Posts Categorised by 'Green Group'
Wednesday 31st July 2019 – Bikes and boats
31st July 2019
Today was a great day for the Reds and Blues, starting the day with a classic Swiss yodel to wake everybody up at the morning meeting. After their language lessons, the group took the bus down to Villeneuve beach for banana boating!
After a cloudy start to the day, the campers were delighted to see the sun come out for a beautiful summer afternoon. Everybody had their turn on the banana boat, but the highlight of the day came when little Isabelle managed to hold onto the banana after everybody else had fallen off! Her cheering a victory lap past all the campers who had fallen in had everybody laughing. Back at camp, the campers were treated to fajitas and apple crumble for dinner. The children finished the evening with a dance session before an early night for the glacier.
An exciting day of Alpine adventure was in store for the Greens and Yellows, meanwhile, who split into their colour groups to take part in different outdoor activities. The Greens spent the morning on the mountain bike trails around Torgon, while the Yellows reached to new heights on Camp Suisse’s indoor climbing wall. The campers were really enthusiastic to try these activities, and some of the Greens were able to show off their skills cycling across the bridge near camp!
During language lessons, Manuel’s class learned to introduce themselves in Spanish through a session of speed dating! The campers were over the moon when dinner came round, and it was their turn to go on the special pizzeria night. Everyone had their own pizza and played in the park before returning back to camp, tired but satisfied.
Yodel the day away
30th July 2019
Today, the Reds and Blues spent the first half of their morning in their language lessons, learning about different topics such as food, colours, and adjectives. Then, they set off to the forest for Brunch with Bear. This super fun activity involved the children learning to identify and forage for edible plants they could eat or stew. Back at camp, the children cooked up a delicious lunch of wood sorrel salad, with added protein of crickets and mealworms, washed down with a cup of spruce-cone tea.
Time for a proper hot lunch, and onto archery! The campers spent some time learning the correct technique and perfecting their aim, before they were able to hit the targets dead on! Maisy even got a bull’s eye! The campers then went into the woods for a game of Eagle Eye, which Larry fought off all the competition and won. The young campers loved joining the older groups for their BBQ dinner in the evening, and sang louder than anyone during the Camp Suisse yodelling session!
The Greens and Yellows woke up bright and early to get to Glacier 3000. After breakfast the yellows and Greens got on the bus and drove to the foot of Glacier 3000. They took two gondola rides to the top of the Glacier, where snow and cold temperatures met the campers. Luckily, it was a beautiful day and with the sun the temperature gradually warmed throughout the day. The campers enjoyed sledding, husky dog sledding, an exhilarating alpine roller coaster, and a walk between two peaks. It was a wonderful day, capped off with a cookout with the whole of camp at the near-by picnic area. The Yellows are excited for a day of rock-climbing and languages tomorrow!
Mountain bikes and merry-go-rounds
29th July 2019
Today, the Reds and Blues spent the morning in their first language lessons. They met their classmates and started learning their chosen language, mainly educational games that helped engage the children and make them excited for the weeks ahead. In the afternoon, they went to the wonderful Labyrinth Adventure Park, which has a variety of different activities, such as a maze, giant slides, and massive swings. The campers’ overall favourites were the 30ft tall slides, and the many merry-go-rounds. The Reds and Blues played the day away, but were still full of excitement for the casino night this evening!
The Greens made good use of Camp Suisse’s indoor climbing wall today! They spent the morning discovering the different uses of climbing equipment, learning some technique from the experts, and playing games like drawing a tryptic masterpiece, and blindfolded climbing. Their favourite challenge, the Vertical Obstacle Course, was won by Team Luke, with an impressive 14 points, while Sinéad’s Team came close with 11.
The Yellows’ day began with a mountain biking session on the hills above Torgon. The campers got the chance to bike down several mountain bike tracks of varying difficulty, and even show off their skills on the rollers near camp.
After lunch, the Yellows and Greens met their language teachers and had their first classes. The Yellows then got ready to ghyll scramble – an activity involving walking through a crystal-clear stream near camp. Although the water was chilly, the yellows really enjoyed adventuring through the ghyll. The Greens, meanwhile, had a contest to design and construct their own bottle rockets! All the teams worked well together, and every bottle was able to fly. The Yellows and Greens finished the day with dinner and sports, ready for an early day tomorrow at the glacier!
