I'm sitting in a 747 at 39,000 feet, somewhere in the air between London Heathrow and Johannesburg, failing miserably to get to sleep. So begins the Great Britain Rifle Team tour to South Africa 2012 . . .
Actually, saying that a tour begins on the flight out isn't quite accurate. The team have been preparing for this for some 18 months, with team training days, corporate fundraising events and last but not least, individually handloading the 13,000 rounds of ammunition that we will need over the next three weeks.
This is personally my first trip to South Africa, and indeed my first tour representing Great Britain, so the entries in this diary will be written largely from the perspective of someone who has little clue what they've let themselves in for, but hopefully will give the reader an insight into the tour, the team, and most importantly, all of the silly, amusing and downright daft things done by the team whilst on tour.
Today began at the Surrey clubhouse, at a time that was between 10 and 12, depending on how late various people arrived at Bisley. There then ensued a round of packing (for those team members who had been waiting until they got to Bisley to put stuff in a suitcase), weighing, and unpacking (once it was discovered that your suitcase was above the required weight, and you required access to the team baggage for the heavier items). Prizes go to Lauren, for having a cosmetic kit weighing in at a hefty 3.2 kilos, and James, for having the largest suitcase, one that most of the team could have travelled to South Africa inside.
After expending many more hours than it should be possible to spend packing, the coach arrived to whisk us off to Heathrow, and a date with the border agencies customs team. It was at Heathrow that the team split in two - one half heading to Terminal 5 for the BA flight, and one half to Terminal 3 to fly on Virgin. Speaking on behalf of the Virgin group, everything went remarkably smoothly with the rifles at check-in, with the ground staff shepherding us through the airport very effectively. We then proceeded to make the most of the two additional hours afforded by the later time of the Virgin flight by checking in an airport lounge and engaging in some friendly inter-team rivalry in the form of the Six Nations rugby match - Ireland v Scotland (Peter felt a little outnumbered by the three Irish members of the team.) This was unfortunately cut short with about 10 minutes of the match remaining by a call from the Virgin staff who were quite keen for us to board the plane, seeing as how everyone else was already on it. Julie was so keen to board the plane that she failed to notice the metal post in front of her (or as Julie would say - "I missed the first one") necessitating the provision by the flight attendants of a large ice pack to soothe a slightly swollen head.
One airline meal and a film later brings us just about up to date for now. More to follow in the coming days, so watch this space . . .
We have arrived at our first destination - I sit typing this looking out at the unbroken expanse of the Kruger National Park, sitting under a shade tree, with nothing more pressing on my mind that wondering when to try out the pool.
We awoke this morning in the air, having got somewhat differing amounts of sleep - eight and a half for Lauren, who was only just awake for long enough to eat dinner, before trapping her fellow passenger into the window seat for the entire flight.
On landing in Johannesburg the team stocked up on accompainiments for malarial prophylactics (otherwise known as gin) and settled in for what we were expecting would be a long wait whilst the rifles got sorted out. In the event, the rifle collection was much easier than expected, even quicker than at Heathrow, only slowed up slightly by a dodgy lock on Neil's rifle case which needed some persuasion to get open. Even better, the BA part of the team had already arrived, sorted out the hire cars and collected the ammunition, leaving little for the rest of us to do but board the minibuses and head out on the 5-6 hour drive to the Kruger. Thankfully, Rick wasn't driving, having been partially (or mostly, depending on who you ask) responsible for draining the bar on the BA flight dry, and for a small avalanche of red wine bottles towards the front of the plane on landing.
On the way we would be treated to the delights of DC's iPod (mainly Abba, with a history of Rorke's Drift thrown in for good measure), getting slightly lost along the way due to roadsigns having been stolen, and some truly breathtaking countryside.
Arriving at Mohlabetsi safari lodge, we were welcomed by our hosts with a fruit cocktail and given some time to freshen up from the flight and transfer - definitely required given that all of us had been on the move for the best part of 36 hours.
Gin and Tonics (big G, little t) almost inevitably preceded dinner, which was served around a fire outside, and was very tasty indeed, especially accompanied by some excellent South African Pinotage. A very pleasant evening concluded, it's time for some sleep, especially given the 5:15am start for the morning game drive.
First full day in South Africa, and what a day it was. We started bright and early at 5:15 with a wake up call for the morning jeep safari. Conditions were perfect, not too hot, and with no sign of rain, except for Simon, who managed to get a bit damp whilst still indoors, courtesy of a sightly leaky monkey above him.
We were soon hot on the game trail, spotting white rhino, zebra, giraffe and lion in quick succession, with a smattering of smaller animals thrown in as well. No sightings of the world’s largest leech (1m long) however, but that's probably just as well, given Lauren's warning - "Three sucks and you're done".
Back to the camp for some breakfast and extremely strenuous lazing around, accompanied by sleeping for most of the team to make up for the early start.
The afternoon safari started at 4 for most of the team, although Simon abstained, presumably thinking it unwise to venture into the bush smelling of monkey. The afternoon didn't produce as many animals as the morning, although we did collect another of the big five in the form of some rather splendid buffalo. All the animals seemed fairly unconcerned by our presence, meaning that Gary's advice when confronted by a dangerous wild animal to take one step sideways before turning and running (to avoid slipping in *&%$) wasn't required.
Sundowners and snacks followed before heading back to the lodge for dinner (yes, we are generally spending all our time currently either sleeping or eating!). First course was a tomato soup, which in Simon's case came with added moth. Rather than putting out of it's misery, Simon proceeded to wash the moth, despite the protestations from the rest of the team that this was unlikely to help it.
Post dinner, people either headed to bed in anticipation of another early start, or in the case of some of the team (James, Gary, Alwyn, Peter and Ben), stayed up to investigate the neglected recesses of the lodge's drinks cabinet - an activity that seemed like a good idea at the time, but much less so as I type this. Many mampours, springboks, jagermeisters and Gary's slightly odd choice of an Amarula and rum shot later, the rest of the team followed their more sensible teammates in catching somewhat less than 40 winks.
Our second day in the Kruger dawned bright and early, with the majority of the team heading out for a second early morning game drive - technically, a game walk for some of the team, as they were on foot on this occasion. Unfortunately, the merriment of the previous evening had taken at least a 60% casualty rate (Ben, James and Gareth, and to some extent Pete) who had enjoyed the previous night's entertainments too much, and failed to set an alarm, or wake up to the morning knock on the door.
