Military History Tours          On Tour - Swim the Dardanelles and Lone Pine Anniversary Tour 30 Aug 2012 (Victory Day)

Well what a day, our tour group had a triumph over Neptune rivalling that of Caligula! All our swimmers finished the course a triumph in itself. Four collected prizes for first in age group, one being the first woman and first non-Turk regardless of gender. Another was second in age. The table below summarises our results:

Tamara Callaghan Finished Gary Collins Second in age and gender group Julie Dart First in age and gender group Denise Elder First in age and gender group Brian Munro Finished Jane Nixon First in age and gender group Emily Procopis Finished Tegan Schafer Finished Terry Stewart Finished Jenny Whiteley First Woman overall, First in age and gender group, First non-Turk overall Donald Wilson Finished

The full results can be viewed by downloading the following files:
OVERALL RESULTS BY GENDER and
RESULTS BY AGE AND GENDER CATEGORY.
Results courtesy the Çanakkale Rotary Club.

Our victorious swim tour party with his excellency the Australian Consul.

The group’s poet Brian Munro summarised the tour:

We have gathered together in Old Istanbul,
With Military History and a swim to fulfil,
Our Driver Ozgan, guides Yavuz and John,
We travelled together for fellowship and fun.

In our bus we travel to World War 1 Gallipoli,
Many battlefields, the opportunity to see.
Lone Pine, The Nek, Quinn’s Post, Chanuk Bair,
The ANZACs their task almost impossible, so unfait.

Our swim today in the straits of Dardanelle,
Near the shore, where our forebears fought and fell,
We follow the strokes of Poet Lord Byron,
And Leander in search of Hero his beautiful siren.

Well worth a day on the fickle Hellespont,
Our group with six majors on the podium font,
Every one did make it and did the lot,
Tho’ some with the currents, we lost the plot.

As we part tomorrow and go our own way,
We’ll miss your company, your friendly g’day,
From two young princesses to us older folks,
Thanks go to our leaders, you are just great blokes.

Our thanks to the Çanakkale Rotary Club for organising the event.