Day 4

This morning we all got a nice sleep in compared to the previous mornings! After a late get up it was made even later when every person in the hotel decided to also take the elevator, which turned a three minute elevator trip into a ten minute wait, and put us behind about half an hour. We then met our tour guide Colin, and bus driver Frank, and started our journey to the country side of France. We started touring the Western Front, where we started to tour "The Somme", a very famous battle in WWI. Here we visited the Theipval Memorial, where Harrison and Wayne's relatives were listed on the walls of the memorial of those missing. It was here that we started our solemn commemoration of our lost relatives of tour members. From there we visited the second largest crater in The Somme; known as Lochnagar Crater, which took six months to load the charge which created a hole ninety metres long by twenty metres deep. From the crater we went to Poziers Memorial, were we visited another grave site, this time for Courtney McKnight-Rhodes. The ceremonies we held for both families were amazing and fairly emotional for everyone. Especially when Courtney got in "trouble" for making almost everyone cry and get teary and choked up. From the ceremony we went to the Australian First Division Memorial, where we found that Mr Croft doesn't do to well at organising our pictures for formal photos which involve everyone. Mr Croft also let Megan know that she is a "tall bird", and allowing the nickname Big Bird to start! After visiting these memorials we then went to our hotel, The Moderne, and checked in. It was discovered by both staff and students that all of the rooms have baths. After checking in and spending some time at the hotel we then headed down to Le Bouchout, a seafood restaurant with some "delicacies" which some enjoyed and others not so much. Both Braydee and Tahlia managed to gain a few Euros when Mr Croft decided to bet Braydee that she couldn't finish her massive meal, and Mrs Walkerden that Tahlia couldn't eat her two sea snails. Kyah kept the whole group entertained as she tried to finish off her seafood platter, especially when she tried the oysters!
It was a great day. A massive happy birthday to Jeremy and we hope that he enjoyed his "exploding" birthday cake!

By: Kate and Courtney R.

For more pictures of the tour please visit Mr Bylund's photo blog at jebx4.tumblr.com