August 30, 2015
To Ieper: 'We will remember'
For the last almost 20years at 9.30am on the 25th April (Anzac Day) I have stood beside the War Memorial in Pokeno looking at the names of the fallen from many wars as I take part in the simple Anzac service. This year I was counting the names, 15 young men from this small district of around 800 who gave their lives in WW1. Many of them are names that are still know in the district like Dean , Munroe, Fraser and Pendergrast. We were going on a cycle tour of Europe again and would be passing through Flanders and Northern France. Why not try and find the graves of as many of them as we could and on each put a poppy that has come from their far away home town. With the help of the excellent Commonwealth War Graves web site I have tracked down 10 in the area we will travel through. Another 3 have joined my list from friends and it is today that this will start. Eight of the 13 do not have actual graves but have memorials but I know where to find these. Today was the start of this mission.
It is a fairly short trip from Kortrijk to Ieper mostly along the canal but we had one memorial to find at Messines and this although it made the day a lot longer was a convenient time to go there. Going along the canal was a pleasure again and the lycra clad pelotons were out somewhat earlier on a Sunday. We were mostly along the Belgium/French border so some times we were in one country and sometimes in the other. We turned away from the canal to get to Messines and it was after that that I really understood what 'Gaining the High Ground' really meant to the enemy. It was the first sustained uphill riding we have done for a while and Messines is of course on a ridge. There is a very good information centre there and close by The New Zealand Memorial which is what we were looking for. On the 7th and 8th of June the New Zealand Rifle Brigade were attacking up hill and as would be expected the losses were huge. It was on 7th of June that Capt DB MacFarlane was killed, he was an uncle of our friend Jack Watson. The names of the fallen are not recorded there but we left a poppy there in his memory. Also at Messines a happier story an old friend Frank Morgan was hit and left for dead but his cousin saw him move. Frank had had half his face blown off, he was evacuated to England where he had ground breaking plastic surgery. He was never again to be the handsome man he had been but he was one of the nicest men I have met. He lived his life as a farmer in Central Otago and as a teenager I had many happy holidays at the Morgans. Frank lived to a ripe old age.
It was a down hill ride from 'the high ground' into Ieper and we have a hotel right in the centre. At 8pm we will go to the playing of the Last Post and the reading of Binion's Words which occurs every evening at that time
Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,489 km (925 miles)
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