We arrived at just before 5am and we could not get within 2 blocks of service. And at 5am they were well and truly already into the service and were at the last post and wrapping up with the anthems .. including a god save the Queen .. hmm. So it was a tad shame that we mostly missed it. But the atmosphere was still great. All those people, proud and patriotic about the sacrifice that our diggers have made. It was more a sense of pride for me than I ever felt on this years Australia Day.
Somehow by stealth I seem to have been caught up in the new tide of national feeling towards ANZAC day. I guess it all started for me when I headed off overseas and visited the battlefields of France in 2000 and then went to Gallipoli four years ago for the 25th of April. And now I have completed the Kokoda track and wandered around the war cemetery in Lae. On the horizon I am even contemplating hiking along the Thai-Burma railway later this year. Once I started visiting these battlefields I feel I should complete more of them. The funny thing is I don't know why I feel compelled to visit these places. It is obviously not because I just want to tick a box.
Anyway I took a few photos the other morning. I forgot to take a tripod so they are a tad blurry at the slow shutter speeds in the non-existent predawn light.
The masses of people
The Cenotaph
Beer at 6am .. oh there were plenty of people in this pub
More up on my Flickr page.
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