Albert 🇫🇷 Somme battlefields loop 45kms 🚴‍♀️

I woke after a comfortable night at my Warm showers hosts. Friendly chat over brekky and then I headed back to see the hotel with beautiful gardens before catching my trains to Albert.

  I arrived at my changeover station and was faced with escalators or a long flight of steps and 8 mins to achieve a platform change.  I have not taken my heavy bike on escalators and was standing staring up and then a woman came to my aide.  She saw my flag and had studied for a year in Auckland. 😊. Then I arrived at my final station and the lift was broken and so stairs it was 😂

Albert is a beautiful town with a striking church with gold statue on top!  I cycled straight to my Airbnb to drop off my pannier bags and so will look at it tomorrow.

I had planned a route around some key battlefield locations north and east of Albert utilising the suggested "Veloroute de Memorie". 
The Somme is the river that flows through this hilly farming community.  The rolling hills are covered in colourful crops which seems very peaceful today 😊.

I didn't know what to expect.  Each village has a memorial to fallen soldiers.  There are gravesites everywhere and when on a hill and looking back, you can see graveyards in the middle of farms.

The Beaumont-Hamel site is the Canadian memorial area.  It is immaculately groomed, manned by Canadian uni students who can apply for a 6 month stint as tour guides.

They have preserved the trenches, craters left by bombs and have planted Canadian pine trees. 

I got talking with a couple of British men who were driving a similar route to me.  Rob and his mate had seen me riding up the hill with my Aussie flag and we had a good chat about the WW1 sites to see in the area.  Then off I went following my map, through a farmer's lane to Hawthorn Ridge crater, a massive hole left by an explosion at 7.20am.on 1st July.  The magnitude of the hole is confronting. I saw the British guys again.

Then down the hill to a British monument.
Then to Thiepval where there is an excellent museum documenting the WW1 timeline in the area. 

The British monument honouring those whose bodies were not recovered is huge and beautiful.  Lots of people walking around trying to find a relatives name in the thousands listed.

Then over the hill to Poziers with several Aussie war graveyards and monuments.  Chatted with a British cyclist who was in the area paying his respects to lost family.

Final stop for the day was a ride out an old straight Roman road which is now a main transport route, to a town called Warlencourt which is where my dad's Uncle Bert lost his life.  There's a huge mound with a series of memorial plaques. 

Quite sobering to think a young 27yr old from Mt Gambier went to fight here for the allies and died on his 2nd day. 
Then 14kms back along the Roman road as the sun was going down and the chill rolling in.

I'm so glad I have made it here to have a greater understanding of the environment experienced over 100yrs ago.  More to see tomorrow.
Lest we Forget 🇦🇺