1st Highworth Scouts Visit Kandersteg
On the 12th February 2016, 35 Scouts, Explorers and Leaders from 1st Highworth Scout Group embarked on what would be the first international adventure for many. The 21 hour bus journey led to our arrival in Kandersteg, Switzerland at around 2.30pm on Saturday the 13th.
As we stepped off of our coach onto the snowy heights of the Alps at Kandersteg International Scout Centre there was little time to waste; we dumped our bags in the main room of our chalet before catching the local service bus into the village centre for our first activity at 3. My group started with curling (which believe me is a lot harder than it looks!), we were briefed on the rules and given a quick demonstration before going straight into matches. The element of sleep deprivation was quickly dissipated as competitive spirits arose!
Caught a bit of snow?
After an hour of trying our luck for the next winter Olympics we ventured into the village centre where we visited a knife shop,
we had plenty of time to look around and choose knives to be engraved and to do a little bit of souvenir shopping before walking back to our chalet. After a hearty meal, half of the group attended the World Scout workshop where they learnt about KISC, WOSM and Switzerland itself, whilst the other half caught up on some sleep.
Breakfast was served at 7 the following morning ready for the busy day ahead! The older scouts (12+) departed camp at 8.30 to catch the Gemmi cable car up onto the Gemmipass. We spent the morning hiking around 4.5km to Hotel Schwarenbach in really powdery fresh snow, where there was a short hot chocolate stop, before sledging most of the way back to the cable car station! Along the way we learnt lots about the area we were staying in, and especially about the famous Altels Avalanche of 1895. The younger scouts spent their day doing a winter survival experience that had been personally rated as excellent by Bear Grylls himself! This entailed a snowshoe hike up to a viewpoint overlooking the village, with several stops along the way to learn about mountain first aid and avalanches as well as making fires which we used to make hot chocolate, and we even built snow shelters.
The camp was officially broken that evening by KISC and the raising of the flags initiated an international snowball fight, half of Highworth managed to escape with the excuse of attending the World Scout Workshop that the other half had done the night before whilst the rest of Highworth defended themselves before catching up on some well-earned sleep after a very busy first full day.
Scouts learning to Ski
Early Monday morning the older scouts set off to take part in the winter survival experience and the younger scouts headed up to Lake Oeschinensee for a jam-packed morning of sledding! They had a short hot chocolate break overlooking the lake before sledding down to the village for an afternoon of ice skating. Monday night was KISC Winter Olympics, an evening of snowy sport events held in teams. The pinkie team (KISC staff) won with a minor hint of cheating, but we put in far more effort than them so we were the real winners!
Tuesday was city trip day, with Bern the capital city as our destination. We followed a trail around the city in the morning discovering interesting facts and visiting culturally important and significant places. We spent lunch inside the bear pit because unfortunately the bears were hibernating, before setting off for an afternoon of chocolate and souvenir shopping. As Tuesday was also Callum’s birthday we thought it only fitting to end it with a campfire party, cake and presents which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all skiing or snowboarding days which were a huge success, everyone progressed massively with some complete beginners finishing on a red run and around half of the group completing the narrow village run too. Thursday night everyone attended the Glaciers, Alps and Alpine lecture by the pinkies and learnt valuable skills like how to cross a crevasse safely as a group.
Scouts on the practice slopes!
Friday, our final night, was left to a traditional Swiss fondue event. A whole lot of cheese, bread, yodeling, good humour and spirit led to this being the highlight of the week for many and it was rounded off perfectly with an international campfire with the rest of the guests at KISC. Saturday came around far too quickly but to make the most of our final day in Switzerland we cleaned the chalet in record time before spending the day in the village using up our last few Swiss Francs and had lunch out as a group in the famous Schweizerhof Café, where we all filled up on sugary pancakes to fuel our long journey home. Overall a great week was had by everyone, and we hope to go back again soon!
By Melissa, 17
