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

Sunday 12th August - Test Day

After a technical issue yesterday we have posted this a day late.

A great day today. The plan was a Test Hike to prepare everyone for the big overnighter on Tuesday/Wednesday although some of us are now suffering from not going to bed early enough Saturday night! Today we went to Frutigen for the start of a 5 hour walk which included the suspension bridge at Holstade. A bit wobbly and some of the girls (and boys) squealed a little bit. It measures over 100m in length and about 60m above the river bed. The weather was hot with cloudless skies making some of the uphill sections in the valley more tiring than normal. Everyone survived, all were pretty quiet on the coach trip back and the evening revealed a few blisters from the lovely new boots some of the Explorers have bought for the trip! 

Energy was restored to normal levels after the walk, when the Explorers cooled off at the outdoor swimming pool in Adelboden. The evening program was changed to the more relaxing choice of a movie. Considering we are ONLY on day two, most are pretty exhausted already!!! 

We've landed!

Safe arrival at the JEKA Chalet Cantate and here's also a picture of our view! The coach journey was relatively pain free, with only one puker onboard! Well done to Louis for grabbing the bucket super quick for Will! The ferry crossing was a similar event for Courtney, she spent most it getting to know the toilets very well! I guess that's what you get with a bunch of land lubber Explorer Scouts! Thanks to our coach drivers, Simon and Paul, for getting us here safely.

Tonight the Explorers have some free time to settle in to their new home and to explore Adelboden. Tomorrow we are off for a half day hike in the Frutigen area just down the valley from where we are staying. 

Here we go...

Finally after over a year in the making we are on the coach and on our way! Next stop is Dover where we are catching the 10pm ferry to Calais.

So far so good, everyone has remembered their passport and the driver was impressed by the lack of hair dryers carried by the girls!

Here we go here we go here we go........

Willkommen

Here is the Swiss Ex 2012 trip blog which will formally kick off on Friday 10 August 2012. The trip leaders will endeavour to regularly update the blog with articles and pictures so you can see what we are getting up to and that everyone is safe and well!

For those that haven’t heard about Swiss Ex 2012 is, well it’s an Explorer Scout activity holiday for members of the Itchen South, Itchen North and Winchester Districts  in Hampshire, UK. There are over 40 Explorer Scouts participating in an exciting 10 day trip which will include activities such as canyoning, white water rafting and alpine walking. The trip is being run by Itchen South Mountaineering Team to celebrate the 10^th birthday of the team.

Please come back and visit soon!