Day 022 > Monday 23 September

Rome has blown us all away today. The amazing buildings and history around every corner as a backdrop to a chic style of living, is so exciting.

For a while we went our separate ways, the girls setting off to the Indian Embassy to check on the visa applications and to go shopping, and us boys setting off to battle our way through the traffic, across the cobbles and up and down the curbs. The great news from the girls was that the visa progress was going really well and also that Aoife had bought a new bikini. The great news from the boys was that Miles was finally content to go without a packet of wine gums and we could concentrate on being real tourists. Well nearly; I'm not sure many tourists stop every few minutes to speak to embassies, PR agencies and the Vatican as they go about their serious sight-seeing.

We turned a few heads as we progressed through the city, me pushing Mike with one hand and guiding Miles with the other. Bus drivers and taxi drivers seemed to find it particularly amusing to watch. We managed a tour of the colosseum. Miles and Mike both entered for free but I had to pay the full €8 despite being a bit deaf! There is no justice sometimes.

Inside we were approached by two girls from America. They knew all about us and it turned out that they were involved with a PR group who have been busy organising our activities in San Francisco, very spooky! We will be seeing them again in November.

Bob Huddie is the Regional Director for Rolls-Royce plc in Italy and we joined him for a meal in a little restaurant next to the Pantheon. Bob and his assistant Pina had already been very supportive and helpful since we arrived in Italy and it was good to spend a social evening with him. It was certainly good to have such good advice regarding the menu and the wine and we were by far the latest residents to return to the Sisters of Mercy hostel.

Again, some went to bed, the rest of us sat again under the picture of the Pope and updated our diaries – hoping for divine inspiration!!!

Day 023 > Tuesday 24 September

We had turned the Sisters of Mercy hostel into an office and the morning was spent phoning and washing, mainly phoning. Our main contacts were the British Embassy, the British Embassy to the Vatican, Interazzione (PR agency), the Scottish College in the Vatican and umpteen disability organisations across Rome. The phone seemed to be ringing constantly. The hardest part was not being able to involve Mike and Miles and feeling the pressure as they sat in the office (bedroom). Miles can be left feeling useless sometimes which is ridiculous if only he knew how much he encourages me through all that we do together.

It took 2 and a half hours from deciding that we would return the hired van into Rome and actually getting on our way, mainly because of all the incoming phonecalls. Rome has some fantastic driving rules, including certain streets being reserved for public service vehicles between certain hours of the day, which vary from place to place, and also some streets being closed to vehicles of certain ages. I expect we inadvertently picked up a few electronic fines for driving a van of the wrong colour down the wrong street and with the wrong wheel trims.

The van was finally dumped and we all congregated at Harry's bar for a celebratory pitstop...... and then we hit town again. Whilst being an absolutely delightful city it is still hard work with a wheelchair and two blind people, especially with a phone vibrating in one's pocket every two minutes and streets full of cobbles. Our target today was the Spanish steps, all 100 or so of them. I bet Mike could count on his toes the number of tourists that have descended the steps in a wheelchair. Half way down we reached crisis point. Some of the team were ready to quit the project and go home, not because of the steps but because of the enormity of the of what we were facing each day, the time away from home etc. etc. By the time we reached the bottom however, we had sorted ourselves out. We battled through the cobbles to the Trevvi Fountain and then on to a restaurant staffed and raising money for mentally handicapped people, a unique venture in the middle of Rome. Earlier, a phone call had come in saying that we were going to meet the Pope tomorrow. I always thought we would.

Day 024 > Wednesday 25 September

I thought Vatican Radio was like a hospital radio and was just broadcast throughout Rome or even just the Vatican itself, but it is actually broadcast all around the world, 24 hours a day. We reached the radio station for our interview at 09:30, half an hour late because the public transport system in Rome was suffering a general strike today, just like the tube system in London.

The interview seemed to go well and we hurried off to meet the Pope in St Peter's Square.

When I picked up our invitations yesterday I had been told that we had priority tickets but to find ourselves sitting in the front row, on the platform and just 10 feet away from the Pope for his audience, and with thousands of pilgrims from all over the world cordoned off in St Peter's Square (which is round by the way) was quite surreal. We also found ourselves to be among the few who were invited to speak with the Pope and have the opportunity to receive a blessing from "His Holiness". The whole being there thing was surreal but we were all extremely grateful to all those who had worked hard to give us this experience.

After a quick slice of Pizza and an hour of cobble battling we set off for an institute which houses mentally and physically ill residents and day patients. Although obviously well run, it left us all feeling quite disturbed and very fortunate.

The transport strike was still on and it took us an hour a forty minutes before we found a taxi to take us to a press interview with a national Italian newspaper. It is strange to think that we are travelling around the world using eighty ways of transport but we couldn't even get a taxi.

