Motty

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Motty

Our Pre-Kandersteg Get Together

We met at Waterhall (pic 1) at 11am on Saturday 9th May. Of the 23 young people and 8 adults coming to Switzerland, 19 and 4 respectively were involved this weekend, and our hiking party consisted of 17 young people and 2 adults.

The intentions of the weekend were to:

1. Make sure everyone new each other
2. Get some hiking practice carrying rucksacks
3. Get some ideas for - our logo design and menu
4. Give the Scouts some ideas of the programme and make a Turk's Head woggle

We headed up Sweet Hill (pic 2) on the Sussex Border Path and within 200m, had some Scouts asking how much further it was!

The scenary is fantastic - how many residents of our City realise how beautiful the surrounding countryside is? - and we strolled along chatting for 90 minutes or so, getting to our lunch stop at Saddlescombe around 1-ish (pic 3).

Everyone seemed in better spirits after lunch - fuller bellies, emptier rucksacks helped - and we crossed the road and headed up the South Downs Way on Summer Down (pic 4), towards Devil's Dyke.

There were some people Zorbing (not down the scarp slope, otherwise we'd obviously have had a go!) but it was rather windy so we didn't stop. Experience tells us that having got hot on the uphill, and stopping at the top without wrapping up, is a sure-fire way to muscle strains.

So we had a tricky bit of navigation and headed down the criss-crossing paths to the Fulking Escarpment (pic 5), a steep slope that brought us down behind the Shepherd and Dog pub. We then headed north across the fields to Parkwood, helping a Duke of Edinburgh team with their map reading (they were going the wrong way!).

We arrived at Parkwood about 4.30pm, having covered a distance of 10.7km. We had some free time and stowed our kit in our rooms - we allocated rooms based on how the Scouts will be arranged at Kandersteg (building layout here):

• Blümlisalp room - George, Joe H, Joe J, Buster & Frankie
• Allmenalp room - Ben, Ellis, Jude, Aidan, Lewis
• Ueschinen room - Jack, Matt, Charlie, Harvey, Dillum, Conrad, Kieran
• Lohner room - Zoe, April, Siân, Lauren, Freya
• Altels room - Dave, Peter, David, Alex, Roger
  

There aren't many showers at Parkwood so we took some time to freshen up and we then had dinner - pasta, chicken, and tomato sauce for most, with cheese for the vegetarians, followed by chocolate pudding and custard. Yum!

In the evening we ran sessions on the programme in Switzerland and also what kind of foods we like/ don't like/ can't eat.

We played cards (Tonga is a big Kandersteg favourite) before heading for bed.

In the morning we had breakfast (cereals and toast) then we had 2 more sessions - designing our logo and Turk's head woggles. We then tidied all the rooms, cleaned the toilets out and headed for home.

Key things we have learned:

1. Some of the kit isn't quite up to scratch. All Scouts will need 2 rucksacks - a large main rucksack of at least 60 litres - this will be their hold luggage so they need to be able to fit everything in! The second rucksack needs to be around 20-30 litres and will be used as cabin luggage as well as for day trips. Some of the boots didn't seem too comfortable, either.
2. We need to follow the rules - common areas (dining room, etc) can be visited but other bedrooms are out of bounds.
3. We need to respect each other - treat others as you would have them treat you.
4. We all need to work together on things like cleaning, washing up, etc. That way, we all do our fair share and get on with each other better.

It was a good 25 hours and we'll get together again soon!