DAY 2 SEPTEMBER 9TH 1997
As usual I woke up early, having children means that your body clock has you up and at it early no matter how shagged out you are, this was the case for me. Breakfast is 8AM, and is usually massive, we plan to put quite a bit away therefore negating the need for lunch except a chocky biscuit. the itinery for today was to do a long walk, this means that David doesn't have to drive and we see the Somme first hand at eye level and places that the car never normally goes to. I love the walking, I normally come back much thinner (not hard!!) yet I eat more when I do eat.
Having
Togged up we walked to Beaumont Hamel and took the footpath behind the civilian
Cemetery and walked up it. This was a footpath before 1914 and appears on trench
maps so I was able to orientate myself as we walked it, we walked up and over
the Battlefield
(see pic, staion alley is the line coming into the road center picture)
which I had studied so much . I got a feel for what was there and the shape
of the battlefield, the evience was everywhere, unexploded trench mortar shells
and several types of grenade!!!, empty shell cases and shrapnel. This path takes
you to just 
behind
the Ancre Military Cemetery. You stand on the spot where there was a redoubt
which massacred Hawke Battalion on 13th November and held out till a tank appeared
the following day. Standing there you could see the field of fire the Germans
had, truely awesome. From there we crossed the railway and the river by the
mill and walked into St Pierre Divion, then up the footpath to the Ulster tower.
The gradient is quite steep, in terms of front line, we just moved from behind
the German to the British, passing the remnants of a bunker. we stopped
at the cemetery opposite the tower. then walked up to Mill road cemetery which
was in 1916 between the British
front line and the Schwaben redoubt. In the cemetery was a real mixed bag of
1st July Irishmen, men who made a stand here in early 1918 and many men from
Kent who took this area in late 191. One gravestone stood out, Pte Message of
the R.W.Kent Regt. We have a friend of that name who kept telling us about his
uncle Frank who was killed with the 7th R.W.Kents at the Thiepval ridge, so
we took the photo of our Friends uncle Franks grave. It was a good time to
have a quick nosebag, and whilst looking out of the gate,back towards
where we had just come from, you could clearly see chalk trench lines in the
ploughed earth. These we not visible whilst walking across the land but now
only apparent from a distance. Strangely they corresponded exactly to the positions
as I had marked them on our map 
to
where they should have been (see pic). We signed the book, and saw some old
friends had been there recently, even Tom Morgan (Had to plug you mate!!). From
that point we walked off to the Thiepval Memorial and had a quick drink. Our
rucksacks were a bit weighty by now with several empty shell cases which were
digging in the back somewhat!!. From that poit we walked to the site of the
Leipzig redoubt which is very much in evidence todat, marked as a tree filled
hollow. I found a lovely nosecone still attached to the cone, very heavy, but
it went into my sack. At this point I was carrying about 55LB's, not to heavy
just that things were digging in my back. From here we could see the Germans
eye view of the attack of the Lonsdales and the terrific field of fire the defenders
had. At this pont we turned left and walked towards Ovilliers,after a mile we
turned right and walked up a dirt track past some woods called Bois de Haie.
This was the site of a large raid made by the Germans in May 1916 on the 1st
Dorsets. This was recently written up in Stand To and Fresh in our memory. We
walked past this and came to a sharp bend, we turned right towards Authville,
the sun was hot and the sacks were heavy, it was now 2 PM. We carried on walking
and got up to the site of Blighty Valley and visited the cemetery. We continued
through Authville and took a left over the river and railway and then headed
towards Hamel. These points were very much in existence in 1916 and have seen
photos , to actually put my feet in the foot steps of those men is strange.
This was the start of the home straight. We crossed the railway and walked up
the road along the main railway line to Paris. There was a gradually increasing
graient, and walking along road for about 1.5 Km was starting to have an effect
on me, the weight in my rucksack was begining to hurt, not neccessarily the
weight, just the distribution, if I had 57 pattern webbing I would be happier.
After 25 mins we started to go up hill steadily as we entered Hamel, the first
thing you come across is Hamel Military Cemetery on your left. It is one of
my favourites, and we were in need of a breather. Buried here are two Lt.Cols
of the RM, killed on 13th Nov 1916, along with other notables from the RND and
other regiments. It is a peaceful cemetery, I had to pay my respects to a Pte
Hills of 1RM who was killed in Oct 1916. A spell with the weight of my back
and a quick drink and I was upfor it again. We continued through Hamel which
was quite steep and onto the road that leads to Auchonvillers. Along this road
is the Newfoundland park, it runs behind the British front line. A few hundred
metres along this road is a footpath on out left which takes you across the
Ancre battlefield, a different way . There was a crop of maize up obscuring
the British positions, but as we walked across I was trying to picture what
happened on the 13th November 1916. The path takes you down to the bottom of
Y ravine and into Beaumont Hamel itself. It was then a 20 minute walk back to
Les Galets. It was shoes off, beer down the throat time. It was 4:15 PM, we
had been out 6 hours and covered 16miles. But I swear to all , you see the real
Somme this way. Still with time to kill we decided to go for another walk, we
went up the sunken lane and up to the cemeteries around Munich Trench and back
behind the sunken lane. We walked from the sunken lane, over the top towards
the German Positions of the 1st July, George Ashursts description very much
on my mind. We then returned , related our adventure over dinner, walking doesn't
seem to feature much on anyone elses itinery, so many we keen to hear. We then
took part in more beer consumption and a lovely football match on SKY.