On 28 July 2019, 17 Scouts and 8 Leaders from our troop based at Liberton Kirk, set off for a week’s camp at the International Scout Centre in Kandersteg Switzerland.
Our flight was delayed and the weather was awful the night we arrived so we were very late in arriving at the Centre, but everyone was in excellent spirits and we got settled in very quickly.
We spent Monday getting our bearings round the huge campsite, meeting scouts from all over the world. We also went into the village in the afternoon for a spot of souvenir ordering and swimming in the stunning outdoor pool. The evening was spent enjoying a torchlit walk with other scouts.
Tuesday saw us take a gondola to Oecheninsee glacier lake. Our scouts took a guided walk around the cliff edge above the beautiful lake – this was a 5 ½ hour hike in challenging terrain and extremely hot weather, but every single person that went on the hike made it round and faced personal challenges on the way.
On the Wednesday, we were up super early for a coach trip to pick up our first train taking us up to Jungfrauoch, named the summit of Europe. The train journey’s up were just stunning, when we got out of cloud and the observation stop at Eismeer, in the middle of the mountain was amazing. The scouts spent several hours at the summit, taking in all it had to offer. The train returned us to Kleine Scheideg where we joined another group of Scouts from the UK and we all hiked down to Grindewald.
Thursday – 1 August – National Swiss Day and birthday of scouting. Really fun activities around KISC centre, outdoor breakfast and a BBQ, before we all donned formal uniform for a torchlit march into Kandersteg village for a bonfire and firework display.
Friday saw another early start heading on the train to Thun, where we picked up white water rafting to Berne. This was such a brilliant activity and we got to jump in from the boats and swim alongside them in beautifully clear, warm waters.
On our final full day, we took the gondola again out of Kandersteg village and spent the first half of the morning on the rodalbhan, a metal toboggan track that chicanes down the mountain side, riding on a plastic sled! Brilliant fun. We then hiked back to the glacier lake for a dip in the waters there before we hiked back into the village and revisited the outdoor pool for the afternoon.
We had the most incredible trip and as leader in charge, I could not be prouder of our Scouts and the leadership team.
If you would like to learn more about the trip to Kandersteg please get in touch with me via aileendeas@gmail.com
Aileen Deas
Assistant Group Scout Leader
162nd Braid