Goodbye!

This morning the team headed to the Oldwaldtwistle Mill for a bit of retail therapy!

We then went to a beautiful BBQ lunch at Alan and Barbara's, and then headed off for a walk to burn off all of the calories and take in the view of Accrington.


Tonight we will be heading into Whalley; meeting at the Dog Inn for tea and then venturing off on a ghost tour! It should be great fun.

This is the final post however from the "best GSE team ever to reach the UK shores" (quote from Rod) as we are now at the end of our trip of a lifetime. After 4 weeks of touring around the beautiful district of 1190, we will board our plane tomorrow and head back home.

Our sincere thank you goes to all of the Rotarian's who were involved in the planning and preparation that went into this program. Thank you to all of the FANTASTIC hosts that we have had - it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know all of you and I am sure that we will keep in contact for a very long time.


Goodbye and kind regards,

GSE Team (April-May 2010)
District 9790, Australia

Final presentation in District 1190

Saturday night the team presented for the last time in District 1190. We were all thrilled to see many of the lovely hosts that have cared for us over the 4 weeks that we have been in the district.

Team members were presented with a gift each from the DG Eady from the District which was greatly appreciated.

Our sincere thanks go to the Accrington RC for hosting the night and to all of the fantastic people who attended. We had a great time and it was brilliant to see our hosts (now longtime friends) again.

Team is welcomed at Accrington

Friday morning the team departed Lancaster and headed to Accrington - our final destination on this fantastic adventure!

We went to "The Grand" for lunch were a live jazz band were playing - it was lovely to sit and have a beautiful meal and listen to great music.

Following this we then went to the Castle and then headed home to meet our new host families!

Presentation to the Lancaster and surrounding clubs

Thursday night we presented to approximately 60 people at the Holiday Inn in Lancaster. The District Governor Mick Eady and Hazel were also in attendance - which was great!

We were also very excited to see all but 1 member of the District 1190 GSE team were in attendance - it was fantastic to see them all again!

Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters

Wednesday (28th April) the team were able to visit the headquarters of the Lancashire Police. The visit included seeing their air wing services and we were shown the technology and equipment that they have - it was amazing!

Following this, we returned to headquarters for a fantastic lunch and then headed to Blackpool where there were Police officers training for response to riots. We were able to observe with the Senior officers and training officers from the Police, Fire and Ambulance.
They had the dogs and horses there too involved in the drills!

Because of the nature of what we saw, we are unable to post any photos - rest assured it was a fantastic and something we wont forget. It was a very privileged opportunity and we thank Graeme and Sue (and Ian) very much for organising this for us

Lancaster - we have arrived!

The team was "handed over" to the Lancaster Rotary Club at 5pm on the 26th April. It was again difficult to say goodbye, as we have been well cared for and looked after by the Carlisle Castle RC. After a few photos and hugs we headed off to meet our new families!

On the following day (Tues 27th April) the team went to a number of sight seeing adventures, including the Aston Memorial, Maritime Museum, the Lancaster Priory and the Lancaster Castle / Prision.

ANZAC Day

Today was ANZAC day and the Carlisle Castle Rotary Club arranged a special ANZAC service for our team to participate in whilst here. The service was very special to us and we sincerely thank them for their consideration, time and effort. The service was also attended by local return servicemen and women and was conducted by a local minister; complete with the bugle playing and poppy's.

We also met up with an Aussie who was a police officer who had been based in Beechworth and Shepparton some 25 years ago (he made Samuel's day as he knew where Nathalia was!).

Rod and Graham (President and Host) were also interviewed that morning on the local radio station about GSE and the ANZAC service

Following the service the team attended the club's meeting and delivered our presentation to approx 45 Rotarian's and families.

We were also able to visit the Carlisle Castle which was fantastic!

Very moving and memorable day.