The next 2 - 3 days are being spent hot on the Commonwealth War Trails - the western front.
I dedicate these days by my (wise) words and thoughts to my two sons and two grandsons, as a father and grandfather the anguish and then sadness that so many parents had to endure is impossible to understand and describe . Please take a short time to look up even just one place that I mention over the next few days - I know that you will be a more rounded person for it.

The day started with one of them, Tristan waking me at 5.30 am as there is no fuel in the shed for the chainsaw! We were getting up at 6.00 am anyway to catch a fast train to Lille in France which is only just over the border as this is the pick up point for our hire car. Arrive fine but naturally a slight hitch - the car is booked for the next day! One would think easy to fix, alas not so as booked via a third party in Oz. A few phone calls later we are off driving down the wrong side of the street in the wrong side of our brand new Citron - hope it stays that way Not sure who is under the pump more,the driver, John or me in the drivers, sorry passengers seat. Some how we get our way out of town and on our way back to Belgium, the town called Ypres is the destination point.

There was an article written in a Melbourne paper about the time we were looking at broadening our outlooks on the meaning of life . It was about the enormity of the number of soldiers killed during the WW1 and the indelible mark left on the landscape in Belgium and France. It had always pulled at my heart strings and pricked interest and something that has I am proud to say has also rubbed off on Tristan so a pilgrimage was planned. John was also of similar ilk.

We are on our way to Tyne Cot but take a side step to a place called Polygon Wood Cemetary just out of Zonnebeke, a site important to the 5th Australian Military Division. It is in the middle of nothing important, woods and farm land. Our timing is fortuitous as we are only a week after ANZAC Day, thus lots of wreaths and notes are evident from ceremonies that would have taken place that day. Seems we are also not Robinson Crusoe, a bus load of Aussies are also on parade, good to hear their voices and be able to say giddy mate. These places are our good taxes at work and let me assure you plenty is being spent on the upkeep of theses memorials - worth every penny . As this is our first encounter the impact on our being is immense. We were to encounter these type of respect sites spread throughout the region. The feeling hard to fully describe.

To change the tone, we visited the best supermarket I have ever been to in my life, it was opposite the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 which is near the entry point to Tyne Cot,it was only small but so well lit and presented, many foods packaged ready to go, Coles and Wollies have a lot to answer for. People over here are far more discerning as to what they will buy and eat, even if it costs more. The trend of sustainability in food product and accountability in source and quality of product is what the demand is for. The people shop daily and require actual fresh to go produce.

Tyne Cot - here we have 12,000 burial plots, these are the "lucky" ones that were found and could be identified. This site is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetary in the world, it is impossible to grasp the sacrifice until you have walked row after row of these immaculately tended headstones . At the rear of the headstones section is a wall engraved with 35,000 names of men that were involved in the areas war and could not be found. Not sure how the generals slept (on both sides) at night. Sheer slaughter.

We set up digs in Yepres or (in Belgium speak - Ieper)) and then head off for more of the overrated local drop, then around 7.00 pm all paths lead to the Menin Gate. The experience encountered is one that can never be forgotten but is often repeated, in fact every day for the last 86 years. In July it will be number 30,000.

At 8.00 pm EVERY night buglers from the local fire brigade have stopped traffic at the Menin Gate to play the last post. My father would have such a smirk. Within this memorial are 55,000 soldiers names inscribed on the walls who died in this area but have no know grave, they just didn't return, lost, vanished into thin air - and you think you are having a shit day, spare me. There were a couple of thousand people standing in silence respecting the dead. Such a commitment for the community but a mind changing moment, the town runs on this simple act.

Every Australian deserves the opportunity to attend, you cannot be fully rounded until you do. We speak to many people, some here for the first time like us and others who say they have been many times before but are drawn back for reasons only the visited can understand. I will always be so proud to say that I have been to the Menin Gate - all I can say is please go. With the number of school children from all over the world in the area the tradition and greater understanding should be in good hands.