The game walk thankfully didn't result in any casualties, although Hamilton, one of the park rangers, did manage to attract some lions closer by using himself as bait...
Breakfast was once again fantastic and late enough so that the stragglers from the morning could meet up with the rest of the team. Lots of fresh fruit and omelettes, excellent fuel for a day spent relaxing in the heat of the day (up to about 35 degrees). Rick, Gareth and Mick decided to take advantage of the massage service offered in the lodge to relax even further. Comparing their experience afterwards, Gareth declared that the best part of his massage was the head - and he didn't even have to pay extra...
The afternoon game finding excursion was focussed on one objective - to find the elusive elephants we hadn't been able to see the day before - for such a large animal, they seemed to be particularly difficult to find. Thankfully we didn't have long to wait, as we came across a herd of about ten individuals within 15 minutes of setting out - that makes four of the big five in two days, pretty good going by all accounts. As a bonus, we also came across a pride of lions getting ready to go out hunting for the evening, one of whom was no further than five yards from Iain, and seemed to be trying to work out whether his jaws were big enough to fit entirely around Iain's head, obviously reaching the conclusion that they weren't, as we still have a captain in one piece.
Evening dinner was served in the Boma, outside around the fire pit, with the accompaniment of a pretty impressive thunderstorm, thankfully some distance away. Dinner was followed by a slideshow session of the first couple of days photographs (oh look, another animal!) with Jon winning the prize for the most photographs taken during the day (about 450). The pictures were accompanied by a soundtrack devised by James along the theme of the tour, although some of the links were somewhat tenuous (the inclusion of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes because it's on the album Elephant was a particularly low point.)
And so to bed, where this diary should conclude, if it weren't for two events that occurred after people had retired. The first was Pete being woken up by the sound of animals around the lodge, which turned out to be baboons that seemed strangely drawn to the nocturnal calls being produced by Gary in the bed next to him. The second was also animal related, with Chris believing that a concerted attack was being mounted by a troop of monkeys, thankfully turning out to only be James' nocturnal attempts to move around the hut.
Our last day in Mohlabetsi has come all too soon. The team eschewed the usual early morning game drive, having a long drive ahead of them and so having to get away relatively early. Saying our goodbyes to Lena and Seline, who have been excellent hosts/drinking partners throughout our stay, we packed and boarded the buses for a seven and a half hour drive to Springbok Lodge in Kwazulu Natal, hopefully arriving sometime before the daylight faded, making the lodge easier to find.
Or at least that was what was hoped for. In the event, the drive was more like eleven and a half hours with a few short stops for lunch and fuel, thanks at least partly to the South African habit of closing some very long sections of road for "roadworks" (despite not seeing a soul actually working on the road), entailing some (approximately eleven according to Micks count) lengthy pauses en-route.
Along the way, the team chose various ways to amuse themselves - Gareth decided that he'd had enough of holiday, and so got stuck into a laboratory writeup, requiring the conversion of one of the vans into a mobile office. Gary was magnanimous in defeat at monopoly, and DC decided to do his best to sabotage the other vans by circulating some erroneous directions. The remainder of the team whiled away the hours with a combination of sleeping, shifting position, and sleeping some more.
Iain and Karen's van was the first to make it to our destination, sometime after 7pm, with the remainder of the vans arriving shortly thereafter. A swift freshen up, and then an introduction to our tents (yes, tents - all be it tents with hot and cold running water, a full bathroom, air conditioning and power!) followed by dinner and an early night for everyone, somewhat tired despite having not really done anything other than sit in a van all day.
Quote of the day goes to James for his proclamation "I'm a lovely german girl" - yes, of course you are James...
Our first morning in Springbok Lodge and our first real view of the lodge and the surrounding reserve, and very nice it is too. The day saw the team split into three groups; one group off on an early morning game drive in the private Nambiti game reserve, one group with a slightly later start heading off to the battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift, and a third group that decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have a lie in.
The game drive group managed to add a new animal to the list, with the sighting of a hippo mother and baby, and also sighted the now usual (if you've spent the last few days in a game reserve that is) complement of zebra, giraffe and wildebeest.
The battlefields group headed out to Isandlwana, discovering exactly what the British did wrong to be comprehensively beaten by the Zulus, and slightly humbled by the mounds of white stones representing where the soldiers fell (there are a lot of them). Then onto Rorkes Drift, to see how it could be done right, provided you had a much smaller area to defend, and plenty of items to make barricades with, including tins of biscuits. The group nearly didn't make it back, but were rescued by Steve, who managed to push start the bus from where it had failed to move away from the petrol station.
Another game drive in the afternoon for those who wanted it, and for those who didn't, the chance for a relaxing hot bath which had been drawn by the housekeeping staff. So hot in fact that Lauren, who didn't check the temperature of the water, got into the bath and then very quickly got out again once the scalding nature of the water became apparent, falling into her suitcase in the process. The baths also caused a certain amount of intra-room tension, with various people quickly taking advantage of it before their roommate noticed - Gary in particular was aggrieved at Peter’s callous disregard for his love of baths.
And so to bed, where once more, Chris' belief in the fundamentally violent nature of the wildlife was displayed when he believed his bed to be under attack from a particularly vicious mouse - Chris blames vivid dreams induced by anti-malarials...
Quote of the day goes to Julie, who was heard to remark at dinner "It's all about the stuffing" - lucky Neil!
As recently as we arrived, it's already time to head off from Springbok Lodge, and off to the first of our shooting destinations, Nottingham Road (yes, despite appearances so far, this is actually a shooting tour!)
Before we went, there was a chance for the team to head out on another early game drive, where they sampled the delights of Mocharulas (coffee, hot chocolate and Amarula, all at about 8am) and also the sighting by half the team of one of only two wild cheetahs on the Nambiti reserve - definitely not an experience to be missed, which is unfortunate, as that is exactly what the Land Rover containing the other half of the team managed to do.
Following the game drive, the only objective for the team was to get to the next accommodation spot at Fordoun Spa, sometime before 4pm. Some of the team (Ben, Gareth, Mick, Jon and Simon) opted to spend some time post check-out visiting the cheetah sanctuary near the entrance to the Nambiti reserve, the highlight of which was being able to stroke a real live cheetah (although definitely a tame one, as proved by the fact that the persons involved still have all their limbs attached) - pretty amazing.
The various parts of the team all assembled at Fordoun Spa near Nottingham Road, and for the first time were joined by Jonny, Nigel and CJ, following their flight from the UK and trip from Johannesburg - so now we are a full team.
