Royal Chelsea Pensioners visit to Tunisia
Wednesday morning we wandered off to visit the British war cemetery which is in a village called Enfidaville which thankfully is only a forty minute drive from the hotel.
Most of those buried at Enfidaville War Cemetery died in the final battles from March to the beginning of May. The cemetery contains 1,1551 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 88 of them unidentified.
On arrival we were met by the curator Mr.Mish and an English lady from the war graves association, who incidentally has lived in Tunisia for thirty years and shown around the grounds and were introduced to the Tunisian gardeners who keep the grounds immaculate.
After a gentle stroll around the grounds, we gathered at the cross where the Pensioners laid a wreath and we observed a few minutes silence.
Getting back onto the coach, we then continued on to French Memorial and Takrouna Hill. Unfortunately the coach driver, much to the disgust of the Pensioners, would not drive the coach right up to the hill as he said it was too difficult and awkward for the coach so we all had to walk up to the Memorial.
Up from the plains peeks the rock on which the small village of Takrouna is situated. Whilst past times made this into a most valuable defensive position, today's villagers live in the newer village lying at the feet of the rock.
As we were leaving a contingent of children came down from the village and very politely asked us for any spare dinar that we had and some of us obliged.
We arrived back at the Green Park in time for pre lunch drinks and had a leisurely lunch and a short game of triples which commenced around 2.30 for those of us with enough stamina to be active during the afternoon. Otherwise, the sun loungers around the pool beckoned, or our balconies for a bit of piece and quite.
In the evening after dinner, the hotel bar was a favorite meeting place for most of us, except it seemed for Gordon who seemed to have a previous engagement down at 'Paddy's' again!
Royal Chelsea Pensioners Gallery