Bakery Beach
Bakery Beach
After another small headland and about a further ten minutes scramble along the cliff edge, you will reach your objective, Bakery Beach. This small cove can be identified by the gully that runs down to it, albeit choked with scrub, and by the shallow indent the coastline makes eastwards at this point, photo above.
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It is hardly a spectacular location, and in his contemporary account of his time at Gallipoli Jo Murray shared this view, describing it as ‘not much of a place’.
For the troops however it was a most important gathering point. Just as water was a key matter in keeping the army moving, so bread was a much sought-after dietary staple to relieve the monotony and the dubious nutritional value of endless cans of glutinous bully beef.
Bakery Beach was set up soon after the landings and like W Beach, it had some protection from the worst of the shelling. Hundred of loaves were baked here each day, and a distribution point was established at the top of the gully, where the road makes a sharp turn to run north eastwards along the coast towards X Beach, Gully Beach and Twelve Tree Copse.
If Bakery Beach itself is a little underwhelming, you can at least congratulate yourself that you are one of a very select group who chooses to visit and remember such places as this at Gallipoli, over 100 years after the conflict.
From the beach, you have several options.
You can climb up the right hand side of the gully and reaching the top, swing left to meet the road. If you follow it eastward it will take you to Lancashire landing CWGC, or going north, towards Pink Farm.
Otherwise, turning right at the top of the climb will take you back along the cliff top, with the sea on your right, passing through the old Turkish base and eventually back past the RE water tanks and down to W Beach.
Or, lastly, you can retrace your steps along the shoreline back to W Beach.