A tragic end

Yannik is sitting in his Duplo box pulling out Duplo bricks. Fabio is dragging a wooden crocodile across the floor and Olivia is giving the washing up a go.

It would seem that 2 months after Bridget's tragic death that everything is back to normal. But normality is relative. Was it not normal for us to make daddy Barbas out of real stones, to give a real iguana a short tug on the tail or to do the washing up in a mountain stream?

Of course we knew that our journey wouldn't last forever but the fact that our 'normal life'ended so abruptly doesn't make the situation in Salzburg any easier for us.

But how did it come to this?
Here's a glance back at the last days in Peru.

After getting our bus halfway under control we continued carefully across the Andes.Yet again we had to cross snowy passes between the heights of 4000 and 5000m.Once we arrived in Cusco we got to know the town and its surroundings before taking the train to Agua Calientes.

From there we set off for Machu Pichu early in the morning where we spent a day like straight out of a travel brochure.
After that we visited the market in Pisac where we discovered that the delivery of the package that we had been expecting fron Germany (the replacement for our stolen photography equipment) had been delayed again.

Because of this delay we found ourselves with a 'free day' before leaving for Bolivia,which we wanted to use for a boat trip.

After a short time, the boat capsized between the main current and eddy. In the next part of the river (which could be classed as calm) I was able to surface and get back to the boat. I was underwater for quite a while and Olivia was tied to my back. Then I managed to get all three of the children back to safety in the boat. I didn't have any more contact with Bridget. I presumed that she had already swum back to the bank. Yannik confirmed that when he told me he had seen her clinging to a rock. My attempts and all other official attempts to find her after that were in vain.

Almost exactly one month later, local fishermen saw Bridge's body being swept downstream. Now she lies here in Salzburg in the Kommunalfriedhof cemetery.

For now I can only find consolaton in the fact that the time we shared with each other was lived intensely and to the full. My close contact with Bridget and the children helps me to cope from day to day now that we're alone. But after seven months in which my wife and I spent every hour together,it is so hard for me to get by without her joyfulness.

I would like to thank all those who have supported me in any way or have sent me e-mails of encouragement. Although I know that Bridget, through her joyfulness and untimely death, inspired and strengthened a lot of people to make the most of their own time, most will carry on as before, without change. Should any one or the other of you have been moved to a positive change through her then I would be delighted to receive your e-mails.

In spite of this tragic end,I hope that you enjoyed following our journey as much as we enjoyed travelling.

Rupert

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