After a daunting series of flights and long waits in airport lounges from Tullamarine and Abu Dhabi to Athens, our group finally set down in Lemnos at around 8pm local time Sunday (3am body clock time, Monday!) . Twenty minutes after landing, we arrived at the hotel in Myrina from where we strolled down to the waterfront for a generous Greek meal.
Demeteri Boulotis, Lemnos Deputy Mayor, greeted us at the restaurant and in making us feel very welcome, made us also appreciative of how our Anzac history is also Lemnian history - where our ancestors had met in friendship, we were again meeting to reflect upon our shared story.
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| Bill Sykes, MP, Government Tour Leader, hands Deputy Mayor of Lemnos, Demeteri Boulotis, a framed photo of the Shrine of Remembrance, depicting the olive tree from the World War I courtyard in the foreground |
Good night, καληνύχτα, kali̱nýchta.
Lemnos was the last staging post before our ANZACs hit Gallipoli and the first base back with medical aid for the wounded. It where Simpson found his donkey. The link between this HELLENIC Island and the wonderful people there, and the ANZACs, has been too long forgotten. But is now rediscovered
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