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We were staying in Çanakkale after a spending an afternoon being drenched as we walked around excavations of the ancient city Troy. When we set off on the ferry the next morning to cross to the Gallipoli peninsula, most of the rain had finally stopped but it remained a miserable day.

The Dardanelles is a long strait that connects the Sea of Mamara, and eventually the Black Sea and the countries that surround, it to the Mediterranean - a passage of enormous strategic importance to many civilisations over thousands of years. Çanakkale is a thriving city on the eastern shore where the straits are at their most narrow—just 1.2 across. Not surprisingly we could see the castles and fortifications on both shores as we crossed on the ferry.

Our target for that day’s travels was to see and experience Gallipoli, the long peninsula whose name has become synonymous with the horrendous human losses of the First World War. In the English speaking world the Anzac troops are those most associated with the battles here, but we toured memorials, museums and battlegrounds that highlighted the losses of several nations. By the time we had reached the bay where the Anzac forces has landed the sun was out and the view to the west over the Aegean Sea was serenely beautiful. But looking back at the cliffs the invading forces were aiming to climb, it seemed an impossible battle for them.

We crossed back to Çanakkale for the night and took the ferry again the next morning to drive on to Istanbul by what was then, in 2007, the most direct route. Since 2022 there has been a fixed crossing of the Dardanelles, making the journey to Istanbul much quicker. The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge crosses 40 north of Çanakkale and is currently the longest suspension bridge in the world; its name honours the Turkish victory over the invading forces at Gallipoli. But the ferry still operates and appears busier than ever.