zulu commander stood on that day in January 1879. There are 12 luxurious en-suite bedrooms each with a private balcony designed to maximise the magnificent panoramic views. Resident historian, Rob Gerrard and will help set the scene for you on one of the most historic battleground in Britain’s military history. In addition, you can also experience life in Isandlwana Zulu Village and enjoy the numerous walking trails through the reserve and experience the amazing bird life and game.

Every winter (our summer), the Greatest Shoal on Earth comes to KZN in the form of the world famous Sardine Run. This truly unique event sees the worlds largest migration of sardines move north along the KZN coast towards Mozambique from their feeding grounds off the southern Cape in huge shoals. They are followed by a caravan of predators such as seabirds, dolphins, whales and sharks who gorge themselves on the defenceless little fish. Sometimes, the shoals will move too close to shore and end up on beaches where people can literally walk down and scoop up their catch. Once seen, never forgotten.

In the very north of KZN, you will find Tembe Elephant Park which is home to well over 200 of the largest elephant in the world. These magnificent creature roam within the unique sand forest and grassland ecosystem of the Tembe Elephant Park. Open vehicle game drives are offered during the day and night stopping at waterholes with superb game viewing and photo opportunities. From Tembe you can combine your stay with the unforgettable beach resort of Ponta Mamoli just over the border in Mozambique. In Ponta Mamoli, you can experience breathtaking view of the bay and dine on the finest Portuguese cuisine. For the more energetic, a variety of sports and activities are available including scuba diving, snorkelling with dolphins, deep sea fishing, eco-trails and beach rides on horseback or visiting turtle nesting beaches (October to December).

Sadly, as I was driving, I could have any of the excellent Castle beer that was on offer but after the workshop was over, we did get a chance to do some drumming courtesy of some very patient guys from the Drum Café. All in all, it was an excellent evening and I learned a lot. For more information about travel to South Africa, why not visit our website: http://www.big5.explorertravel.co.uk/Destinations/southafrica.htm

Zulu Kingdom Workshop