We were woken this morning with loud knocks to the door at the leisurely time of 8:30 with the exception of those who slept on the balcony and were disturbed by mother nature at 5:30. Breakfast was served in the dining room. We were treated to musli, warm milk, strange yoghurt and bread. Feeling full (or starved) we set off for our first look at the junior worlds site. With rumours of flat water and lack of excitement, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the course. Our first session was to be fairly casual and we tested our true slalom skills by dodging stumpy, cut down boats from all corners of the globe. The water was good fun, fast and boily. Half way through the river started to rise and poles began to sit low. A metre later we were facing quite a different course. Despite the changing conditions including rain and lightning, we had a good valuable session.

We headed back to our 5 star accommodation (out of 100) for lunch, which had generously been purchased by Geoff. The remainder of the afternoon was spent twiddling our thumbs and amusing ourselves in different ways. At 3:30 on the dot the cars drove out of the drive for our second session on the world class water. Once again the rain started to pour down and the temperature dropped. We split into class groups and the course was split into 3 challenging sections in preparation for tomorrows full length runs. Two sets of thirds were completed before the water started to get crowded. About 60 boats suddenly crowded the eddys. After several interruptions some members of the team found the only way to get what you wanted was to plough through the tangle of boats. This resulted in Craig getting shouted at by some Canadian coach, Jono hitting several people in a single section, Tom punting off the deck of an unfortunate C1 competitor, and a few other spearing incidents.

We then packed our boats away at the course and headed home for dinner. The dinner improved greatly from last nights….. (we don't know what it was) to an Italian theme, possibly helped by the fact that the border is only a few metres away. After dinner we did video review, providing some entertainment, especially throughout some of the C1 runs. Team meeting occurred at 8:00 and we were briefed about the next weeks proceedings leading up to the big race. We are now heading for an early night and looking forward to another sleep in.

By the Honourable Dave and Kate.