The first few days of our Tour

Dear everyone,

The first few days of out tour have been great. The girls have had some great training and done some amazing activities along the way.
Our First full day on Vancouver Island was jam packed. We arrived for the first time at Brentwood College for their first training session at 8am, the girls where amazed by the facilities and the incredible view from the College out over Mill Bay. The rowing shed and indoor rowing tank were big highlights for the girls. The College has kindly lent us an eight, a quad and a single all of which are in very good condition and appear to suit the girls very well. The biggest buzz for the girls was the fact that the bay in which the college is in is filled harbour seals which is an amazing sight to see.
That afternoon we hoped back on the bus and headed down to Butchadt gardens to walk amongst 50 acres of landscaped gardens. The gardens are based in a old quarry that was landscaped after it was exhasuted of all the stone. It was a very good time of the year as the gardens are almost in full spring bloom and it was great weather. The girls really enjoyed it and it appeared to spark some green thumbs amongst them. Some highlights included the sunken garden which is a perfectly manicured section of the gardens with ponds, ducks, fountains and statues.  All the girls also released the inner child within and went for a vintage carousel ride. It was a very funny sight to see 16 Australian teenage girls laughing at the top of their lungs as they went around a carousel (I think the rest of the patrons and staff had no idea what was going on).
That afternoon we went back to brentwood for an afternoon training session. It was again very productive but the wind did start to come up by the end of the session. Following the rowing session the Brentwood College Rowing team made a BBQ for the girls. This was a great oppotunity for the girls to meet the other boys and girls crews at the College and get a feel for what rowing is like at such a College and in Canada in general. A good time was had by all.
Today (Wednesday) we had another morning trianing session. This time it was with the Senior boys crews at brentwood and the girls were able to do some race pace training. This was a very useful session for the girls, especially as the senior brentwood rowing coach took the session. The coach has an outstanding rowing record. You will be happy to know the girls really did hold there own in the training, The boys were a bit shocked by the end of it.
This afternoon we went on a whale watching tour, hoping to find the resident Orca Whales in the area. There are about 5 differnet pods of killer whales in Victoria which have "residence" in the surouding waters of the city. Each pod is around 20- 30 animals. However this is onl the start of the season and unfortunatley we didn't see any. However, we did see many other things including, harbour seals, elephant seals (very rare), Lion seals, Otter's and many varieties of birds. Although there was no whales, it was raining and it was 8 degrees with -8 wind chill the girls, Mark, Gill and I all loved it. The surrouding landscape of the island is enough to marvel at.
Tomororow is our final training session before the regatta on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The girls appear to be rowing very well and Gill is impressed with there progress. The Brentwood womens coach thinks we will be very competitive. The Brentwood regatta is the biggest regatta in Canada. There are expected to be around 1500 competitors and around 8000 spectators. It is a massive event and Im sure the girls will enjoy every moment. It seems the only thing that can stop them at the moment is the fact the rowing in 8-10 degree temperatures can be considered quite normal in Canada.
I will keep you tuned with how we go.

Unfortunatley I have had troubles uploading photos, however I will endevour to get some uploaded soon.

But All is well, everyone is healthy, getting along great, there are rowing well and having a ball.

Please feel free to msg or call me if you have any concerns.

regards,

T. Kindred