Next stop was the Newfoundlander Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel. There is a Caribou memorial, which gives a good panoramic view of the battle area and its remaining trenches. Canadian student guides do tours of duty to inform visitors and tell the story of the battles and the losses. One such battle saw 87% casualties after advance to the small clump of tress just visible towards the right of picture across No Man's Land. The Germans were well dug in, in a ravine just out of picture at the line of trees on the far side. This was often the case, where they had the high ground and better defended positions. One of the remaining trenches can be seen in the other photo, with the Caribou in the background.
In advance, the troops had markings on their backs so their own artillery could see them to keep the barrage in front. In retreat, however, these markings became a target for the German gunners.
Then we had a mishap. Intending to go from here to Vimy Ridge as a last stop, we had been relying on my Tomtom SatNav and this time it let me down! It firstly directed me on what seemed like a circuitous route and then onto the wrong direction on a motorway. Next, the smaller tanked bikes needed fuel, so we went even further in the wrong direction to find that (petrol stations are not that frequent in France), to finally run out of time. Coming back through the same motorway access, I was slightly consoled when looking at the directions again that I would have made the same mistake - it seemed to include a road that actually ran under the motorway toll area, but as if it were a turning off the road we were on. That's my excuse and there was concurrence from herself on the back, honest! Anyway, we missed Vimy Ridge and had to head for our Campanile near Bethune. It did give rise to the cry of "Can we go to Albert again" as we had visited it twice in one day - a tolerant and humorous lot are the HOGs!
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