Day 6 - Swimming and Thunderstorms

Our impromptu plan for today actually worked out very well! We had a lie in until 8.30am and had breakfast. At 10am we gathered up and wandered into the north end of town to go to the swimming pool (especially since we have had to reschedule the glacier day over Wet & Wild). We were expecting the Scouts to swim for 30 minutes as the forecast was terrible, but we played it by ear and they were in for nearly 2 hours. The pool is really good here, with a slide, diving boards and lots of floats etc thrown in by the lifeguard (badmeister here). We walked back up to our chalet for lunch, then allowed them to take money out of camp bank and walked back into town, letting them off the leash for 90 minutes while we had a coffee. The thunderstorms started with avengance then, though, and the Scouts that ignored our entreaty to take waterproofs regretted it! We walked back up to our chalet again (I've done 15,000 steps and it's an easy day!) and had dinner then showers and cards.

Day 5 - Gasternal Valley

Today was always designed to be an easy one to give everyone a bit of a break. We were up at 8.30am and had breakfast then left here about 10.15am. We walked south down the valley a little way then east up the Gasternal Valley. This involved climbing from around 1,200m here up to around 1,400m, following the path of the Kander river. The views on the way up are pretty spectacular and the Kander flows down over the waterfalls all the way down. We had a gentle mooch in the morning and foraged for wild strawberries (very small, but very sweet) and blueberries, which were really popular. The Scouts had a paddle in the river and built some dams. We met Roger, Roger and Hugh for lunch then they headed up to Selden while we walked over to a waterfall for a (very cold) shower. It then got colder and looked like rain, so we headed back down, arriving back at 5pm. We got an ice cream, which was welcome. Back to the chalet for dinner and games were played - football and table tennis are very popular, as are cards. Tomorrow is going to be different to what we had planned, as heavy thunderstorms are forecast and that means the glacier day has been postponed until Wednesday.

Day 4 - Three Valleys, Climbing and Abseiling

We'd love to be posting a few pictures as the scenery was fabulous, but that doesn't seem to be working from the tech we have with us! We'll try that later. The over 14s were out at 8.30am, heading up on the Three Valleys. Now that is a tough hike! They go from Ueschinenhutte at around 1,800m past "Kit Kat Mountain" (it has 4 fingers) and peaking at 2,659m. The effort was worth it for the views, especially from the ridge where you can see through the full 360 degrees; a valley in every direction, although the photos probably won't do it justice. It's hard work, but at least they had a Coke at Schwarenbach and get the Sunnbuel cable car back. The 12 & 13 year olds did the Climbing workshop that the older group had done the day before. That meant the bouldering, to learn how to manoeuvre on rocks. They then climbed Morning Rock to learn the rope work before heading back to the Hutte for lunch. They collected their belongings and headed back down to Milk Rock, climbing that before heading back down to our chalet the way they came up. The under 12s headed down the same path as the 12 & 13 year olds, but much earlier. Once we got back to the chalet we had lunch then out for abseiling, which was great fun. After a little down time, we had dinner and at 8pm we went up to the campsite to join in with the International Campfire - a 2 hour show with groups from UK, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, USA, Canada, India, Portugal, Italy, Egypt, Ireland and probably several other places besides. That ran for 2 hours, and ended up with the Pinkies' traditional "If I Were Not In Kandersteg". Very amusing.

Day 3 - Ueschinenhutte

Today was a complex one for the organisers! The over 14s (with Helen) had an early start, meeting their Pinkie at 8.30am and hiking up to Ueschinenhutte for lunch. This is a pretty tough hike, as they follow a steep path up through the woods initially before it flattens a little above the tree line. The total ascent is around 600m. After lunch, they did the Climbing Workshop, which involves bouldering then climbing on both Morning Rock and the bigger Milk Rock. They then headed back up to Ueschinenhutte. Both the younger groups had a free morning, so we walked them down into town where they could spend a few Swiss Francs; Rivella is particularly popular (a milk-based fizzy drink). After lunch, the 12 & 13 year olds (plus Mike & Alison) followed the same route up as the Over 14s had earlier in the day, arriving at Ueschinenhutte late in the afternoon. Meanwhile the 10 & 11 year olds (with Dave, Anj and Roger W) got the Allmenalp cable car and laughed at Dave's fear of grounds (it's grounds, not heights) but still walked up the last part, again arriving late afternoon. The clouds descended on us in the evening; we had our meal and chatted around a fire until bed time (10pm).

Day 2 - White water rafting

Evening all! We all had a load of fun today. Early start (up at 6am!) to leave here at 7.30 and get the train at 8.13. We headed to Spiez and from there down to Boltigen where we met our guides for our white water rafting. We were split into 4 boats, with 7 of us in each, plus a guide, going down the Simme river. We were very lucky with the weather, in that it rained yesterday so the river flowed rather faster and generated loads of rapids - that, in turn, created loads of whoops and laughter among all the Scouts. We had loads of battles between the boats, with lots of water being splashed between them. Around an hour of fun later and we had arrived at Darstetten, the end of our journey. We got changed out of our wetsuits and walked up to the station. We had lunch and an ice cream, then got the train back - arrived about 3pm. We've had free time since then, playing football and table tennis while avoiding the very heavy rainfall and dramatic thunder storm. Tomorrow we are all off up to Ueschinenhutte so there will be no entry then!

Day 1 - Getting there

Evening all! Sorry there are no photos, but posting hasn't been that straightforward. The KanderChallenge was good fun. They had to mix up with Scouts from other countries (USA, Portugal, Ireland and the Netherlands at least) and navigate around 7 different bases across the site, doing tasks as they went. There was lots of laughter as they had to fill a drain pipe with multiple holes in, get 10 of them on a tiny groundsheet, build a bridge to retrieve a message from a stream and more besides. This culminated in a task to make a waterproof receptical held above their heads, which was then filled with water - and you can probaby imagine the results. We sent them all off to bed at 9.30 local time, and they were very tired so were quiet very quickly. Tomorrow we are getting up at 6am in order to head to Boltigen for white water rafting - with the rain we have had, hopefully it should flow pretty fast!

Day 1 - we've arrived!

Hi all,I did try to post earlier but the app failed. As you might know we landed ok and Basel was hot and sunny. We found our coach and some had a snooze. We're now settled into our chalet but it's drizzling, hope it clears! We have a couple of hours to have dinner then KanderActive at 7pm. Dave

Test

Hello all, this is Helen testing the blog.
We will be there in 48 hours - how exciting😃

T-Minus 5 days, 10 hours

Afternoon all. Our preparations are nearly over, the trip is about to begin! I have 3 huge boxes of t-shirts, polo shirts and hoodies here to give out tonight; I do hope everyone has all their equipment packed and ready to go. The forecast (here) is currently looking decidedly iffy, so those waterproofs will get a good testing. Dave

Kandersteg 2016 - T minus 22 days, 7 hours!

Hi all, we hope everyone is getting as excited as we are? This is just a test post to check I can send things from my phone!

Dave