Vatican radio called back to let us know that our story was the feature of the week and that they will be doing update interview and would also be covering our story as the leader on their web site.

I always knew we would get to see the Pope if we wished; "all things are possible".

Day 025 > Thursday 26 September

The guy on the desk in the hotel could have passed for Manuel from Fawlty Towers. At 9:15 I asked for some taxis to be booked for 9:45. At 10:00 Manuel asked what time we wanted taxis. After a whole catalogue of confusions relating to bags, bills, keys, disabled stair lifts and still no taxis we decided to walk. "Manuel" pointed to the map, showed us the route and told us "ten minutes". We were heading for the Santa Lucia rehabilitation clinic to talk to patients and the director but it soon became apparent that we were facing an epic.

The road fizzled out and we were heading across a field. Mike had already catapulted out of the wheelchair which, thankfully, was funny rather than catastrophic. Earlier in the week Mike had been relaying to us how easily paraplegics can literally break their necks falling out of their chairs, so it was a concern seeing him flying. Our ten minutes became two hours and we arrived late and sweating for our discussions at the clinic, but had sufficient time to understand the scale of the vision and level of understanding behind this amazing resource.

Mark Shand, travel author and documentary maker, is a friend of Caroline through their involvement with elephants, and our last afternoon in Rome was spent at his flat eating and sharing travellers’ tales. From the rooftop terrace we could see across Rome in nearly all directions, a great place to reflect on our hectic but full few days in this most amazing of cities. We had gone through highs and lows together as a team but had proved strong during our first "adventure leg"

Egypt and the Red Sea beckon, but we were in for a long night ahead of us.

Day 026 > Friday 27 September

Flying from Rome to Cairo took about three hours, but the wait at Cairo airport for the flight to Hughada was 6 hours until 1:00 a.m.. Robin was there to greet us at Cairo airport, after we had transferred across town from one terminal to another, but he was rather bemused by the team's rushing about.

Mike's Catheter had blocked again and half an hour was needed in one of the dingiest toilets in the world to sort it out. Travel can seem so glamorous sometimes but often the reality is somewhat different. Plastic seats, strange smells and hundreds of people mitigated our attempts to sleep until 07:00 a.m when we set off for our next destination.

With a complimentary packet of crisps we started our descent into what looked like nothing but desert and landed in Hughada. The heat was incredible but our excitement grew as we headed off in the transfer to the Hilton Hotel who were providing our accommodation for our time here. The crew from Nottingham Scuba were joining us in the evening so we had all day to rest, disinfect, swim and get
ready for the mayhem of Mary, Darren, Jim and co.

Day 027 > Saturday 28 September

WOW! Diving in the Red Sea is just incredible. We had been challenged to dive for five miles under the sea as one of our ways of transport, which required us all to take our PADI Open Water Certificates.

Miles had qualified ahead of us and adores the feeling of freedom and weightlessness that diving offers, despite his blindness. For the rest of us, this was going to be our first real diving experience after the theory and pool training we had undertaken in Nottingham. Regal Diving had coordinated and sponsored our stay here in Egypt and we felt we were in the most expert hands.

Mike entered the water with a huge splash and soon disappeared down below. 40 minutes later he broke the surface again with the biggest grin in the world and has hardly stopped talking about the experience ever since. Caroline too, like a five year old with the keys to a sweetie shop, is absolutely glowing. Diving is an amazing experience for anybody to have, but when one has the opportunity despite all the practicalities of disability, the sense of achievement and excitement is doubly enormous.

We all agreed it was a perfect day. The friendship, the sunset, the turquoise water, the millions of fish and coral, all came together to become splendid memories for us all.

Most of all, those who had been working hard to support us, inspired by the excitement and characters of Miles, Caroline and Mike saw their plan come together. The adventurers and all the supporters agreed to share the prize for feeling the most contented.

Day 028 > Sunday 29 September

Nine years ago today, Mike had what he calls his "bump in the Balkans" which left him paralysed from the chest down and many other serious injuries. After two amazing dives which almost completed our PADI diving qualifications, we managed to help Mike onto the sundeck at the front of the boat and we headed back to land, into the setting sun.

Dolphins gathered around the boat and played alongside, responding to the whistles and clapping of the Egyptian boat crew. And then Mike came out with the quote that stunned us all; "I would love to shake the hand of the person who did this to me, and tell him how grateful I am".

Mike, Miles and Caroline have come to see their disabilities as passports rather than restrictions. They find new ways of doing the things they enjoy and know that, with the right support and friendships, nearly anything is possible. I have come to find the word “disability” quite irrelevant and even offensive, as it is only our abilities that we focus on. Mike, Caroline and Miles SCUBA dive a bit differently to me, but all four of us reflected on the beauty of the day, the wonders of creation and, working together as friends, the reason for living.