The final day has arrived - all we need do is make the 8 hour drive from the camp back to Ottawa. We give our profuse thanks, pack up our stuff, and head out. Before actually driving back east Markus and brother Matthias give all of us a tour of the main Wandel farm/house, as well as the family's carpentry shop.
The drive back to Ottawa is uneventful and rainy (we know we are back east because it raining all the time again!). Luc and I play some classic video games in the back seats of the van (Ms. Pacman and Qix). Ewart has graduated back to a sitting position in the Van as his butt bruising starts to get better. And, at about 7pm, we finally arrive back in Ottawa, where I drive the van around, dropping people and their gear off.
And so, the odyssey to the rockies... or rather just the "rocky" trip (especially for Ewart!), comes to an end. Fortunately, through all of the trials and tribulations we all emerged relatively unscathed. Thank you so much, Ewart, for being tough and gracious. On each trip that I go on, I find that there is usually something to be learned: with this trip definitely that was the case. A very important lesson about how it is important to never let your guard down when it comes to safety. It is so easy to be lulled into a sense of comfortableness, to feel that because nothing has happend the last 10 times you did something, nothing will happen this time. This is what the mountaineering instructional book "the Freedom of the Hills" calls "non-event feedback", and it is a dangerous trap into which to fall. One should be as careful the first time doing a particular thing as the 50th time.....
Thanks again everyone. Until next time!......
...Andrew
In Their Own Words...
Ewart: "Many thanks Andrew for having organised the trip - I am certainly game for another such trip, but in the Autumn next time so as to cut down on the bug menace. Hopefully my case of bad butt did not spoil the vacation for others - I tried to ensure that the vacation proceeded to plan as much as possible given the circumstances. Finally, thanks to all for having being there for me on Teewinot - I know I make a lousy patient."
Andrew: "actually, Ewart, you couldn't be more wrong! I have discovered through this that you are in fact the best patient ever! not a negative peep from you even in times of pain and stress. Many thanks!"