First Day of Session Three!
28th July 2019
This morning, the campers woke up bright and early to prepare for their language quiz! This assessment will help the Camp Suisse language team to assign them to the most appropriate classes for their level of ability. This session, our campers are learning French, English, Spanish and German.
The Reds and Blues enjoyed the rest of their morning by playing games in the Patinoire, while the Greens and Yellows went on their first excursion, to the Aqua Parc! The slides and rides there gave hours of entertainment, and it was a lovely chance for the new campers to make new friends in a more informal setting. The Lazy River was a favourite for the campers, and everyone came home satisfied and happy.
After that they tucked into a hot lunch served in camp. After a hot lunch in camp, the Reds and Blues were full of energy and ready to attack the climbing wall. They spent the whole afternoon there, trying as many routes as they could and taking on different challenges. All the groups were glad of the chance to tuck into dinner at camp, before a relaxed evening of quizzes and sports.
First Day at Camp for the Greens
15th July 2019
The Green Group had an action packed first day at camp! After a language placement quiz in the morning the group headed down the mountain to the nearby town of Aigle to go to Parc Adventure. This high ropes course built into a forest is thrilling and challenging. Campers enjoyed several courses of varying difficulty complete with zip lines and other obstacles. Campers returned to camp for shower hour and dinner. The evening was capped off with a game of capture the flag on the football pitch.
Kat Newcamp, Green Group Leader
Sweet and Snowy
7th July 2019
Today, the Red group had their language classes in the morning, and played games to learn in a fun interactive way. In Margaux’s class, the campers learned the alphabet and days of the week! In the afternoon, the Reds did an art jamming session to Disney songs. Maisy and Violette were dancing the Hula to Moana whilst painting beautiful faces and leaves. The children designed faces in the forest and built bug houses too. It was a very creative and beautiful day!
The Blues were in for a big day today, and after their language lessons and a hearty lunch of paninis, baked potatoes, and hot dogs, they got ready for their afternoon activities. Mountain biking and archery were exactly what the campers needed after a morning of lessons. The balance of learning and adventure is really enjoyable for the children, as there is always something new and exciting to do. After this, a quick shower, a quick call to the parents and a tasty dinner. The Blues were then confronted with a mystery plaguing Camp Suisse! The campers were able to solve it through teamwork and detection skills, and peace reined once again.
It was a sweet day for the Greens, who paid a visit to Cailler Chocolate Factory. The campers were eager to learn all about the origins of chocolate and the chocolate making process, but even more enthusiastic to try as much chocolate as they liked in the tasting room. With a few cases of ‘eyes bigger than our bellies’, a relaxed lunch in the sun was the only way to settle the stomachs, before taking the next stage of the journey to Gruyere Old Town. Don’t worry, moms and dads, there were plenty of bars bought from the Chocolate Shop as ‘presents for my family’, though whether they make it home or not is the question!
Gruyere was the perfect end to the day, allowing campers to explore the picturesque Old Town, and home of the famous Gruyere Cheese. Fondue not being appealing to some of the campers, many chose to sample the delicious crepes Gruyere had on offer.
Meanwhile, weary eyed Yellows woke up for an early 6:30am breakfast on Tuesday. Why’s that? It’s the Glacier 3000 excursion of course!
Yellows started the day by taking two cable cars up to one of the most famous glaciers in Switzerland, the Tsanfleuron. On arrival, they took the Ice Express chairlift to the face of the glacier, where we spent time sledding and sliding on icy white snow. Before the campers got too chilly, they were lucky enough to take a ride with the Husky Dogs around the glacier- what an incredible experience.
In the afternoon, the Yellows took a ride on the world’s highest alpine coaster, before taking a dizzying walk across the world’s highest bridge between the two mountain peaks- a record breaking day!
Reds, Blues, Greens and Yellows – Arrivals Day!
