[usa2003ardf] Goodbye from Slovakia

[Adam Scammell]

Hello All,
This will be the last one until we return home on Tuesday night
The party is still going..

yes, this is a long one....

Photo's will be available online soon after I get back.

For those of you that receive this from several sources I appologise.

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Award Ceremony: Wednesday night 4 th August	

We were all very impressed by the magnitude of the award ceremony. The
crowd was very animated. Between speeches there was loud speakers
playing music and also some disco style lights flashing around. Three
marmuts (likeable to a beaver) helped with the prize giving and general
entertainment. The powerfull teams that took the majority of prizes
included Rusia, Czech, Ukraine, Germany and Slovakia. It was good to
see Estonia, Kazakhstan and Japan also popping up a few times. The
German’s celebrations kept everyone up until well into the night. Bruce
spoke of a capsicum (pepper) hanging from the roof in the lift.

Sightseeing, Rafting, and Shopping: Thursday 5 th August

 We travelled for about an hour to the Polish border where rafting
takes place on the Dunajec river. This provided us with fantastic
scenic views. I filled one and a half 64Mb cards with photos. Yes to
say it was impressive would be an understatement. We travelled 11Km the
journey taking 1hr and 40 minutes. Several tiny rapids also keeping us
entertained. We finished the trip at the point where the Polish border
crosses the river and heads across the land. Following this was lunch
at a small tourist village nearby. We travelled about 1.5 Hrs to Parad,
many of us caught up on sleep during this trip. Once at Parad we were
able to shop and sightsee.

Most of the Americans chose instead to travel by car to a castel,
apparently this was well worthwhile. We are hoping to make view this on
Saturday. After this they headed for the Polish border and a trip
around the High Tetras after visiting a scenic lake. I am told that
this trip was filled with adventurers best left for another time.

80M competition: Friday 6 th August.

I had an early (ish) start time today 10.10am, Bryan began at 9.25am
and Bruce 11.40am. After initial confusion over the start \ finish
locations, I was soon off on my way. I headed up the start corridore
which took me 3 minutes to clear. It was apparently 200M long, I almost
needed a rope and harness to climb up it. From the top I could just
about reach the stars, or so I thought until I got around the corner.