It doesn’t get much better than this. This morning, after a sleep-in and opulent breakfast, we met Adrian, our fly fishing tutor. I must admit I didn’t know that fly fishing is called that because the ‘lures’ emulate the life cycle of a fly. You judge the fly to use depending on what you are catching and when.
You can imagined the hysterics getting into the waders and then finding out that one of us would have to drive to the river as Adrian’s car was only a 2 seater.
After a quick but in-depth lesson, into the river we all went. Wayne caught the first fish and you can see the pride on his face. Mark starting catching one fish after another. The size of these beauties was staggering. Wayne received the ‘Dud of the day’ award. 
On learning that we had a massage in Lisbon riding on the outcome of our efforts, Adrian drove Donna and me further up the river. You can see I knew my place and Adrian even whistled for me to get out. We had to go through thick foliage and I may or may not have put my hand on some stinging nettle as I fell in a bit of a hole. Hands up!
The ‘Catch of the day’ award goes to Donna who brought in this beauty. To make things even more noteworthy, we girls had been left on our own upriver while Adrian checked on the boys. It did take a bit to remove the fish from the hook, being careful not to ‘burn’ it but Donna did it.
As I was the only one without a fish, Adrian pulled out all guns. A special pole to wade further over the rocks and into the river, a special fly called ‘a duck’s ass’, special oil from the duck gland to help the fly sit up on the water, and special tuition to catch a fish (apologies to the team as I did monopolise Adrian’s attention).
I, unfortunately, don’t have photographic evidence of my catch. In the scramble to get my camera out, it got off the line. All I can say is that it was probably the smallest fish of the day. Adrian did say however that I was the best caster so I give myself the ‘Caster of the day’ award.
Mark and Wayne rejoined us and I wondered why Mark had removed his shirt and just had his jumper on. Guess who fell in the water, waders and all? Unfortunately, no photographic evidence of this either, but boy did we laugh! Hope you’re OK, Mark and you get the ‘Dunk of the day’ award.
Our three hours turned into over four and I would say that it was the most peaceful and beautiful way to spend four hours. We all loved it. Mark even saw a family of otters (of which I am extremely jealous).
We came back to the lodge for a quick rest before heading to the races. We had finally jagged an event that was on the same time we were visiting. Dennis, the cabbie picked us up and dropped us at the races. 
Wayne was so excited, he took off to see the stables… in the wrong direction. Luckily, we were able to point him to the horses.
All bar one of these races was a jumps race and they went for at least 2 miles. We got to see the horses parading and put our bets on at the bookie. Donna’s bravery with this gave me the confidence to do it as well, ‘5 on Number 5 and 5 on number 7, please.’ Here you say the number, not the name. Of course, in fields of 20 horses at times, name selection was important. Mark chose ‘Robin the Hare’ and I chose ‘Citizen Al’ -a good omen we thought as Al is Wayne’s brother and he is married to Robyn who is a very fast runner. Alas not to be!
Once again, Donna took the award. She picked our only winner (although we were close a couple of times). 
Dennis picked us up again and when we returned, we retired to the drawing room to enjoy a wee after-dinner drink and recap the day…Donsy’s Day….which was brilliant.
2019 UK Trip 