Arrival in Brive, boats, accommodation - its all good !

Meeting at the airport on Thursday night was a non event for the seasoned travellers but for those whose first tour (hopefully of many) this is one could sense the excitement albeit on a rather suppressed level. Flight AF 995 to Paris felt like a long flight to Cape Town – Jamie and Andrew got to torment each other for a while but Andy did manage to get some sleep. I am still in amazement to understand how ‘Noddy’ [tallest member] managed not to move for 10 hours.
The fun did however start at Charles De Gaulle, Paris. Our flight from Johannesburg was late into Paris and a short connection time meant no phaffing around between flights. Long passport queues and the usual ‘friendly’ customs officials – ask Richard to explain rowing in Fre-glish, made for a slight challange. Getting the team from one terminal to the next was to easy to be true – 15 people and 14 passports made it through security for the domestic flight in France with 10 mins to spare. The missing passport however was going to prove to be a challenge. One angry Wade, one semi calm manager and a group of excited athletes then raced between security and the Air France desk looking for options. Air France was able to print Wade a second boarding pass while security were not able to understand our plight of the lost passport. Anyhow, with nothing left to do and being the ‘right side’ of the French border we boarded our flight to Toulose and off we went.
The gods were smiling on us and on landing in Toulose "Mr Wade Rodewijk" was asked to identify himself as he disembarked from the plane – this could only mean one thing. Wade’s passport was now safely with Air France and could be collected on our return to Paris. ( to close out on this story – Wades passport is now safely with his parents ).
We were met by what seemed to be a very friendly volunteer in Toulose and spent the next 20 mins standing at the wrong carousel for our luggage. Minus one bag of tools and one spirit level we made our way to the bus where what I thought was a volunteer turned into our bus driver !!
18 hours into our travels the team were starting to look at a little jaded and the 3 hour bus trip to Brive gave some members of the team a good time to catch 40 winks. The girls however were kept awake as the coach's instructions were ‘NO SLEEPING’ ‘you must be tired later’
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful – a rather long visit to the course, which was pretty quiet but required while the organising committee decided where to take us and what to do with us. After dinner at the course we were taken to our accommodation – settling in did not take too long and the athletes pretty much died in rooms.
The accommodation, a University residence, is basic but some of the best we have seen at this level. Each athlete has their own room with bathroom and a little fridge. We eat breakfast at the accommodation while lunch and dinners are catered for at the course.
We have also been allocated a volunteer Camille Zacros(pronounced Cammie), Camille is pretty close to fantastic, English is a challenge but his commitment to assist us in anything we need has been incredible.


1 August 2009
Weather : Sunny, hot 32 degrees with a rain storm in the evening.
A late start this morning gave the athletes time to sleep in and recover from their travels of yesterday. Breakfast at 8h00 and a latish bus to the course at 10h30. On arrival at the course today we were met by Pascal from Filippi (our boat supplier). Our boats are all brand new and exactly what we ordered – there was however a slight hitch with the riggers for the double which did not arrive (pairs riggers arrived instead) but we have a commitment from the supplier to that sort that our tomorrow.
Accreditation at 11h30 was an easy process after correcting David Mayberry’s name (sould be Gareth Maybery). After an early lunch athletes were sent back to the accommodation for a rest while the coaches started to earn their keep by rigging boats. Some took longer than others (Andy) to rig their boats and one can only wonder to what level the coaches could take pedantic.
Athletes arrived back at 17h30 ready for row and coaches armed with newly hired bicycles took to the water. All boats (JW1x, JW2-, JM4+ and JM1x) looking great and feeling comfortable in their boats.
Writing this first blog has been stressful with sorting out Wifi access, Andy’s mood, Jamie’s lack of mood and my lack of inspiration. I’ll try for more tomorrow. - SK