Dinner was very kindly provided for us by the members of Nottingham Road Rifle Club, in the form of a Braai (South African BBQ) at their clubhouse, next to the range we would be shooting at the following day. Most of the GB team left fairly early to get some sleep and prepare kit for the following morning, unlike the Nottingham Road team, who apparently made a night (and early morning) of it.
Nothing else to do but await the individual competition tomorrow, and the first chance (including all the training weekends) for the team to shoot together on the same range at the same time.
Quote of the day has to go to James, for "I haven't had a shower in two days", Alwyn asks why, and gets told that there wasn't a shower in Springbok Lodge. It turns out both James and Chris had missed the door out of the back of the tent leading to the outdoor shower, and had instead been washing themselves under the two foot long shower attachment to the bath, which must have proved quite challenging.
So begins the (somewhat) serious part of the tour, for today we break the seals on our gun boxes and attempt to send small pieces of metal at high velocity through pieces of paper some distance away - yes, the shooting has begun.
The day began with a good breakfast in Fordoun, followed by a short drive to the range at Nottingham Road. First business of the day was checking that all our kit was present and correct, and getting rifles screwed back together after the trip to the southern hemisphere. Unfortunately for Gareth, breaking the seal on his gun box required a key, which wasn't sufficiently geographically close to be of any use (back in the hotel).
The order of play for the day was one warm up shot, and then 2 and 10 at 300m, followed by 2 and 11 at 600 metres, and 2 and 15 at 900. We were shooting an individual competition against the Notts Road members. Thankfully no-one had forgotten anything important, including rifle bolts, and so the shooting was able to commence; slightly later than planned, thanks to the inevitable faff factor of 21 shooters trying to get organised.
300 went OK for most, but as we moved back to 600, the clouds began to gather, and before long, the inevitable spots of water started appearing on the scorebooks of those shooting. Then the heavens opened, and the unfortunate second detail got completely soaked. Thankfully, this being South Africa, it didn't take long for everyone to dry back out again. And so back to the clubhouse for tea and medals. Outturn from the day saw Jon Underwood winning the competition having not dropped a point (no massive surprises there) with Rick coming in a close second. Gareth recorded a zero score, until realising that he had been the only member of the team not to hand in his register card, at which point he did somewhat better.
As we packed up and finally left the range after a damp and gloomy finish to the day, we came across the rambling herd of cows that have been ever-present during our trips to the range. Unfortunately, they had escaped onto the main road, causing many a car horn to be honked in bovine anger. Our intrepid adventurers, CJ, Jonny and Nigel leapt out of their van and managed to persuade 20 soon-to-be-barbecued animals back along the road and into the Nottingham Road range complex, before spoiling their fun by closing the gate behind them. We can only assume that this sealed their fate as tomorrow's lunch.
The team had a quick turnaround at Fordoun, and then headed back to the clubhouse for dinner with the Nottingham Road shooters. Unfortunately, one of the vans picked up some damage on the way, courtesy of a slight misunderstanding between the captain and the reversing warning beep on his van. According to Iain, anything as important as a warning that the van is about to hit something should be announced in a human voice rather than with a "stupid beeping noise."
Quote of the day goes to DC for "Have you got any nail varnish" to Lauren. Clearly looking to spruce up a bit for the team photo.
Our second full day at Fordoun, and a chance for the team to shoot against Nottingham Road in team formation for the first time. In order to make things more interesting, the team was split into three target teams of the RAF (assisted by Rick Shouler, conscripted in as an unpaid airman), 'Youth and Enthusiasm' (the enthusiasm being provided by Alwyn and Jon) and 'Age and Treachery' (varying levels of age and treachery per team member).
Unfortunately, not all the team were able to make it out for the shooting, CJ having been dubbed as the new diarrhoeist, despite Karen’s attempts to fix him up by means of vitamin C, quadruple whisky and an early night the night before (not necessarily an officially sanctioned medical treatment.)
The day dawned overcast, and with a light but fairly steady wind, and remained that way pretty much throughout, not that this stopped Rick and Lauren finding enough sun to turn yet another piece of skin into a pink heat emitting surface.
The match kicked off at 300m somewhat earlier than the previous day, thanks to slightly less faff from all concerned. Fortunes at the first range were varied, with some issues still remaining from the previous day to be ironed out, but some very good scores were also produced. The move back to 600 saw Youth and Enthusiasm trailing the other teams, due possibly in part to Lauren (who shoots left handed) being wound the wrong way on her sights - more than once, a common occurrence from right handed coaches, but slightly less common when the coach is also the captain, and shoots left handed himself.
The shooting was generally better at 600 and 900, and at the close, the Nottingham Road F Class shooters had beaten all the GB target teams, recording a score of 585 ex 600, vs. the 578 from both the RAF and Age and Treachery (the RAF target having the edge on V bulls), with Youth and Enthusiasm bringing up the rear a few points behind. Home advantage (and a scope, bipod, heavy rifle, light trigger etc) clearly proving to be too much for the visitors.
Dinner plans for the evening revolved around the restaurant at the hotel, during which Ben introduced Gary to chocolate pinotage, which Gary clearly thought was excellent, introducing himself, and anyone who happened to be nearby, to a couple more bottles as the evening progressed.
The day was also the first that saw Simon transform into Bananaman, a trick that will hopefully be oft repeated in Bloem, to the benefit and sustenance of everyone (and possibly the thwarting of evil everywhere, if he has time).
Quote of the day goes to James (again) for "Can you come and let me out of the toilets" having somehow managed to lock himself in (some excuse of the handle having fallen off was mentioned), and having to phone Gary to come and help him escape.
Our last day in Nottingham Road, and a chance for the team to have a day off and indulge themselves in a variety of pursuits, from battlefield tours to golf, making use of the spa, or driving down to Durban to play the tourist.
The battlefield tour went well, which is amazing when you consider that Steve and Mick had been given directions to the wrong establishment for the commencement of the tour. Apart from looking slightly surprised, they organised everything very efficiently, and nobody would have been any the wiser had Karen not received a call from where they were meant to be going to say they hadn't turned up...
Having been convincingly vanquished by the English in the rugby recently, a number of Irish members of the team challenged their English counterparts to a rematch on the golf course in Nottingham Road. So it was with some trepidation that the combatants took to the field - who would be victorious, what would the course throw at us, and more importantly, had we bought enough balls to complete the round? The English had been deprived of their star player, thanks to the unavailability of left handed clubs, and looked certain to be entering the competition a man down, however, a last minute injury to the Irish team evened up the numbers. 10:40 saw the first three -ball of DC, Ben and Gareth head out, DC hoping to hold off the young English pretenders, and based on the quality of the tee shot off the first, he looked to be relatively safe. The second three-ball was heavily weighted in favour of the Irish, with Jon taking on Alwyn and Gary.
