Boy Scouts Camp2002

This year both Scout troops in Ballincollig took part in a joint Summer Camp to Adelboden Switzerland .The Troops met in the Scout hall at 4am Friday 2nd August and travelled by coach to Rosslare,

where we boarded a ferry for Fishguard, after a very pleasant crossing, we picked up our coach which would bring us to Adelboden. After a long 24 hours we reached Adelboden.

Adelboden is situated high in the Swiss alps (1353m) .The village nestles in alpine pastures at the foot of mount Wildstrubel and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. There are a whole array of activities including heated swimming pool (50m), prepared walking and hiking paths, mountain bike routes, and ice rink, cable cars and plenty of shops.

Having spent most of Saturday setting in to our chalet, on Sunday the troops went on separate hikes around the village and on the lower mountain slopes. The programme which we had planed, allowed for each Troop to operate independently, and when the days actives would end we would all join up for dinner which would be prepared by a duty patrol.

Activities included mountain bikes, cycling high into the hills and then whooshing our way back down at great speed, a very enjoyable and tiring day .The following day we took the cable cars high into the mountains. The plan was to climb onto the ridge and up to Laveygrat (2233m) and follow the ridge along to Tierberg (2371m), as we climbed the weather started to go bad, when we reached Laveygrat it had become very misty,

raining and the wind was very cold .We took the decision to head back, we made our way to Hahnenmoospass, where we found shelter and had lunch .We made our way back down the valley, On our way stopping off for a swim. Another of our hikes took us across the alpine pastures, where we came across a woodcarver and we watched him carve ornaments as if by magic ..We left him and hiked on to Choleren Gorge, where we climbed down steps either cut into the rock or bolted on, while all the time water is pouring down past us.

We went on two excursions, the first was to Kanderstag where there is an international scout centre, we took chair lifts up into the mountains where their was a dry toboggan run .The second trip took us

to Interlaken which is situated between two lakes, it has attractive little shops. From there we went to see the Trummelbach falls, these are impressive waterfalls deep inside the mountains, where up to 20,000leters of water per second come down from the Monch, Eiger and Jungfrau.

We met a lot of new friends. There were a lot of opportunities to mix, at the ice disco, the Swiss night and in the pool.

All in all it was a great scouting adventure. A sign of a good camp is when you hear the scouts planning next year's camp on the bus back.