Camp Journal
Day Three – Greens and Yellows
7th July 2015
Today our campers had a fantastic time exploring two drastically different environments in Switzerland! First, the campers took a gondola and a ski lift to the top of a glacier where they spent the morning sledding with huskies! Then they sped down the highest rollercoaster in the Alps before eating a picnic lunch whilst looking out over the incredible skyline. After a morning in the snow they headed down the mountain and cooled off at the pool.The campers had a blast jumping from the seven meter diving board and swimming in Lake Geneva! After relaxing by the pool we headed back to CampSuisse for dinner and a movie night- complete with delicious hot chocolate served in adorable cow mugs!
Day Three – Reds and Blues
After breakfast the red and blue groups began their long hike to our Alpine outpost camp site! With lovely weather and plenty of songs and games everyone enjoyed the walk and after a long break for lunch we arrived at base at around 2pm! The kids were then shown their rooms for the night and given a little time to relax and re-energize! Lucas and Victoria enjoyed some table football whilst Carine taught the group some fantastic card games! A few biscuits later and the group leaders were ready to take half the group on another hike to the French border, how exciting! Danil and Daria were especially excited and couldn’t wait to have one foot in France and the other in Switzerland, talk about being in two places at once!
After a busy day of walking everyone was ready for the delicious BBQ! They ended the fantastic day with camp fire songs, roasted marshmallows and a very loud rendition of black socks!
Aleks, our photographer, gave Lulu a master-class today on how to use his camera and she took the amazing photo below of Oran and Tyler! What a talent!
Day Two – Reds and Blues
6th July 2015
Another super sunny day here in Torgon saw the Red and the Blues tackle Archery and The Climbing Wall. To the great pleasure of our group leaders and activity staff, everybody in the groups made it at least half way up the climbing wall with no challenge!
After a stunning performance on the Climbing wall, low and behold the Reds and Blues were equally awesome at Archery. Twanging bow after bow, the campers improved rapidly and Shiv scored an astonishing bulls eye after only a few go’s!
following a tasty lasagne dinner, everyone at camp sang Happy Birthday to Tyler and he blew out all his candles first time on a chocolate soy cake loving prepared by our chefs.
Day Two – Greens and Yellows
After our sleepy campers had a tasty breakfast, we headed to the climbing wall with the activity leaders, Tom, Brodie and Sam for a fun morning of rock climbing. Although everyone was still tired after a busy Sunday, the campers soon woke up after playing the “shark game”. All the campers had really good fun climbing – even those who were afraid of heights faced their fear. The record for the fastest climb was established at twelve seconds! We then headed out to the football pitch under the hot Swiss sun for our second morning activity: Archery! Needless to mention all the campers felt like Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games with their bows and arrows, and everyone managed to hit at least the target area.
It was then time to head back to camp for a well-deserved lunch. After a quick chillout, the campers went to their first language lesson – either French, German, Spanish or English. They met their teachers for the first time. Vocabulary, grammar, conjugation were all taught by fun games such as Twister, Jenga, Heads Up, or other creative games prepared by the teachers. After two lessons, which each were an hour and a half long, it was time to shower, call the parents, play ping pong or buy some fizzy drinks from the Kiddy’s Bar.
Our dinner was an Italian classic tonight: lasagna, garlic bread and a large range of salads, and we went out in style with an Eton Mess. Our campers then enjoyed an evening of various sports – football, ultimate Frisbee, volleyball – before heading to bed after another busy but amazing day.
Day One – Groups Red and Blue
5th July 2015
Another beautiful sunny day was kicked off with some short language assessments in order to sort our Red and Blue campers into their language classes!
After rattling those brainy heads, the campers boarded the Camp Suisse Express coach and headed down to Lake Geneva to try their hands at Banana Boating!
After a whole morning of whizzing across the lake, laughing and screaming (especially from Quinn and Danil), the campers were ready for a chill down, so they spent a couple of hours swimming and relaxing by the waterside.
After dinner, for evening entertainment our Red and Blue campers took to the microphones for Karaoke night! And so last night the whole of the Torgon Valley was treated to Red group’s rendition of Mama Mia by ABBA.
