Hi everyone , ive loaded some more pics on the album. As you have se.en alrady we have been busy since we have been here

We finally arrived on Sunday night at about midnight at Victoria Airport on Vancouver Island and by the time we got to bed everyone was absolutely shattered.

The first day was spent orienting ourselves on the University of Victoria Campus and making sure everone was settled in their rooms, then we got onto the bus and went to downtown Victoria. It's a very pleasant city and we spent the afternoon wandering around and booking up the Whale Watching .When we got back their was a training session for the squad in the early evening, trying to get them acclimatised to playing their matches at around 7 pm whilst their body was telling them it was 3am in the morning.

Tuesday was Canada Day which is a bank holiday and is a big party day for everyone,the bus driver even treated us to a free ride down to town which saved us $50.We went down to the harbour and got kitted out in those orange buoyancy suits which you saw on the pics. they then loaded us into the inflatable boats and off we roared into Vancouver Sound in search of killer whales. The boats can get up to 40mph and the lads all loved it, i think i was the only one who found it a little tricky even though i had taken sea sickness pills and was wearing acupunture wristbands. As you can see from the lack of photos from when we were at sea i wasn't quite concentrating on the whales . Don't worry some of the boys took a some good ones and LLoydy has a great one of a whale leaping completely out of the water and when i can work out how to upload their cameras i will pop a couple on here.

In the afternoon we were picked up and taken North to Cowichen rugby club where we played Tsunami, who are a select side who represent the northen half of the island.They werwe a pretty strong side but the guys gave a really good account of themselves . Tonger will be putting a full match report on the blog very soon.

Wednesday we caught the midday ferry over to the mainland which takes about 1 1/2 hours and got ourselves checked in to the University of British Columbia. One thing we have been caught slightly unawares by is the distances we have to travel to each different place/activity. When you are planning your itinary and speaking to locals, they give the impression that everything is just down the road, when in reality it's hours away.

When we had got settled in we took the guys to a nearby beach called Wreck Beach which we soon discovered was notable for being a 'clothing optional' beach.you may notice this in a few of the pics that i took.

We had dinner in a chinese restaurant on campus which pretty good and went to bed full and exhausted.

Today we took a coach to the Lynn Valley natural Park which is centred around the Lynn river gorge and a suspension bridge with paths leading alongside the river.

We got back, had some lunch and the guys have just had a training session which has left them pretty tired as it's quite warm, around 26 degs.

Tomorrow we are having a free day and going to downtown Vancouver to spend some of the money that i have been carrying around . In the evening we are going to a Canadian football game which should be good fun.

I will do my best to update the blog when possible but we have had a few issues with internet accessibilty/my complete ignorance of computers.

Also i have asked the lads to add their own comments/pics if they want and hopefully they will do so.

Cheers all

Dave Guild