Sunday December 30

There is no running water this morning because the pipes have frozen.

We visit the vehicle graveyard where all those hit by IEDs are taken while they are investigated. This is near to Camp Roberts in Kandahar.

I am booked onto a flight to Brize Norton and it leaves at 9.30pm – so we have a long wait – and it lands at 4.30am so I will have a long drive home in the early hours. So I need to kill time in Kandahar.

I catch up on a few pictures which I did not get the chance to take during my first visit To Kandahar.

These include the Taliban’s Last Stand and the Gingerbread Monument which features 500 paper gingerbread drawings – one for every Taliban soldier killed after a 500lb bomb exploded there.

The building which is the Taliban’s Last Stand is now used for conferences but it still bears the scars where bullets and shrapnel hit. A lot of the bullet holes are at head height.

I can’t believe we are sitting in the departure area watching Hollyoaks because it is not exactly what I would have expected. Having said that there are probably quite a few army pin-ups in the cast. I start to see a few familiar faces as the area starts to fill up.

Flying is okay but I will never get used to the take-off part – particularly with smaller aircraft. The nose lifts sharply and you are thrown backwards into your seat. Then as you gain altitude you can feel the aircraft swaying from side to side.

It is like you are flying by the seat of your pants. On the whole it is a smooth flight with only a little bit of turbulence. Again we have to wear body armour and helmet during take off.

Monday December 31

I manage to get some sleep but nowhere near enough during the flight and we land safely at Brize Norton. I pick up my kit before the long drive home.

And I have never seen my wife, Karen, so overjoyed to see me when I finally walk through the door of our Scarborough home. But I can understand her relief at seeing me safe and sound.

So that is the last chapter of my trip to Afghanistan. I later found out that I would have qualified for campaign medal if I had been out there for a month rather than the two weeks I spent in Afghanistan. I am planning to share my experiences when I reported on 2 Yorks pre-deployment training before another tour of duty in 2009 from tomorrow. So watch this space.