Day One – Groups Green and Yellow
The sun shone brightly on the first full day at camp. After a hearty breakfast, we met the activity leaders Rosie, Brodie, Ed, Sam and Emma, who led the campers on a series of activities in the forest around the centre. Using compasses, maps and paces, the enthusiastic campers roamed the football pitch looking for clues, which led to them assembling a tent. With a few mistakes along the way, all groups managed to work as a team to successfully erect their tent. Next, learning the proper way to gather wood and build a proper campfire – skills that will no doubt come in handy next week at camping! Thirdly, using the forest’s natural resources to build a shelter – some amazing creative efforts here, with walls, roofs, seats, doors, flowers – we were quite tempted to leave them there to sleep!
It was then time to head back to camp to fuel up for the afternoon on sandwiches, salads, jacket potatoes and hotdogs. After a quick visit for some to the tuck shop, we headed out again to continue developing our survival skills. The campers learned how to use a portable camping stove, boiling up some water in double quick time. Then, time to hang hammocks, which some also managed to complete in double quick time in order to enjoy some deserved relaxation! The final activity of the day involved learning how to clean water from the river to make it safe to drink, which some campers tasted (pretty safe in Switzerland luckily!). To finish, the campers braved a slack line across the river, also taking the opportunity to splash their group leaders!
5.30 means only one thing at Camp Suisse – shower hour time, when campers can use their phones and clean up before dinner. Gnocchi, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Ice Cream – with all well fed and watered, it was time for the language test (/assessment/moderation/game!). Tomorrow students will start their language classes, so all students will be allocated appropriately according to their level. There was still time for some chillout, ping pong and an epic game of Pictionary before tired campers headed to bed, excited for archery and climbing in the morning.
The day we’ve all been waiting for!
4th July 2015
A huge warm welcome awaited our new arrivals for session one today! An Independence Day themed Arrivals Day saw the Camp Suisse centre trimmed up in red white and blue and an American style dinner served to our new recruits in the evening.
The Camp Suisse airport team were meeting and greeting all day at Geneva Airport and shuttling campers up to Torgon where they would be checked in, roomed and grouped! Friendships were forged as early as the bus up from the airport and there was a lively buzz around the camp!
It was our pleasure to show those parents that dropped their youngsters off around the Camp Suisse centre and facilities.
Our new photographer snapped away to capture an image of each camper in their brand new polo shirts. Looks like he had some help too….
St Ivo Day Four – Coach One!
2nd July 2015
St. Ivo Day 4!
Coach 1.
After a fantastic night of camp fire songs and toasting marsh mallows, coach 1 made their way down the mountain to Camp HQ. After a quick stop off for some home comforts they were whisked away to the Aqua Parc. Here they spent the afternoon chilling on the ‘Lazy River’, being thrown around in the wave pool and shooting down the slides on rubber rings!
After a tasty dinner of burritos coach one took part in some evening sports games, before bunking down for an early night in preparation for their sunrise breakfast just before heading back up the mountain to the Glacier at a swirling 3000m altitude!
St Ivo Day Four – Coach Three!
Coach 3 had an action packed day in Torgon! Group 1 were up first thing to tackle the Mountain bike trails with Conor, Brodie and Rich!
Some serious talent was shown by Alex in the jumps, whilst Nathan suffered a serious case of helmet hair. The whole group inevitably progressed to mastering the trails and lots of fun was had!
During this time group 2 were firing arrows on the football pitch and working on their archery skills. Pizzas were made and burnt during the ‘archery pizza game’.
Next up was the climbing wall where Hallie, Casey and Shauna won the accolade of ‘Wall Queens’.
St Ivo Day Four – Coach Two!
Up bright and early for their trip to The Glacier 3000, coach two had quiet and snoozy drive up the mountain to the be greeted by a rabble of very excited and very friendly huskies!
Whilst having a play about in the snow, it was clear no one had ever experienced snow on July 1st! Wrapping up the glacier with the Alpine Roller coaster, coach 2 headed back down to Lake Geneva where they spent the rest of their afternoon soaking up some rays at Villeneuve pool. A welcome break after an early start, it was clear that nobody wanted to leave!
After their burritos coach 2 had a well deserved chill out movie night with some hot chocolate.
