Camp Journal
Green and Yellow take on Parc Adventure
1st July 2013
Finally the sun is out at Camp Suisse for the Green and Yellow group and it is time to play. A Great morning with languages and sports! Molly and Caridad were the stand out superstars at basketball and Samantha beat her group leader at tennis! Well done guys! Not to mention Henry and loads more kids receiving NOGROTS for being the best in their language classes.
After the morning activities it was time for lunch and then off to the experience life in the trees at Parc Adventure; a fun and exciting climbing obstacle course. All children participated and challenged themselves to new heights. Emilia was especially inspiring and encouraging by giving support to a group leader to continue on with the course even though Emilia herself at the time was overcoming her fear of heights. All in all an inspiring and challenging day at Camp Suisse! Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Blue Group activities
Blue group had a fabulous day at Camp Suisse! After sports and language class in the morning the group enjoyed a hearty lunch to prepare for the afternoon. They kick-started their activities with some archery, which was fabulous in the glorious sunshine. After a shaky start with only Slavitsa hitting the target, the group showed that practice really does make perfect as each member of the group were capable of hitting the target by the end of the session. The group then moved to the indoor climbing wall. Some campers, Marina and David, showed off their skills by immediately clambering up the wall while others were a little more hesitant. With a little encouragement from the Activity and Group leaders everyone managed to climb up the wall at their own pace and write their name on a piece of paper situated very near to the top of the wall! The group enjoyed a day of new experiences.
Academia Anjo and Greenland adventures
The past two days have been a fantastic in enriching the cultural knowledge of the two schools staying with Camp Suisse at the moment; Greenlands and Acadamia Anjo.
Yesterday we were all split in to teams, mixing the nationalities to create 6 different centuries, who all completed 8 different challenges including an egg and spoon race and an obstacle course. The “UK” won with Brazil following close behind after adding up the scores from the different activities, such as song and dance creation. Next for the Spanish we had some fun English lessons followed by dinner of delicious sweet and sour chicken. For the Egyptians they enjoyed a super session of orienteering learning about maps and compasses. The birthday boy, from Greenlands school won one of the prizes in the evening entertainment of bingo – what a perfect end to a great day! Today, campers arose early and headed to Glacier 3000 for one of the best Glacier days seen all season – with glorious sunshine, the campers were incredibly excited. After the husky rides, roller coaster trips and a picnic, Academia Anjo headed back to camp to prepare for the cultural night and Greenlands visited the Cailler Chocolate Factory. Everyone enjoyed Camp Suisse’s delightful chicken pie and salad followed by peach crumble before an enjoyable evening of cultural games. The group were split in to two and required to create quiz questions to ask the other group about their culture. They exchanged gifts and “culture books”. A lovely evening of culture exchange.
First Day of Session One
30th June 2013
Camp Suisse’s first international group of 2013 were woken up bright and early for an 8am breakfast to fuel them through their morning language test and first sports sessions of football, tennis, basketball or climbing.
After their morning sessions came a delightful variety of lunch options such as a paninis, jacket potatoes or sandwiches. Then the Blue and Red groups made their way straight to the Camp Suisse coach to take them to one of the campers’ favourite activities, LABRINTH!!
Groups split up with their group leaders to try and navigate their way around the maze with Emma’s group managing to find all 10 of the checkpoints. After the maze came some time to play on other labyrinth attractions with JP running up and down the slides like a yoyo.
Once the children arrived back in Torgon it was time for shower hour before some lovely sweet sour chicken followed by an ice cream sundae – yum!
To use up some of their energy, the campers began their evening activity, Torgona hunt. This entails searching the Camp Suisse site looking for answers to riddles and questions. After the hunt, they made their way to the chalets for a good night sleep in preparation for tomorrows adventures.
Staff Training
26th June 2013
Since the arrival of our new staff, a handful of experienced activity leaders have come together to teach our new colleagues all that is required and more.
From hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing to setting up activites, they are learning all the ropes to becoming an experienced activity or group leader.
Not only have they learnt how to belay whilst rock climbing, they are also learning the health and safety aspects, how to react appropriately to incidents and techniques to ensure all the campers have an amazing summer at Camp Suisse!
Adventures with St Ivo
25th June 2013
Coach 3 (Mr Havard’s group) were up bright and early ready for the glacier, and after a hearty breakfast we went on our way. We drove to the cable car, which took us up the 3000metre high Glacier, with some stunning views on the way. Sunglasses and sunscreen on, we stepped off the cable car onto the Glacier. It was beautiful – pure white snow as far as we could see!
