Having returned from The Wire's training camp, Matt Turner brings us the final edition of 'The Portugal Diaries'...

AND so, the end has come. My final few hours in Portugal with Warrington Wolves.

Having stayed up fairly late on Friday night working, I allowed myself an extra half-hour in bed.

At 7.45am, my godforsaken alarm went off. I could not have a full lie-in as there was training in the morning…or so I thought.

The schedule originally showed a field session on Saturday morning but a late change was made and the lads were given the day off.

RECAP > The Portugal Diaries - Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3

They all assembled for breakfast as usual but then went their separate ways. A few of them hired cars and made the short trip to Albufeira and one group decided to spend the day out doing some sea fishing.

Steve Price, Lee Briers, Kylie Leuluai, Kev Brown, Josh Charnley, Stefan Ratchford, Bryson Goodwin, Ben Westwood, Ben Murdoch-Masila and Sitaleki Akauola hit the high seas hoping to catch tonight’s dinner.

I hope for their sakes they were successful as there are certainly plenty of mouths to feed!

So with the players gone, Brown’s resembled a bit of a ghost town and there I was with a good five hours to kill before my ride to the airport turned up at 2pm.

PHOTOS > Wire training camp picture gallery

No matter, I soon set about ploughing through them.

I took the chance to do a quick Facebook Live tour of the complex while nobody was around to get in the way or play a prank on me (I’m looking specifically at Tommy Lineham here) and managed to transcribe all my interviews from this week.

WATCH > A tour of The Wire's training base in Portugal

Once all that was done, it was half past one and I still hadn’t packed. All that time on my hands and I ended up in a mad rush!

As you would perhaps expect for a holiday hub in mid-January, Faro airport was pretty quiet so we cleared security with no issues.

The departure lounge was pretty well appointed, so I decided to treat myself for a productive few days’ work with a couple of pints in the bar.

Contrary to what many would have you believe, this was the first drop of alcohol I touched throughout the whole trip.

My low-carb diet had gone out the window, so I decided Dry January should follow it!

Once it was finally time to board, the pilot informed us that we’d be flying into a headwind all the way back to Manchester so the flight would be 40 minutes longer than the outbound journey.

I got my head down for a bit with some music to help send me to sleep and that killed a bit of time…until the headphones I had forgotten to charge decided to die.

Despite a bit of turbulence along the way, we landed in Manchester safe and sound at around half past eight and completed the journey back to Warrington.

After one last heavy training session on Sunday, the players will make a similar journey on Monday morning, but my Portuguese adventure is now at an end.

Before I sign off, I want to put on record my thanks to the players, coaches and staff at Warrington Wolves for allowing me to be a part of this camp.

It is not something they had to do, but they have been incredibly gracious hosts and I am eternally grateful for the way they looked after and integrated me.

That also goes for all the staff at Brown’s. The food and room were both spot-on and the facilities were absolutely top-notch.

I certainly would not be surprised if The Wire return in preparation for next year.

To everyone who has stuck with The Portugal Diaries this week – a massive thank you to you guys as well. I really hope you enjoyed them!

There has been plenty of content gathered for the coming weeks and our season preview pull-out which I think you are going to love.

So this is me signing off. Speak soon, over and out!