The rounds progressed, balls were well struck in some cases, and lost in others, and at the finish of nine holes Ben and Gareth had a convincing 2 hole lead over DC, despite the large water hazard leaving Gareth without sufficient balls to finish the round. So the Irish needed at least a 3 hole lead off the second three ball for the win, and after some confusion over how to score the round, the overall result was 1 hour in favour of the Irish, restoring the nations honour.
Five of our younger team members, CJ, Jonny, Peter, Lauren and Rick, took the opportunity of our latest non-shooting day to have a trip to the city of Durban, located 90 minutes closer to India than the spa. This involved a descent of some 4000ft to sea level, through some beautiful landscape – only surpassed by that found in Scotland (no guesses as to who is contributing this section…). Unfortunately, the main road between Johannesburg and Durban took us straight to downtown Durban, an area which made us all a little nervous. Using our excellent senses of direction, we managed to find our way to the local casino, where we were ensured our vehicle would be safe. This almost turned out to be a very different diary entry, as it seems that some South African drivers treat red lights on freeways with the same contempt as one would a double glazing salesman. A very lucky escape thanks to the quick thinking and heavy right foot of CJ meant that all 5 of our team members made it to the car park intact. A little light relaxation was just the ticket, so we decided to hit the beach and have a little dip in the Indian Ocean, and see if any of the local sharks fancied saying hello (they didn’t). 35 degree heat meant the outdoors portion of the trip was limited to walking down the beach and back again, then off to a place for a little retail therapy before the similarly ‘interesting’ drive home. The arrival back at Fordoun was celebrated with beers, steak and…for our less adventurous team members…chips.
Nothing left to do but relax for the remainder of the afternoon and evening, and enjoy more of the excellent food (and chocolate wine) that Fordoun has to offer, sad in the knowledge that we will be leaving in the morning, but glad to be heading towards the ultimate purposes of the tour in shooting at Bloemfontein.
Quote of the day goes to anyone playing golf, simply because of the vast amount of innuendo that's possible from a sport involving balls and holes.
Time to leave Nottingham Road and Fordoun Spa and journey to Bloemfontein for the more serious part of the tour. As this is another travel day, this diary should be fairly short, however, someone obviously realised it was likely to be a slow news day, and contrived to make some - more further down.
After a swift breakfast and van loading exercise, we were on the road again, either choosing to take the fast route along dual carriageways, or the slightly slower scenic route through the Drakensberg mountains. The latter was the preference of many, and was well worth it for the stunning scenery and occasional baboon that it produced. En-route Gary attempted to level the score on the monopoly table, but once again failed, suffering another crushing defeat.
The majority of the team rendezvoused at Shawu Lodge, our accommodation in Bloem, sometime before 6pm, and after some shuffling around of people, rooms and kit, everyone was settled in and enjoying an evening beer by the pool (or in Laurens case, in the pool, but only very briefly due to the Arctic conditions therein). All except for Bus 4.
Bus 4, featuring the rowdy personalities of CJ, Nigel, Jonny and Monsieur Crispin, elected that the scenic route would provide a few more opportunities for photos and coffee stops. Off they drove, and things were going swimmingly at first – a stop in ‘Little Switzerland’ for a drink and an enormous cheesecake, then through the mountains to the freeway. Still going without a hitch, they arrived in Bethlehem (yes you read that correctly) to have a spot of luncheon – Spur providing adequate sustenance for the journey. Unfortunately, these meals seemed to affect their bearings, a few hours later they realised that instead of continuing to head west to Bloemfontein, they were actually almost 200km due north, heading towards Johannesburg. Some consultation of maps, Blackberries, a Shell garage attendant and for some reason … the SUN took place, and they set off in a (vaguely) westerly direction towards the N1 freeway. After several hours of driving on non-existent roads, through barely existent towns, past apathetic-looking giraffes and into a glorious sunset, they finally got onto the N1 freeway towards Bloem. “Only 140km to go!” they delightedly exclaimed, until spotting a signpost that read: ‘Bloemfontein 216km’. The collective sigh could be heard across the high veldt, and they began to weave their way to the Shawu Lodge, turning a 5 hour journey into an 11 hour one.
Quote of the day is an exercise for the reader today, simply due to the vast number of submissions:
1) James (in what is becoming a regular feature) with "All I've had all day is cheesy poofs".
2) Iain (whilst tasting wine for dinner) with "Well, they're all different aren't they". Yes, that is kind of the point...
3) Julie to Neil "Do you want the back end or the front". What it is to be spoilt for choice.
Apologies for the late arrival of the daily diaries - it appears that 14 years of marriage between Captain and Manager has not resulted in the Manager being able to read the Captain's handwriting who was then subsequently unable to access the hotel internet password!
Wednesday morning, and time to acclimatise ourselves to Bloemfontein, something that CJ was obviously dreading, having woken up a number of the team by screaming in the night. Turns out that acclimatisation largely consists of heading out in the buses to "the Waterfront" - essentially a shopping mall around a lake.
The team headed out for breakfast at about 9am, and very quickly discovered that the South African waiting staff are completely unable to cope with parties of more than 5 or 6, and therefore our party of 12 spent some hour and a half ordering and eating breakfast, which consisted of (in entirely non-stereotypical fashion) : Oats for the Scottish, bacon and eggs for the English and breakfast pizza for Gareth. No-one felt like the morning glory muffin though...
By the time breakfast was done, apart from being time for lunch, it was also time for shopping for all of those bits that people feel might be useful for the shooting to come: 60 round ammo boxes (much better than 50, obviously), high carb snacks for the range to supplement Simons bananas, and cool-just-about-everything, in anticipation of the soaring temperatures we are expecting to experience on the range.
Talking of which, the next item on the agenda was a trip to the range for those who haven't been to Bloem before, to learn what they could about the layout of the range, and pick up any wind tips from the likes of Dave Calvert and Jon Underwood. All fairly simple really - targets at one end, firing points down the middle, and the occasional bit of wind to make things tricky.
Dinner was back down to the Waterfront (I'm sure there are other places in Bloem, we just haven't found them yet) and early to bed for most in anticipation of the first full day's shooting in Bloem tomorrow.
