Thursday was a full day off for the entire team, allowing for a little tourism, and pre-shooting R&R. With a wide variation in preferences for the day, the team split off into smaller groups to pursue their preferred activities.

The International golf challenge took place between a team from Ireland (DC and Gary) against a combined team of England and Wales (Chief coach Tremlett and Vice Capt Chris). Organised as a challenge from The Irish pair, it soon became obvious that the course had been deliberately selected by DC to suit the lower handicap player (himself). Narrow fairways and large number of trees made for a difficult match. Whilst for some reason the handicaps were ignored, this did not phase the Welsh and English pair who raced to a commanding lead with some outstanding play from the man from Wales.

The Irish pair however slowly pulled back into contention until at the 17th it was all square. With the chief coach about to take a 5 iron from the 150yd marker, he suddenly said “that flag and green can’t be 150 yards it looks more like 350yds.” At that point they noticed another green about 150yds to the left that had been hidden by trees. Masters of flexibility, they re-adjusted and made their shots to the correct green. Meanwhile the Irish pair were still blissfully heading to the wrong green and whilst they tried to accuse the others of gamesmanship, they still managed to win the hole. Much banter and accusations followed.

Down the 18th it clearly had put the English and Welsh off to be accused of such low tactics and they went in a seriously zig zag fashion using many of the trees on the way. So in the end it was a win by two to Ireland. Clearly, had handicaps been employed, the Welsh and English felt they could have had the edge, but sadly there is no further time for a re-match.

The ‘youth’ of the team (i.e. the ones under the age of 30) went downtown to experience the sights and sounds of Ottawa. There was one imposter from the Scottish team, who managed to worm his way into the bus and pretended to be part of the GB team for the day – aspirations or jealousy?

The morning was made up of shopping, eating too much and drinking the nicest smoothies ever tasted. Not forgetting the HUMONGOUS ice creams. Gwynne, our nutritionist, will be impressed.

The group (supposedly led by Steph) walked around the whole of Ottawa trying to find a street art exhibition in one of the thousand art galleries dotted around downtown. This proved to be a fruitless mission so the group consoled themselves with a glass of possibly the worst tasting beer in existence.

Continuing the theme of ‘healthy food’ the group then had rather large pizzas for dinner.

The ‘in-betweeners’ (i.e. the ones bridging the ‘youth’and the diplomatically titled ‘non-youth’) planned an opportunity to sample the key cultural aspects both sides of the river in Ottawa. A fine lunch, of salmon (or trout), duck, and elk sausages, accompanied by a tasting platter of 13 beers from Gatineaux’s famous Brasserie du Temps micro-brewery, set them up well for a high brow cultural tour de force.

Richard dropped the group off at the Canadian war museum, from whence they strolled up towards the parliament buildings. Some of the team pointed out some sights not too dissimilar to a recent trip to Vienna. Throughout the afternoon and into the early evening, the group visited a number of heritage sites, and picked up a couple of followers (for the twitter account). We welcome their support.

As the evening progressed, the vaguely cultural tour became increasingly less highbrow, with the group touring an area of the city purportedly popular with the great David Hasslehoff, and many establishments were keen to share their experiences of his recent (alleged) visits.

Another quartet took the Houses of Parliament tour visiting both chambers, in Westminster green and red colours, but with some excellent Canadian carvings and paintings. The most spectacular room was the Library, the only place they were not allowed to to take photos (!!), so as to not disturb the Members – who are of course all on holiday! The Memorial Room recording all Canadian Casualties of War from the first conflict, the Fienian Raids in the 1890s, up to today’s Afghanistan campaign. A trip up the ‘Big Ben’ equivalent tower, past all the carrilon bells, to enjoy the panoramic views over Ottawa, the River and across into Quebec. Exhausted by the cultural tour there was a need for fruit smoothies to reinvigorate them – Which would be more Nutritionist approved than the youth’s ‘Sugar-Rush’ Ice creams…

There was also a visit to a historic aircraft museum, Vintage Wings, where there was an opportunity to see (and for a price, fly) dozens of aircraft, in one of Canada’s most impressive private collections.