Day 33 Saturday 25 April 2015 ANZAC Day Galipoli

Day 33 Saturday 25 April 2015

Here we are 100 years after the event.  We are one of several cruise ships in the exclusion zone…yeah right.  We watched the ceremony on the big screen and saw the sun rise over the ship. The ship had its own service where they had three children lay wreaths, an Australian, a New Zealander and a Turkish child…most appropriate.  They also had John Williamson, Normie Rowe and Bruce Woodley sing at the service. Unannounced to the passengers, we did a sail pass.  As we were having breakfast and looking out Elizabeth said that we were quite close to land.  Much to my surprise it was Suvla Bay!  Which doesn’t sound exciting to others but I was pretty excited!!  We were able to see the entire ANZAC landing area from sea which looked a barer than what we saw when we were onshore.  It just showed how little they had gone from the beach.

We watched the Lone Pine service on TV and we could look out our balcony and see the Lone Pine memorial on shore so it seemed all a little surreal.  We also saw the Australian naval frigate and one from New Zealand that were off-shore.

The ship also had an ANZAC Concert with John Williamson, Normie Rowe and Darryl Braithwaite. John Williamson performed “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” and “True Blue” (a crowd favourite). Elisabeth was very impressed with Normie Rowe’s voice Darryl Braithwaite didn’t have any song material that suited (not a criticism).  The crowd favourite was “The Horses”, I thought he could have changed it to the “The Light Horses”.  The concert was brilliant.