Quote of the day goes to yours truly for "Shall we do some team sandwiching them?" Strangely, didn't get many offers, except from Rick...
Holiday time is definitely over, with the start of the first day’s shooting in Bloem and the Free State Championships. The day dawned bright and clear, and with every promise of barbecuing shooters later in the day. Wagons rolled at an uncharacteristically early (for the last week at least) 8am for a supposed start of shooting at 9:15. However, since we arrived at the same time as the butt markers, most of whom hadn't marked (or potentially seen) a target before, it did take some time for the shooting to commence.
When we did eventually get going at 300 metres, it was to some particularly challenging with conditions, fishtailing from behind the range, and contributing at least in part to lower scores than people were expecting.
The tricky wind conditions continued throughout the day, at 600, 800 and 900, and at the longer ranges tested the wind reading ability of all concerned, although some people were definitely more on top of it than others (Jon and DC, to no surprise from everyone else).
And so, at the close of the day, everyone retired to the bar to drown their sorrows, or more likely, just cool down a bit by filling themselves with cold beer. The prize giving followed, in which Jon Underwood was victorious in the overall Free State Championship, and a number of other team members were well placed - see the scores section of the website for details.
Dinner for the evening was a Braai on the range (although thankfully for all concerned, given the level of sweating that had occurred there was an opportunity to shower and change beforehand) where once again, Gareth proved his prowess at eating twice as much as everyone else by having two entire meals.
Back to the lodge and early to bed after a particularly challenging first day on the range.
Quote of the day goes to Steve for "I'm sure Lauren would be good around the house for something..." Got some ideas have you Steve?
Today sees the end of the Free State Championship with the pairs competition, and the start of the SABU (South African Bisley Union) meeting with a warm-up competition called the Scottish Sword.
For the morning, the management team formed the team into pairs using some unpublished algorithm which resulted in some interesting combinations of age and experience. The competition was at 300 and 900m, and with the range already windy at 8am, the first thing the pairs needed to do was decide on the coaching arrangement: either to coach one another, and potentially have a better handle on the wind, or to shoot side by side, and try to let their partner be aware of changes as and when they occurred. The former arrangement seemed to be the one to go for, with the partnership of Gary and Gareth being victorious in the overall competition using this approach.
A fairly long lunch over the heat of the day, and another opportunity to visit the food wagon on the range, essentially a caravan with a microwave in that can provide a variety of sustenance for the hungry shooter (the curry and rice proves particularly popular.)
The afternoon saw everyone back to individual shooting in the Scottish Sword, and with the wind still proving difficult, many people wished they still had the advantage of someone sitting beside you who you could blame all the bad sideways shots on. This was especially true at 900m, where a strong wind coming straight up the range and varying in angle caused some very fast changes, and many groans from people as they looked up after firing their shot only to see some completely different wind value than they had applied to their rifle only seconds earlier.
Results included Jon in third place, Gareth in sixth and Mick in ninth with the Captain in 15th place - hopefully full results will be on the SABU website in due course but internet connections are not good.
Scottish Sword GB team results as far as known
Shooting concluded it was time to go back to the lodge for a Braai (yes, there is a lot of barbecuing here) prepared by the lodge staff using some meat picked up from the Nottingham Road shooters earlier in the day when they arrived in Bloem for the championships. Somewhat confusingly, the meat was stored in several ammo boxes (of at least 45 that we have out here) and one of the boxes proved difficult to find when we got back to the lodge. Thankfully, both for the sake of the meat and anyone who may have assumed that the box actually contained some rounds, it was located, and the lodge staff provided us with some excellent food and service for the evening.
Quote of the day goes to Steve again for "Neil's used to my b****cks." I didn't ask how...
Saturday (it took me a long time to work that out, given that every day merges into one out here), and time for some team shooting in the Hamilton (2 and 7 at 300, 500 and 600m) and Rhodes (2 and 10 at 800 and 900m) competitions. The team split into three targets of six shooters, and whilst not actually entered into the competition (as it's meant to be a competition for club teams) we shot alongside everyone else.
The day had dawned cooler than previously with a good amount of cloud, to the the relief of some people, at least until it started raining anyway. Thankfully the rain was light and brief, and didn't get anyone too wet.
The purpose of the day was largely to give the team coaches a chance to practice wind reading and the general setup in team formation, so frustratingly, the wind chose this day to be easier and lighter than previously, at least up until 900m in the afternoon. Some good scores were put in, but there's still some room for improvement from everyone to give us the best chance of beating the South African team in the Protea Match in a week’s time. Thankfully we have a whole week of fairly intensive shooting coming up to sort out any remaining niggles.
The evening saw the team head out for a team birthday meal at the Block and Cellar (or the Block and Tackle as Neil calls it) where a very large quantity of steak and red wine was consumed. Four members of the teams have birthdays in five days so a large celebration was called for. Certain of the team were then led astray by Gary and Alwyn, and proceeded to go out and sample the nightlife that Bloemfontein had to offer, which consisted of a club called Barbas, a Gary administered drink fund (which was well applied to all concerned) and a somewhat late (3:30am to be precise) trip home.
Quote of the day goes to DC for "The breeze isn't coming from the same direction as the wind". Slightly confusing from the chief coach...
Sunday, and a day of rest for the team before the start of the serious business on Monday morning. Just as well too for those members of the team still recovering from the previous night’s frivolities, particularly Rick who was still wearing dark sunglasses indoors at 5pm.
Today also sees the day of the inaugural entries in the Irish to Afrikaans translation competition. The first entry happened whilst Alwyn was sat down to breakfast with DC and Gary. Alwyn had ordered toast, and was asked "white or brown" by the waitress, to which he responded "white". The waitress stood there for a while, and then asked the same question, to which Alwyn responded with the same answer. At this point it was clear that not all was well, as the waitress continued to stand in the same place. When asked whether there was a problem by Gary, the waitress responded "Why do you keep asking me to wait?"
The second was the result of Simon's communication of an aborted trip by some members of the team to Kimberley. The buses set out along the N8, but very soon hit roadworks. Given that they would have been hard pressed to make it anyway, they decided to abort and instead visit a crocodile farm (obviously). Unfortunately when they arrived, it was shut, so they aborted completely and came back to the hotel. In recounting this story to one of his shooting companions, he got a confused look. When pressed, the shooter asked of the crocodiles "why were they shot?"
