Thanks for reading the blog and supporting us!

On behalf of all the tourists, I would like to thank the parents and others who followed the blog, and who posted encouragement or, in the case of Mr Lyddon, provided much amusement. I would also like to thank Mr Oehler for taking all the photos on the blog, all the teachers for organising such a fantastic tour and my fellow tourists for making it such an enjoyable experience. We are now just about to go to the gate for our flight, so our time in Canada is nearly over, but I am sure that it is an experience that none of us will forget.

Thanks again for following our progress,
Oliver Schofield

End of Tour Awards

Last night, after our tour meal at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, Vancouver, the teachers made the tour awards. They decided that there was no one most improved player, as we all improved during the tour, so they awarded each of us a T-shirt with our tour number on the front and all our results in Canada on the back. There were some individual awards in addition to this:

2nd Biggest Tackle on Tour: Rory McKenna
Biggest Tackle on Tour: Ed Aspinal
Excellent Tourists: Ed Wilson, Oliver Schofield
Back of the Tour: Tom Nosek
Forward of the Tour: Sam Quintana
Player of the Tour: Will Cobb

Whale Watching

Today we traveled out across the choppy seas from Vancouver in search of orcas, or killer whales. On the way we saw bald eagles and seals, but the highlight was a majestic pod of nineteen orcas, which were swimming very close to our boat. We spent our last afternoon browsing downtown Vancouver.

Victory on Vancouver Island

Yesterday we became the first ever KES Bath rugby tour to win all of our matches, with a 38-0 victory over Crimson Tide, one of the top teams in British Colombia taking us to 5-0 overall. We were under a lot of pressure for the first 20 minutes, but withstood this well and responded strongly, with tries scored by Sam Mount, Mike Papadopoulos, Will Cobb and Ed Wilson, and Henry Brown scoring two. Ed Wilson converted four out of the six tries. Crimson Tide awarded Man of the Match to Sam Mount, taking his total to 3/5. After the match, we thanked the three players who are leaving us after the tour, Clem Eastel, Ed Wilson and Chris Isaacs. All three made great contributions and will be sorely missed. The match was played in Victoria on Vancouver Island, which we reached via a picturesque ferry trip.

The team after winning the match.

The tourists on the outward ferry journey.

Another shot of the tourists on the ferry.

Sunset during the return ferry journey.

Vancouver, the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain

Yesterday we travelled from Abbotsford to downtown Vancouver. After a morning walk around in Vancouver, visiting the Vancouver Canucks stadium and shop, we drove to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a 120 year old wobbly rope bridge in the rainforest 70m above the ground. After hearing about the history of the bridge, we crossed it, and spent some time enjoying the rest of the park, with its lush vegetation and wildlife. We then travelled to Grouse Mountain, and took a cable car to the summit. There we watched a lumberjack show, and caught a glimpse of the mountain's two tame grizzly bears.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Other bridges high in the rainforest.

We finally saw some Grizzly Bears at Grouse Mountain.

Victory against Abbotsford RFC, 66-0

We continued our winning streak today with a 66-0 victory against Abbotsford RFC, a team that had been undefeated in the area for four years. The match kicked off at 12:30pm, so it was much hotter than our other matches, which were played in the evening. We were also conscious that rugby gets better in British Colombia the closer you get to the coast, but we still managed to pull off an excellent victory. The Abbotsford team gave us a real physical challenge, but we continued to build upon our experiences in previous matches and scored some lovely team tries. The forwards scrummages and rucked very successfully, and the backs' moves were also excellent. Henry Brown, Ollie Currie, Sam Mount, Mike Papadopoulos, Nick Legg and Chris Isaacs all scored, and Will Cobb and Fergus Witt scored twice. Sam Mount scored seven out of nine conversions, and Ed Wilson scored the final one. Abbotsford RFC awarded man of the match to Sam Mount.

We then enjoyed freshly-barbecued burgers and hot dogs at the after-match tea, and a personalized cake baked by one of the Abbotsford parents.

The team with our Abbotsford RFC opponents after the match.

Captain Will Cobb poses with the coaches.

The fabulous cake made for us to eat after the match.

White Water Rafting and Abbotsford

Today we left our billets early in the morning and traveled to the Chilliwack River Rafting Centre, where we ate lunch and then prepared for white water rafting, putting on wetsuits and buoyancy aids. We were then driven up the river, given a safety talk and shown the different paddling styles that we would need to use on the river. After this, the boats were set off and we rafted down 14km of rapids, with rocks, eddies, fallen trees and other obstacles along the way. Those that did fall off the boat were quickly pulled in, and we all enjoyed a swim in one of the more gentle parts of the river. The experience of rafting was highly exhilarating, and not one that we will forget in a hurry. After the rafting had finished, we drove to the penultimate stop on our tour, Abbotsford, where we are staying for two nights.