Belgium - France ~ WWI Trail

Once in Belguim we camped again, and left reasonably early to visit Zonnebeke and the Memorial Museum, then Passendale and the Tyne Cot Memorial Cemetry and Visitors centre, where many New Zealand WW1 soldiers are buried or memorialized. We also paid a visit to the New Zealand Soldiers Memorial.

It was astounding to see the many New Zealand headstones in the Commonwealth Cemetry including Australian, Canadian, British, South African, and Scottish graves. The Cemetry was very well tended with every single headstone having a planting in front of it. On the Memorial wall there are over 35 000 names and this is not a finite list, as there is also a research centre and names are still being added. 

From here we went to Dunkirk and went down to the beach at the Bray Dunes and reflected on what has past, and saw some remains of ship wrecks as it was low tide and parts of two ships skeletons were visible.

We then drove over the border to France to the town of Calais. We are staying at a town called Escalles which is close to the coast and the White Cliffs of Dover are visible in the distance, 40 km to the UK.

This area has old fortifications from WW1 also and a beautiful beach and cliffs which we went for a walk along. Looking out to the channel there was plenty of ship traffic between the two countries, some freighters and passenger ships.

We visited a Monument near Longueval for the New Zealand division who fought in the first battle of the Somme in 1916 (alongside the British, Australians, Canadians,  South Africans and Newfoundlanders.)

We also visited Caterpillar Valley Cemetry which was the original resting place of  the Unknown NZ Soldier who was removed and laid to rest in the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the National War Memorial in Wellngton in 2004. 

1205 New Zealand soldiers named and unknown are commemorated here alongside soldiers from other commonwealth countries. 

The Somme museum in Albert was the next and last port of call; I was surprised at the numerous memorials and cemeteries in the area, though not surprising when you read the information at the museums. The Somme Museum is underground in the basement of a church which dates back to medieval times and was used as an air raid shelter in WWII. 

While driving on to Paris, we also noticed many war cemeteries along the way, some near towns and others throughout the country side.