IT GOT off to an inauspicious start – taking the wrong turn off the first roundabout we came to – but my highlight of the year can be summed up in one word: Aland.

The NatWest Island Games are always something special and the four in which I have been involved as a reporter hold many happy memories.

Yet the Games on the Swedish-speaking-yet-Finnish island were the best I have been to, without a doubt.

To begin with, though, I must put my hand up for the roundabout mishap.

Knowing that our digs for the week were about as far from Mariehamn as is possible to be on the main island of the Scandinavian archipelago, I was fairly certain we did not want to follow the sign for the capital as we left the airport.

So, as per my instructions, my chauffeur (photographer Steve Sarre) took the only other turning and 10 minutes later, with bewildered colleague Aaron Scoones following behind, we came to the conclusion that the scene from Deliverance we had driven into was obviously the wrong way. (Not that it stopped Scooners giving an impromptu yet wholly predictable rendition of the movie’s familiar guitar riff.)

That mistake was quickly rectified and as we drove towards our HavsVidden hotel that first night, with a stunning sunset backdrop to boot, the beautiful simplicity of the island immediately suggested that it would be a week to remember.

We were not to be disappointed.

The sporting highlights came thick and fast.