September 3, 2015
To Bapaume: Zig zagging across the Somme
It wasn't a huge distance but it was a difficult ride. Today we needed to find 3 different cemeteries and the graves or memorials of 5 men. The road out of Arras was fairly difficult, it was pretty busy and had no hard shoulder at all and we were riding the white line. It was basically undulating country but going gradually up and up and what is more we had an unpleasant head wind. Riding in these conditions when you have to ride so defensively I always find tiring. After around 20 km we came to Bucquoy and were saved by a PMU. I love PMUs now that no smoking is allowed in them. Even Ken with his Presbyterian upbringing and consequent loathing of betting loves them. For those of you not familiar with them they are basically betting shops with a bar. There are continual betting number games going on and although generally there will be someone heavily involved in these today in Bocquoy there were about half a dozen men having a social time. When we entered we were warmly greeted and the round of handshaking occurred. We ordered our coffee and then it started to rain. The clientele became very anxious as the baguette strapped to the back of Ken's bike was getting wet. Pas de Probleme. Eventually the rain stopped and we were off with many good wishes all around. Once we even stayed the night in a room above a PMU but if I can avoid it don't use their toilets, I will let your imagination go to work.
After Bucqouy it was cross country on a really tiny road with virtually no traffic, the hills were a bit better but we were now directly into the wind. At Sailly-au-Bois we found the cemetery where the body of James McGill ex of the NZ Rifle Brigade who died in 9/5/18 and was from Pokeno lies. This is a really tiny cemetery set in the countryside just outside the tiny village.
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A change in direction and now we had the wind behind us and it was with little trouble that we found the Euston Road Cemetery. There was some confusion here as there were 2 Kiwis with the name J Butler buried there. With some investigation we got the right one Joseph Butler aged 37 from the Mangatawhere Valley, he was aged 37 and surprisingly a member of the Wellington Battalion - we left the other J Butler a poppy too. The other Pokeno man here was Herbert Gadd of the Auckland Regiment , he was killed on 13/9/18 and his memorial says it is thought that he was buried in this place no doubt one of the many 'Known only unto God'
We were well ready for lunch now and our wet Baguette wasn't too bad and the Roquefort cheese we had with it delicious.
Now only one left to find the NZ Memorial at Grevillers. There amongst the list of names we found HJ Munroe of Pokeno ex of the Auckland Regiment who died on 23/3/1918. The other was CM Samuel. The story is this Rod Wynn Jones is a friend of ours and he was telling us just before he left that his grandmother's first husband was killed on the Somme, she was only 18 at the time and as can well be imagined it affected her for the rest of her life. He was a member of the NZ Machine Gun Battalion and died on 13/9/18
On to Bapaume where our our hotel which gets a rating of 9.2 from booking.com is obviously really comfortable
Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 1,702 km (1,057 miles)
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