Some of the team headed out to the Bramley's farm for a lunchtime Braai, and to pay the team's complements to Peter and family. They were greeted by a group of Eland (the largest antelope in Africa) just beyond the boundary fence. They were also treated to a lesson in water divining by Peter, a skill which only Alwyn seemed to possess, managing to successfully determine the location of an underground stream. Indeed he was so good at it that even when trying not to make the divining rod move, it still did.
Following the successful water locating experience, Gary, Alwyn and DC picked up Steve Thomas, and headed out for a game of golf, with DC and Steve taking on the relative youth of Gary and Alwyn. Thanks to the handicap system, the lead was traded between the two pairs up to the final hole, where age and experience triumphed. However, it could all have been so different if Gary's last shot had made an extra six inches, and therefore missed the lake.
An early dinner for everyone this evening, in time to get a good night’s sleep and be up for the start of shooting at 8am tomorrow morning.
Quote of the day goes to Lauren for "We're just up here on the right". Erm, that's your left Lauren - might explain some of the wind calls...
Monday morning, and time for the start of the South African equivalent of the Grand Aggregate - there is a fairly gentle start to the competition, with only the Free State Cup (2 and 7 at 300, 500, and 600m) happening today.
The weather overnight could be described as biblical, with a very large thunderstorm keeping a number of the team awake for an hour or so in the early morning. All except DC, who can sleep through earth-shattering thunderstorms, but not the repetitive clicking on and off of the air-conditioning outside Alwyn's room (as he may have mentioned to Alwyn once or twice). Thankfully, all had cleared by the morning, and left a pleasantly cool morning in which the shooting was generally good, with a light breeze but not enough to trouble most people, although no one scored a possible at all ranges, with the best of the team looking at a high 104 score.
After the competition, everyone got a chance to shoot with someone else's rifle, in order to determine what if any difference would be required should the catastrophic happen to their own bullet hurler part way through a match. Cue much confusion and twiddling of sights, handstops, buttplates, and just about anything else you can think of to move or fiddle with. A secondary consequence of this activity is a feeling from several people that having fired someone else's rifle, that there was something wrong with their own (that coincidentally, may explain bad shots from the morning.) Thankfully all of these claims proved to be groundless, and everyone now has the ability to pick up another gun should the need arise.
The evening saw the Great Britain team and the Army Rifle Association team put on a reception at Shawu Lodge for all their South African counterparts, the GB under 19 team, and everyone else without which it wouldn't be possible for us to come out to South Africa and have such a fantastic time and shoot against some world class competition. A good time was had by all, although those people who attempted to walk all over the grass after the nights rains soon regretted it, but not until after having sunk several inches into the ooze...
The evening also saw Lauren presented with honorary Army colours for services rendered in assisting them with the team competitions throughout the meeting.
Thank you also to all those who are avidly keeping up with happenings on tour via the medium of this diary and the scores and photos posted on the website. Looking at the website stats from Karen, it looks like we have visitors from no fewer than 12 countries, with the South Africans spending the most time on the site, the Great British visiting the site the most, and one Italian spending at least 4 seconds looking at the site (possibly a wrong address.)
Quote of the day (although admittedly it relates to yesterday) goes to Gary for "He lost that big stiff thing that was all wrong at the beginning." Might be a golf reference, might not...
Right, enough of days where we only have one or two shoots and time for the big one. Today we have no fewer than 51 rounds to count in five individual competitions - 2 and 10 at 300, 600, 800 and 900 metres, and 2 and 11 at 600m. Without going into the detail of everyone's shooting, this will therefore be a short entry, as there wasn't much time in the day for doing anything but shooting (and providing some input to the quote of the day.)
Unfortunately for everyone, the day dawned without a cloud in the sky (you'd never say that in Britain), and the prospect of shooting all day in the searing South African sunshine beckoned. As indeed it proved to be for at least the first three shoots of the day, resulting in people drinking copious quantities of water, only to find it leaking out of themselves almost as fast as they could drink it.
Thankfully, the afternoon clouded over a bit, and gave people some respite from the heat, although at the expense of some slightly trickier wind. The best of the team (otherwise known as Jon and DC) managed to only drop a couple of points for the day, but some others did get caught on the trickier details (excuses, excuses) at long range and dropped significantly more than this. The best result of the day goes to Alwyn, for a 105.13 in the morning competition at 300 and 600, earning him a top five finish, although sadly without breaking into the medal positions.
The evening (or at least what was left of it after shooting had finally finished for the day) started off with the announcement of the Great Britain Team for the RSA International Match - held tomorrow afternoon at 800 and 900m, match report to follow in Wednesday's diary. See the scores section for the team and the results.
Yesterday's exercise in shooting with someone else’s rifle reaped dividends towards the end of the day for Julie, when her bolt suffered a catastrophic malfunction at 900m and she had to shoot with someone else’s rifle for the remainder of the shoot. Proof if any was needed that these exercises are useful!
Quote of the day goes to yours truly for "if I get dehydrated, I can always suck it". There was logic to this statement - at the time anyway...
Today is the day of both the start of the South African equivalent of the Queens Prize, known as the State Presidents, and the RSA International Match (Great Britain vs South Africa at long range) in the afternoon. So no pressure then!
Uncharacteristically once again (although if it keeps going at this rate, it won't be uncharacteristic) for South Africa, the day dawned overcast, and with a significant threat of rain. Thankfully, this once again meant that the wind was doing very little, and enabled most of the team to put in some good scores, with the occasional 105 for good measure.
So to the afternoon, and the first of two matches against the South African team in the form of the RSA International Match (2 and 15 at both 800 and 900 metres). Given that the wind had been very easy for the majority of the morning, we were hoping that things would get a little trickier for the afternoon to make things a bit more interesting for all concerned (and take advantage of DC's experience as the centre coach). The wind didn't disappoint, cooking up a very steep angle from behind the range, which with very little mirage and a fair amount of buffeting served to keep all of the coaches on their toes.
Despite some very good shooting from all concerned at 800m we were 11 points down going into the longer range. Not an insurmountable margin given the trickiness of the wind and the fact that we were at 900m, but still leaving us with plenty of work to do. As the shoot progressed, we slowly began making up some ground on the South African team, unfortunately they had saved their best firers for last, and we lost the match overall by 19 points.
Despite the loss, there are a couple of good points to pick up from this: Firstly, the team that we lost to was basically the same team as shot in the Palma Match last year (and so therefore quite good), and secondly, that the South African B team beat the South African A team, which should throw a spanner in the works when it comes to team selection - confusion that could work to our advantage in Saturday’s Protea Match.