Camp was abuzz today as 120 new campers arrived for their first day of Session 1. Some of them are our fabulous returning campers, who loved Camp so much last year they decided to come back, while others are experiencing Camp Suisse for the very first time. It was lovely to see the children all mixing and starting to make new friends.
Arriving at camp can be an emotional day for everyone, and children of all ages were near tears as they said goodbye to their phones- and their parents, of course. A relaxed day of games ended with the children meeting their groups for the session, and joining together for a delicious dinner. An early night was called for as many of the children had travelled far to reach camp. Everyone went to bed tired but excited for the days ahead.
Glacier & Dracula for the Yellows!
10th August 2018
What. A. Day. Probably the longest day in Camp Suisse of this session.
A very early morning start with breakfast at 6:15 am for the Yellows (and Greens). A total bus drive of 90 minutes to get down from the mountain, across the valley, and up the mountain on the other side to visit Glacier 3000.
Off the bus and three chairlifts later, the campers started with some excellent sledging down the snow slope. The bumps and falls only made this more fun! Then the campers went ‘walking the dogs’ – but these weren’t ordinary dogs, but trained huskies. By the looks of it, it wasn’t really clear whether the campers were walking the huskies, or the other way around. In any case, it was good fun!
Lunch break at 3000m of altitude provided some spectacular views, and so did the walk on the hanging bridge. This was then followed by a ride on the world’s highest alpine coast ride, which created some good excitement and adrenaline rushes.
Once back at camp, shower was followed by dinner, and then the evening activity: Dracula! A treasure hunt in the forrest at night, where the campers were surrounded by vampires and werewolves, and had to use their team building skills to collect the materials to banish Dracula, who had been haunting Torgon. A lot of rain and a few thunderbolts really set the scene. Everybody was exceptionally wet from the rain, but it was completely worth it.
Bart, Group Leader
Greens go to Parc Aventure & Learn Languages!
The morning kicked off with languages, as per usual, but based on the evening activity (see below), a lot of singing in different languages could be heard from the classrooms echoing throughout the tiny town of Torgon.
After languages, the Greens (and Yellows) went to Parc Aventure in the valley. A big park in the forrest where campers can go with zip lines from tree to tree and release their inner swinging monkey. It was good fun and some good flying action throughout.
Back at camp, the evening activity was kicked off by the Blues and Reds’ superb Language Talent Show showcasing their newly learned languages. This was then followed by a good session of karaoke in different languages on behalf the Greens and Yellows. Those morning practices came in handy. German rap, Spanish Latin songs, and some good French and English pop, were the highlights of the evening.
Bart, Group Leader
Un día en el glaciar
9th August 2018
Para el Green Group el día comenzó un poco antes de lo habitual, a las 6:15 de la mañana. Después de un magnífico desayuno y con las pilas recargadas, nuestro grupo se reunió para comprobar que teníamos lo necesario para el día de hoy. Nos dirigimos al autobús, que nos llevaría hasta el glaciar (Glacier 3000). Tras subir hasta la cima en dos teleféricos distintos, jugamos deslizándonos con los trineos por la pista de nieve. Después nos encontramos con los huskies. Dimos un paseo caminando con los perros por el glaciar. Tras la actividad, almorzamos y nos dirigimos hacia el pico más alto del glaciar (a 3000 metros de altura), al cual se llega a través un puente colgante. Una vez terminamos, nos subimos a la montaña rusa, la que se encuentra a mayor altura en toda Europa. Finalizamos la actividad con algunas compras antes de dirigirnos de nuevo hacia el autobús que nos traería de vuelta al campamento.
Maria, lider de grupo
For the green group the day started a little earlier than usual, at 6:15 in the morning. After a breakfast and with recharged batteries, our group met to see if they had what they needed for the day. We went to the bus, which would take us to the glacier (Glacier 3000). After climbing to the top in two different cable cars, wewent sledging on the snow field. After we met the huskies. We took a walk with the dogs on the glacier. After the activity, we have lunch and headed towards the highest peak of the glacier, which is reached by a suspension bridge. Once we finished, we enjoyed the roller coaster, which is the highest in Europe. We ended the activity with some shopping in the gift shop before heading to the bus that would bring us back to the camp.
Maria, group leader
