A Sad Departure

Today set out hot and got hotter, hitting 33 C quite early in the morning. Thank goodness this waited until the last day as it would have only increased the illness count for the week if we had been out doing activities.

The challenge was to prep and eat a cooked breakfast, pack, clean from top to bottom, wait for the coach, load the coach and depart all by 11:30am...we managed and are now (at the time of writing) en-route home so expect your little ones, and not so little ones (leaders) back home on Sunday suitably happy and tired all at the same time.

One final thanks to Mark Langdown for organising such an awesome trip and a thanks to everyone else for MAKING it an awesome trip.

The Last Supper

Well, this was it, a proper Swiss Cheese Fondue in a proper Swiss Chalet, thanks to the World Girl Guide Centre at Adelboden. The rules applied were to kiss the person on your right if you dropped your food off your fork into the cheese. The table below survived and no kisses were administered but by the sound of things some of the other tables were doing some kissing. I guess it is a kids thing but many were not too keen on the fondue as they said the cheese was too strong, they all made a good attempt though and never just turned their noses up at it. 

Following the meal, Fritz, the Alphorn player turned up for his stint and was well received. The quiz that followed was highly competitive amongst the Swiss Ex teams but alas they were beaten by a bunch of 8 year old Japanese Girl Scouts!!!! We are sure there was some miscounting of the scores by the Our Chalet staff but not to worry as all the teams tucked into a chocolate fondue and were treated to a quite bizarre display of what can only be described as origami with sticks by our Japanese guests. It was clever though.

Finally, a camp fire allowed everyone to wind down after a truly hectic day. 

White Water Rafting, Fondue and Alphorn

So, the week is marching on and although it seems like we have been here much, much longer than seven days it is also really sad to know this is our last full day in Adelboden. 

The sickness bug is still clinging on but is losing the battle. Today we only have two kids down (since last evening). A couple of leaders are "beaten" as the kids call it and all the leaders are well and truly in need of a holiday after this one. Perhaps some of us are getting too old for all this physical activity.

Anyway, back to today, everyone else headed off to Interlaken after breakfast at 06:30 (another early start) for White Water Rafting. We had a lot of rain two nights ago so that should top the rivers up a little for them. Again we have four GoPro helmet cameras on location so we should get some good footage. The amount of footage and photo's that we do have from this holiday will take a while to sift through and sort the best from the worst, but that is a task for after our return.

Tonight we are being hosted by "Our Chalet" which is the World Girl Guide Centre across the valley from where we are staying. They are laying on a traditional Swiss Fondue evening with cheese and chocolate fondue, a camp fire and are also "importing" a local Alphorn player for the evening. The guy is over 90 years old and will introduce the group to a huge and strange sounding Swiss Instrument which literally can be heard rolling around the valley when played. Should be a fun evening to round off what has been a truly amazing week.

High Rope Antics

So today continued the intense activity program with high ropes and bridge swinging. After starting off misty and damp after a night of rain the day soon returned to "our usual" hot sunstroke type weather. This was a relief as doing these activities in the rain is not fun.

The course consisted of several long zip wires that criss crossed high above a river bed, a high ropes course under the bridge, abseil from the bridge and finally the bridge swing. This can only be described as similar to a bungy but using ropes so you start by leaping into the void until the ropes take the slack and create a enormous swing.

Oh and the highlight...poor young Isaac, he spent ages psyching himself up for the jump, bottled it first time round but hung around (excuse the pun) watching and waiting until everyone else had jumped, went for it and did it. Unfortunately, for him the instructor seemed to forget the last person had jumped and after about 20 minutes the kids on the ground noticed Isaac just hanging 5m up, under the bridge on the end of the rope. Everyone found it funny (including Isaac) and he made a name for himself. Hope it did not scare you off from doing it again one day Isaac!

The Alpine Overnighter

What an awesome two days for most. I say most as we have just recovered from a 24hr sickness bug that swept through some of the group. This came on almost the moment we returned from our canyoning trip two days ago and hit nine of the group, they obviously drank too much river water. This created an interesting time for the leader team discussing the best options for the alpine overnighter as they had to completely rejig the teams and mountain leaders. Anyway, it was clear that after twelve hours the first two victims showed a visible improvement which gave us the confidence the rest would follow suit. 

The "Chundercat Team" as they called themselves spent yesterday taking things very easy, sleeping and chilling in the sun at our chalet while the rest of the teams spent a gruelling two days crossing the alps. Both days were hot and sunny which added pressure to the groups, sapping energy and making demands on water supplies. 

The walking groups were very impressive in many ways, especially when we discovered the limited walking experience some had from the UK. Some were scared, some were sick, some got blisters, some never slept much, everyone reached 2650m (about 8000ft), twice the height of Ben Nevis, but at the end of the day everyone made it, and the looks of achievement when they finished was a story in itself.

Tomorrow, it is swimming and the adventure park...more to follow on that in due course.

Sneaking in an extra post.

A sneaky post just before departure for their hike this morning...sunrise in Adelboden.

Canyoning

After repeated warnings about getting an early night many of the team were still up well past midnight last night so breakfast at 06:30 was a sombre affair. The coach to Interlaken was so peaceful for a change and so was the ride to the canyon in the AlpinRaft minibus until the scenery hit another level of awesomeness. Certainly in my minibus most of us had our noses pressed hard to the glass taking in the sheer size of the mountains around here.

Canyoning started beside the road at the top of a 60m drop where we were literally thrown over on dangly little rope. This evolved into similar and certainly more extreme acts of what many would only describe as madness or worse. Sliding down rockfaces in freefall mode to hit little pools of water, zip lines under jammed boulders between tight cliff faces, jumps from 30m into rock pools and lots of coughing, spluttering and swimming. Everyone survived and had a great time.

Today was rounded off with preparations for tomorrow when we are away from base for two days climbing high into the Swiss Alps from Kandersteg to Gemmipass, overnighting up there at about 2000m (approx 6000ft) then over the top to Engstligenalp on the Adelboden side and back down. As a result you will not have an update

for the next 48hrs. 

Hoping you can wait that long. In the meantime here is a little teaser for you all...

Swiss Ex Canyoning (HD Version)

or YouTube (lower quality) YouTube Swiss Ex Canyoning