Performances in the shoots so far mean that both DC and Jon are only 5 off so far in the Grand Aggregate, with the leader a couple of points up on them at the moment. With four shoots tomorrow concluding the Grand, there's still all to play for.
Quote of the day goes to Lauren for "I want my Gareth". Well, I suppose someone has got to...
So to Thursday, and the last day of the South African Grand Aggregate. With four competitions today at 300, 600 800 and 900m there is still a good opportunity for people to make up some points and therefore places, or to go the other way if they don't have such a good time of it.
At the start of the day, both DC and Jon were positioned with a chance for the top spot in the Grand. Unfortunately, several senior moments from DC seem to have upset his concentration: Firstly, he forgot to wind on any wind at 300m, going out wide of the target (thankfully only for a sighter). Not wanting to repeat the mistake at 600m, DC made sure that he wound some wind on, sadly though this came at the expense of checking that he had set the correct elevation, choosing instead apparently to set a random value that was neither his 300m elevation, nor (perhaps more helpfully) his 600m elevation. Whilst not actually losing him any points, this obviously unsettled DC, and he proceeded to have a somewhat out of character day (ie one where he did unfortunately drop some points.)
The morning conditions proved for most to be fairly simple, but as the distances got further in the afternoon, the wind started picking up and more and more twiddling with sights was required in order to keep the shots at least somewhere near the middle. Also required was some concentration to ensure that you fired on the right target, as with all the wind changes occurring, it was all too easy to not look where you were firing and put a shot on someone else's target - something that Gareth found out to his cost at 900m.
At the end of the day, with all shoots completed in the Grand, Jon had managed to come in third, being beaten to first place by a couple of points. Still, all to play for in the State Presidents Second Stage tomorrow, with the objective to get as many of the team through to the Final as possible.
The evening saw the team troop out to Greys College (a boys school in Bloemfontein) for the Protea Dinner, and the announcement of the teams for the matches on Saturday. The setting did remind a large portion off the team of school dinners, not least when we all paraded through the kitchen to pick up our dinner following the hour long team announcements. Great Britain didn't actually announce their team at this function, instead introducing the South Africans to the whole squad, with team selection being postponed until after the State Presidents Second Stage the following day. This must mean that the competition for places is fierce, so watch this space for the team announcement.
Following dinner, the team headed back to the lodge, and for a large proportion of the members (including yours truly), straight to bed in anticipation of another early start in the morning. However, reports have been received of revelry occurring later on, involving CJ at the bar, some of the Army rifle team, Lauren (still in formal attire), and the swimming pool, in some combination that I'm sure the reader can work out.
Quote of the day goes to Simon for "you could market them as a love banana". Exactly what 'they' are shall remain lost in the mists of time...
Friday morning and time for the Second Stage of the State Presidents, 2 and 10 at 300, 500 and 600m. The last chance for the team members to show their skill to the team management before selection for the Protea Match which will happen on Saturday morning. Also an opportunity to try and get through to the Final on Saturday afternoon. So essentially a day of shooting in order to try and be picked to do more shooting.
The journey to the range was uneventful, except for one member of the team (Gareth) who realised about 5 metres from the entrance to the range that he had forgotten his register cards for the day. Cue a trip to the stats office before the 300m detail in order that he could get some more produced for him.
The mornings shooting also proved to be fairly uneventful, at least until the second detail at 600m. Everything was going along fine, with a little bit of wind to play around with, when suddenly, about one or two shots from the end of the shoot, a spot of water appeared on the scorebook, then another one... and then many, many more. It rained so hard that it was virtually impossible to see the target, either through the sights or spotting scope, which made taking those final shots somewhat harder than it could have been. Many tales of woe ensued, with Simon being signalled a miss for one of his last shots to count, and DC dropping his last three shots (thereby tripling his points loss for the day). DC was also particularly unhappy as he had failed on this occasion to put on his waterproofs despite having worn them for several completely dry shoots throughout the week. Nothing to do but wait until tomorrow morning to see if we had done enough to make the Final.
The afternoon was a chance for some time off the range, something that has been in short supply over the last week. People variously slept, ate, went shopping, sat in the bar or did all of the above in some combination. Team management went into a huddle for a few hours with everyone's scorebooks and wet towels wrapped around their heads in preparation for the team announcement at 5:30.
At the allotted hour the team was announced as follows: Alwyn, Jonny, Dave, Jon, Simon, Chris, Rick, Mick, Ben, Pete, Gareth and Colin doing the shooting, with Jon, Alwyn, Neil and Gary coaching under the guidance of DC as main coach. We've done all the preparation, so all that's left is to get a good night's sleep, and shoot as well as we know we are able to tomorrow.
Quote of the day goes to Lauren for, consecutively "my bedding is on the floor" and "the action is on my bed."
(In a departure from the norm, I have been asked to provide some context to this to save Lauren's blushes, so I should point out that this is because she had to take her rifle apart following the downpour earlier.)
The day of the Protea Match dawned, somewhat grey and overcast, and with what looks like a significant chance of rain, and much colder than we have had all week - perfect UK conditions! Great Britain headed out to the ranges for an expected start time of 8:15 at 300m, then falling back to 600 and 900 as the morning progressed.
Before the start of the match however, was the announcement of the cutoff for the State Presidents final - nine off or better being required to shoot in the afternoon.
The match commenced without too much delay, with not much going on with the wind at 300m, as least for the first firers - a situation that was not set to continue throughout the day...
300m proved to be a bit of a nervy range for GB, with some people putting in possible scores, but other dropping a point or two more than might be expected, with the result that we were 16 points off going back to 600m.
Towards the end of the 300m shoots, the wind started to pick up, and some rain started coming down. By the time we got back to 600m, the wind was streaming straight down the range into our faces, and the rain had picked up, with the ominous grey clouds over the end of the range indicating the likelihood of more to come. We hadn't needed the full time allocation at 300m, and so waited (huddled in vans with the heaters going by this point) at the start of the 600m detail to see if conditions would improve with a slightly later start.
When it didn't look like this was going to be the case, we accepted our fate and rejoined the battle, with 'battle' definitely being the operative word, the wind by this point buffeting the firers to the extent that there was extreme difficulty with actually keeping the rifle pointing at the target for long enough to take a shot. This, combined with a problem with one of the firers meant that the first couple of people down on each target took longer to fire shots than they usually would (something that is definitely not what we would have chosen in very fast changing wind conditions) searching in vain for a decent, stable shot. As the time allocated for the range ticked on, it became obvious that we would need to shuffle firers around in order to get everyone through before time ran out - which we succeeded in doing, but with people firing somewhat faster than they would have liked, and with a margin of time remaining a little too close for comfort.
