Day 13 Thursday 13 April 2017

If you are ever visiting this part of Belgium remember this, do not ever, and I repeat do not ever stand in the path of a middle aged Belgium riding their bicycle towards you, they will not try and avoid you but will keep on coming at you with a steely determination, leaving it up to you to get out of the way.

For those of you who may be interested in what I had for dinner last night, I had prawn croquettes and sole menuire.  Sole is a fish similar to our flounder and last night's offering was cooked in a very light buttery sauce.  The croquets were, as usual, delicious.  How can you go wrong with something made of prawns and deep fried.

Has anbody noticed what the temperature is going to be in Berlin next week, maximum of 9 degrees for the time that I am there and Prague is similar.  Now thats cold!

Out and about again today.  Visited the Hooge wood crater.  This is a mine crater that was exploded by the British under the German lines in 1915.  The whole area was fought over many times between 1914 and 1918.  This is only about 5 km out of Ypres.
The crater is in the grounds of a hotel and you can walk around a path around it which inlcudes some German blockhouses and piles of battlefield detrius.  Now this is located in an area that was known to the British, and the Australians as Chateau Wood.

Detrius of War

There is a famous photo, taken by Frank Hurley, of 5 Australian soldiers walking on duckboards through Chateau wood, although it didn't exist as a wood at the time, it was just a wasteland of mud and flooded shell craters and splintered tree stumps.  We have an enlarged copy of the photo in the galleries at the Shrine it is one of the things that I talk about to school groups.  So I was inerested in what Chateau Wood looks like now, well there is a bloody big amusement park there and ironically there are a lot of water based rides.

I also went to Polygon Wood, Flashy they havent identified anymore of the 5 Australians that you helped bury.  Still 2 51st btn men, 1 49th (I think) and 2 soldiers of the great war, known unto god.

5th Division Memorial - Polygon Wood

As well as visiting the revamped museum at Zonnebeke I went to the large British cemetery at Tyne Cot.

On previous trips I have been unsuccessful in finding Sgt Lewis McGee's grave.  McGee was a 40th Btn soldier from Campbell Town in Tasmania, he was 29 years old, worked as an engine driver and was married with a small child.  He was awarded the Victoria Cross during the fighting for Passchendaele.  He single handedly took on a German pill box, known as the Hamburger, in front of where Tyne Cot now stands.  He was killed in subsequent fighting in the same area before he knew that he had been awarded the VC.  From memory his wife received the VC from a visiting member of royalty after the war in Central Park in Launceston.

I wonder what delights dinner holds for me tonight, prawn croquettes maybe??

A deer