Day 24
Monday August 8th

Spent most of the morning packing, thring to get all the extra bits and pieces into the bags we brought. David decided that one last visit to the pool was a necessity and Jude walked to the village to try and find some material as a present for Catherine but failed to to locate anything suitable.

Catherine had left for Prince Ruperth that morning but Areef was back from his run by the time we were ready to leave so we had someone to say goodbye to.

The trip to the airport was straightforward, into Vancouver and turn right. Catherine had given us instructions about making sure we found the international terminal not the local one, so we parked up and scoured the terminal for My Travel. Ten minutes later after having been up and down the whole place several times I was starting to worry. Asking an official it turned out we were in the wrong terminal, just because the flight ended up at London did not make it international, the stop in Calgary en route meant it was classed as an internal flight.

Out the door along the road and back in the next terminal dragging our bags behind us. Along with the registration desk there were a few shops and cafes but I assumed it would be like Gatwick and Heathrow where most were beyond customs.

We all passed straight though customs except David who was trying to smuggle sharp scissors on board. David professed no knowledge of these, it turned out that the last thing I had done was brush my teeth then dump the washbag in Davids carry on forgetting the scissors were in it.

Oh boy are things different here, no lounge, no shops, no cafe just a series of corridors leading to the gates. We walked up the boring corridors eventually coming to our gate, thankfully there were some chairs and a very small cafe selling sausage rolls and sandwiches.

There was a small tv showing Tim Henman losing a tennis match to someone a hundred ranking places below him. I was in the dog house, nothing decent to eat, no comfortable chairs and a couple of hours to kill.

What seem like hours later we boarded; this time there were plenty of blankets so after a light meal most people tried to get some sleep. I was taking some drug mixture that Catherine recommended, arnica plus something. I used Clint's noise cancelling earphones and eyeshades which helped me grab a couple of hours nap.

At Gatwick the minibus picked us up quickly and we were back at the hotel in no time. I had trouble finding the car as it was now parked in a completely different car park. It started first time and a couple of hours later we were back home.

Unpacked and relaxed as it's up at 6.00am for work tomorrow.

Last view of the Rockies