Moving back to 900m only served to compound the issue with the wind which was still extremely strong, and coming straight down the range, with the angle changes now causing one, two and three minute wind changes in the blink of an eye. At least the firers now knew what to expect, and time proved not to be an issue at this range. Sadly, this didn't help us, and at the close of what was an extremely challenging match, GB were defeated by South Africa.
With only the State Presidents and the Championship (overall aggregate) remaining to be decided, we proceeded to the afternoon shooting of 2 and 15 at 800 and 900m for the State Presidents Final. The experience of having shot in the morning proved to be of little benefit for most, with many people attempting to cut the target in half by forming a very flat group across most of the width of the target face - a grouping which didn't include at least one magpie being relatively rare.
Jon Underwood shot very well at both the long distances, and at the close was narrowly pipped to the State Presidents Prize by a scant couple of V bulls. However, his third position in the Grand aggregate meant that he had won the overall Championship, so congratulations to Jon for a fantastic shoot.
After a long day's shooting (70 rounds if you had shot both the morning and afternoon) the team retired to the bar (out of the wind!) to recount many tales of shots being blown from one side of the target to the other, and nurse some feeling back into cold hands and windblown faces. Our last act on Bloemfontein range was to attend the prizegiving and applaud all those people who had been successful during the last week. Due to the length of prizegiving, some sustenance was definitely required, so it's unfortunate that we sent Simon to the supermarket for some tonic water for the team gin, coming back as he did with Soda water - Gin and Soda anyone?
After a very quick shower the team headed out to dinner, and a bit of post dinner dancing for those who had any energy left after the exertion of the day.
Quote of the day goes to non other than the team captain for "Gareth, if you could find another way not to get it up." I should probably point out that Gareth is the team flag raiser...
Penultimate day in Bloemfontein, and indeed South Africa. Sadly none of the team noticed that it was April Fools day, having spent so long here that any awareness of the day and date had been lost.
With the shooting done, today was all about relaxation, packing, cleaning rifles and generally preparing to insert ourselves back into normal society. The day started slightly painfully for those who had enjoyed the dancing and drinking the night before, but thankfully less painfully than the effects of the previous weekend.
Sadly, today was the day when the first of the team started departing, with Pete heading off to Port Elizabeth with his fiancee, James heading off to meet his wife and kids in Cape Town and DC2 heading off to Johannesburg for an early flight home. We wished them all the best for their ongoing journeys.
First order of the day for those remaining was breakfast down at the Waterfront, closely followed by a good number of the team by the second order of the day - finding presents for significant others and kids - an activity that had varying degrees of success, with more than one person coming back empty handed and awaiting airport duty free.
DC, Gary and Alwyn headed out in the afternoon for a final round of golf, and a last chance for Alwyn to get some practice in on his developing swing - still not enough to beat DC though.
Today also saw the packing of the team bags, a task that took Gareth, Jonny and Ben some hours and a significant amount of duct tape to accomplish. Pete and James, obviously not wanted to leave us empty handed, had also left all of their shooting kit with us as team baggage, making the task of packing just that little bit more difficult. Still, after some time, and lots of shifting of items from one bag to another we finally had a set of kit that would have a fair chance of being allowed on board the aircraft.
Dinner plans varied, with some of the team opting to stay in the lodge and get takeout (a choice which would have repercussions the following day for Steve and Mick). The rest of the team opted to head out for an Indian at the nearby casino complex, and for some of the team, a spot of post dinner blackjack, which ended in profit for once.
Back to the ranch, and a vain (but valiant) attempt by most members of the team to finish off the gin and Amarula supplies (not together thankfully), with tonic rather than soda to accompany the gin on this occasion.
The last day in South Africa, and only one thing left to do - get all the kit, rifles and team members into four vans and safely to Johannesburg airport for the evening flights.
For the less organised of the team members, the morning was obviously a chance to start packing all their kit and shoving it into the available space in the buses.
Also time to settle up the bar tabs, and find out just how much beer, gin and wine we've managed to consume over the last week and half - quite a lot in some cases!
After a game of van tetris with all the baggage we managed to fit everything in and close the doors, and set off at about 11am for Johannesburg airport, waving goodbye to Shawu Lodge, which has been an excellent home to us all for the last portion of the tour.
The keen reader will remember the take out that Steve and Mick partook of last night - Steve and Mick certainly did, setting a new record for the most number of stops between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg...
Arriving at the airport, we abandoned our trusty buses with Avis and moved to check-in, hoping for an easy time of it with the South African firearms export. By and large, it was easy, although CJ did attempt to make it more difficult by leaving his SA firearms permit in his hold baggage. Thankfully, the staff didn't seem too bothered, and so everything proceeded pretty much without a hitch.
Time to relax in the airport lounge, and definitely absolutely the final chance for present shopping for those back home, along with the usual attempt to get the entry fee for the lounge back in free beer and wine.
Boarding the aircraft (without Julie managing to walk into anything this time) we said a final goodbye to South Africa, and hello to Great Britain, thankfully experiencing somewhat of a heatwave at the moment. Wait, this news just in, it's 4 degrees, and actually snowing in Scotland! Ah well, missed summer then...
Landing back in a deceptively sunny (but actually quite chilly) Heathrow, the team emerged seemingly at the same time as a large number of other flights, a fact that was confirmed when the size of the passport control queue became apparent - so long in fact that by the time we got to baggage reclaim, our rifles were already there waiting for us (accompanied thankfully.) The final customs shuffle, and the onto the coach to pick up the remaining half of the team from the BA flight at terminal 5, who had been slightly less successful in managing to keep hold of their baggage, with the South African airport systems obviously deciding that one of Steve’s bags really needed an extra days holiday in Dubai.
One last chance for a swift game of monopoly between the airport and Bisley before it was time to unpack the coach, locate the various items located in the team bags and change from one team to separate individuals going our separate ways once again.
This tour, whilst not as successful as we would have liked on the range, has been hugely enjoyable, and I think all of the team have found some new friends amongst the other members. A massive thank you to Karen and Iain for organising it all, all the people who have helped us throughout the tour, all the team members for making it an experience to remember, and finally to you the reader for being interested in what we've been up to for the last three and a half weeks. In the words of Bugs Bunny, That's All Folks.