Friday 3rd May
Thursday night's prize giving was most entertaining, with finger food and drinks served in the balmy environs of The Georgetown Club and real gold representations of a map of Guyana given to the winners of the various individual competitions and a Perspex plaque each for the team match and top scorer. David Calvert will be dripping with gold on the way home after winning six.
Friday was to be our one R&R day in Guyana - our one solely R&R day of the tour so far in fact. And the plan was a great one - to go by (small) plane to Kaieteur Falls (tallest single drop falls in the world) and Orinduik Falls (on the border with Brazil, where we could swim in the lake). However, the weather didn't agree with the plan. We assembled, in torrential rain, at 08:30, drove to Ogle Airport (great name, partly lived up to... more of that shortly), and waited until 10:45 to hear if the weather would improve enough to allow us to fly, before decamping to the hotel to await a phone call if things changed. They didn't.
I am sure you feel oh so sorry for us poor tourists who don't get to go and see something beautiful when we're already in the Caribbean. As for why the airport partly lived up to its name... well, none of us did any ogling; but it was Debs who (as Treasurer) went in to pay for the flights (and later to get the refund), who strangely didn't appear again for an hour and a half or so. Turns out that the very interested guys (esp. guide) indoors were being told all about our tour, target shooting etc. but when the guide made it clear that he was really looking forward to showing Debs (and only Debs?) around both sets of falls, she pointed out that she had eleven friends sitting outside in the bus, most of them male, and that she really did have to get back to them. If only she'd had her engagement ring with her!
On return to the hotel, we had a coffee, packed the team bags up, had lunch and then the majority of the party were taken by Sean - our marvellous bus driver - to see some of the main sights of Georgetown. St. George's Cathedral - a tall and very airy wooden structure - was spectacular, with some interesting historical inscriptions as well as a set of etiquette instructions, on how to behave in church! The Guyana National Museum contained a huge (20 foot) representation of a giant sloth, as well as a number of other stuffed animals (sloths, tapirs, caimans etc.) and a number of old maps that explained Guyana's historical development and border disputes in a thankfully well air conditioned room. And an unexpected highlight was that, when we went to have a look around the outside of the Parliament building, Ms. Watson asked Charles if he (and we) would like to go inside. So we had a good look around the grand chamber with its 32 government and 33 opposition seats and did our best to stop Ryland Thomas sitting in the Speaker's chair.
Thence to the pool, to packing our own luggage and to dinner at the hotel before a 6am start to head to Trinidad in the morning. Calypso country here we come!
Here we are again in today's press:
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2013/05/03/british-female-duo-hitting-the-bulls-eye-with-ease/
It doesn't matter where in the world you are - the press never mentions non-top scorers or wind coaches in team matches and love photos of women shooters! Although our two heroines are here referred to as "rifle shooers". Very good ones apparently as the guns left with the army, hopefully to be reunited with us tomorrow!
On a more serious note, we have been hugely impressed with the degree of press and television coverage both here and in Jamaica and wonder if there is any way of achieving something similar in the UK - surely a way to encourage more people into the sport.
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