Fromelles France to Ieper, Belgium

Travelled: 111km
Stay: Ieper - parking along the moat near Menin Gate N50°50.8302' E2°53.6016' / 50.84781, 2.8933  

Another foggy start to the day. We drove through Arras on the way to the Vimy Ridge Canadian War Memorial. As we approached the sun broke through the fog, shining on the beautiful monument built here.

After admiring the 10 statues and the shear scale of it, we made our way to the visitors centre, where a Canadian student gave us a free tour of the trenches and tunnels used in the battle in 1917. At one point the Canadian and German trenches were only 25m apart!

We then journeyed onto Fromelles, where we stopped at the newly built Pheasant Wood Cemetery in which the recently exhumed bodies of Australian soldiers found in a field nearby.

We also went to the 'Cobbers Statue' which commemorates the bravery of those who ventured into no mans land to rescue the wounded, and to the VC Corners Australian Cemetery, which contains the graves of 410 soldiers, unknown by name, who fell in an attack at Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916. There is also a memorial to 884 Australian soldiers who fell in action and whose graves are unknown.

We then drove to Ieper/Ypres Belgium and found a lovely quiet spot along side the moat just down the road from Menin Gate. Later after dinner we went to listen to the Last Post which is played every night since 1928.