After taking in the surroundings we boarded the chair lifts which took us down to the husky dogs. Mr Havard’s group loved meeting the huskies, and soon it was time for a husky sled ride around the Glacier! This fantastic activity was enjoyed by all, even though one group managed to fall off half way around!
After the sled ride, it was time to go back up the chairlift for lunch, and a fascinating talk from activity leader Chris about how the Glacier was formed.
Following lunch, we left the glacier on the cable car and the coach took us down to the pool at Villeneuve by Lake Geneva. Despite the cloudy weather, everyone had a great time in the pool and the lake. All in all, a fantastic day at the Glacier 3000, topped off by a relaxing swim at Villeneuve!
Coach 1 (Mr Crisp’s group) went on their way to camping today, tomorrow they will descend and take on the Aqua Parc for themselves!
Whilst, Coach 2 (Miss Shipley’s group) are on their way down from camping today and will be taking the Glacier adventure tomorrow!
St Ivo Activities at Camp Suisse
24th June 2013
Waking up to rainy skies, Coach 1 (Mr Crisp’s group) had no time for damp spirits, launching straight into an action packed day of four fantastic activities. The morning saw the group trying their hand at team building games and taking on the bulding games and climbing wall. Followed by an afternoon of archery and learning new skills on the bush craft hike.
Team building games saw the group split into small teams of around 5 to use their creativity and communication skills to solve a number of challenges. The teams rose to the challenge brilliantly, battling problems including ‘the spiders web’, ‘the magic carpet’ and ‘bomb disposal’.
The climbing wall was the morning’s second activity, and was met with typical enthusiasm by the St Ivo pupils. Many were climbing for the first time, demonstrating some impressive aptitude for the sport by scaling the 7 metre wall in style. Even more impressively a couple of pupils managed to overcome a fear of heights to take on the Camp Suisse wall.
The afternoon saw the weather improve and coach 1 were able to get out of the centre to enjoy the outdoors. The bushcraft hike was informative as ever with campers sampling some of the edible flora in the forest as well as learning some other key skills. The hammock building – and opportunity for an afternoon lie down – proved as popular as ever!
Finally the pupils took to the archery range to test their skills with a bow. Though a few had done this before, for the vast majority, archery was a new activity. Great progress was made through the afternoon with even a few very impressive bull’s eyes being scored by the end of the day. – Matt, Group Leader
St. Ivo Get Stuck In
23rd June 2013
With one third of the St.Ivo troops hiking up the mountain to camp at the stunning Col du Croix, the rest of the group headed en masse to the shores of Lake Geneva. Though the weather wasn’t as summery as it has been, this proved a bonus as the beach at Le Bouveret was almost deserted and entirely free for Miss Shipley’s and Mr Crisp’s groups to enjoy. Mass games of Frisbee, football and rounders were soon under way, interspersed with brief, and brave plunges in to the lake. The day’s main event, however, was without doubt the banana boating. With the breeze making the lake delicately choppy before staff and campers alike were flung head over heels into the water.
A great day at the beach was rounded off with the famous Torgona Hunt – a treasure hunt/quiz activity with campers having to scour the camp and village in search of clues. The competition was high, with the overnight leaders setting a great target of 28 for Mr Howard’s group to beat tomorrow…who will take the honours of the mystery prize?
ST IVO Go Camping!
After A relaxing evening to recover from the long bus journey it was into activities for coach 3 (Mr Havard’s group), who were the first group to go camping. Once we completed a thorough kit check it was time to set off for the 4 hour hike to the camp and despite some complaints from a couple, everyone had a sense of achievement when they reached the Togon Ski Club. After the challenging walk to camp, the group even managed to reach the French border in an additional mini hike to take some pictures of the spectacular views and even practiced their French, chatting to the cows. After scoffing some yummy BBQ food it was time for some classic camp fire songs such as ‘Black Socks,’ before some talent show acts with Rhiannon in particular winning over the crowd with her cover of Kesha.
The next morning after a hearty breakfast of beans on toast the group prepared to descend back to camp. Sadly some chilly weather conditions meant taking a shorter route home, however, this did mean more time for the AQUA PARC!!!!
The team wolfed down a packed lunch to get as much time as they could at the Aqua Parc. Layla in particular enjoyed the lazy river and Sasha overcame her fear of water slides, making it a fun afternoon for all! The amount of times coach 3 went up and down the water slides steps, made it difficult to believe they had just been hiking that morning! After the Aqua Parc it was back up the mountain for some homemade chicken pie, which is exactly what was needed before the Torgona hunt evening activity. This kept the campers busy, hunting for clues around the site before an early bed, keeping them fresh for the early morning tomorrow, visiting the Glacier. Coach 2 (Miss Shipley’s group) are playing swapsies, as they embark on the journey to camp Monday morning.
