Day 6

G'day,
Today we are leaving France and heading to Ypres, Belgium. On the way we are still touring with Colin and Frank, our driver, and stopping along the way to visit memorials and pay our respects. After we stocked up on lollies, we left the Hotel Moderne and went to a big, beautiful British memorial called Faubourg-Damiens Cemetery that had 35942 names of those men, who are missing and do not have graves, carved into the walls. When you see such a site it really hits you as to what devastation the Great War had on the people of each nation, and is still having today. Just behind this great structure lies 2667 grave stones across the field. This is always a moving sight and brings sympathy and respect from us all.

After a short bus ride, we made it to the Canadian battlefield called Vimy Ridge, where thousands of Canadians lost their lives. The trenches made by both the Canadians and Germans were reconstructed, in their same positions, out of concrete sandbags. The whole group was amazed when they found that the Canadian and German trenches were about twenty metres apart. We could only stay on the concrete paths because of the large amount of unexploded explosives under the surface, with a few jokes about the sheep being blown up. Just down the road was the monumental memorial on Hill 145, which towers over all around. The detail in the statues at the top, front and sides was beautiful. The back of the memorial had a statue of the grieving mother of Canada facing towards the what use to be the coalfields, Bully les mines and the neighbouring towns of Lens, Douai and Loos.

Next stop on our trip north to Belgium was the Ors British Cemetery out in the farmland of France. Apparently not many people visit out here purely because of the distance they have to travel, which is a little sad. We are the first Anzac Tour from Collie SHS to stop at this cemetery and we were proud to do so. We were here to honour and pay or respects to the Rees family, directly related to the Sanfords. Tahlia Dawson-Gibbs read a poem by Wilfred Owen, who was buried down the road in a communal cemetery. This was a relatively small cemetery compared to what we have seen in the last week but still has the same effect; it still makes us contemplate the horrific ways the soldiers lived and died and the terrible amounts of losses the war brought. We learned about the last man to be killed in the war; he was talking to a local, leaning on a post when he was shot by a German sniper; it was 10:58am, two minutes before Germany signed the treaty and the war was over.  After paying our respects we had our formal photo in front of the Cross of Remembrance and hopped back on the bus.

We stopped for lunch Cambrai, the town of the largest tank engagement in the First World War. We had yet another baguette and a pastry to sort of say good bye to France. As a sandwich artist I had to have a look at the Subway down the road and while I was discovering that Subway over here sells donuts :) Jodie Hanns was trying to assist our tour guide, Colin in the toilets. Of course we have continued and exaggerated this joke from here and will continue do so!

We have now crossed the border into Belgium and are settled in to our hotel where the 5 year 12 boys are in one room. Yeah this will be fun. Keen to see what the tour has to offer us from here on out and are enjoying everyday. Apparently Belgium has a trio; beer, chips, and of course chocolate. We are here to commemorate and pay our respects but I'd be lying if I said no one was interested in some taste testing of Belgian chocolate.

By Jake and Lucas

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