IT was to be the adventure of a lifetime.

Intrepid Ange Goliger, 23, sold her house in Leeman Road, York, and saved up for months in order to realise her dream of backpacking across Canada.

But the six-month trip was cruelly cut short when thieves broke into a tour coach and stole all her possessions - forcing her to return home.

"I'm absolutely gutted, I was having the time of my life," said Ange, who left her job as assistant manager at Kennedy's Caf Bar, in Little Stonegate, to follow her dream.

"I thought it was a wind-up when I first got back to the coach and discovered my backpack was missing. I remember thinking someone would jump out of the bushes with a TV camera."

Ange, who had been visiting a canyon near Vancouver when the thieves struck, was forced to get the next flight home.

"I was literally left with my purse and the clothes I had on," she said.

"The police came out to us, but couldn't do anything. I was due to go sky-diving later that day so maybe I was never meant to jump out of the plane. I'm trying not to be too upset about it. It just shows this sort of thing can happen anywhere."

Ange, who sold her house and worked for six months to raise the cash to go, is temporarily living with her family in Haxby, and has gone back to work part-time at Kennedy's.

"I always dreamt of going travelling, but never had the money," she said.

"I promised myself last New Year's Eve that I would go before I was too old. I'm starting to save all over again and hope to travel to New Zealand next year."

Ange is waiting to find out if she was covered for stolen possessions under her travel insurance.

Updated: 11:47 Friday, November 01, 2002