Camp Journal
Red & Blue Groups: Languages & Moving Mountains
22nd July 2021
Bam! and another wondrous day at Camp has whizzed by. The morning was filled with our fabulous campers using their brilliant brains in language classes. On the french side of life Carla, Pierre and Spencer absolutely smashed a wicked rendition of ‘Heads Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ with more energy than Joe Wicks doing ‘PE with Joe’ during the last lockdown. This splendid singing was followed by French vocab, inspired football, which was more nail biting than the England/ Italy football final. Across in the English classes, Victoria, Flavia, Elena, Juan, Maria and Mathilde spoke English more impressively than the Queen and put BBC news to shame on their talent show prep. Equally, the francophone superstars were practising their theatrical masterpiece which is ‘Boucle d’Or et Les Trois Ours’ starring Youssef, Carla and Leo as the Three Bears, Cate and Leah as the narrators, Maisy as Goldilocks, Spencer as Mastermind/ Superstar spur tree and Pierre as the chef, and Will will debut later in the session!
After lunch, the awesome afternoon saw our joyous juniors tackle the ‘Moving Mountains’ activity, showcasing their incredible team work skills. Our incredible day campers Alya, Amal and Ayah fitted in like ducks to water, with their terrific team work. Meanwhile, Mia, Javier and Alice excelled in the land raft challenge.
All in all, another incredible day with our utterly fabulous campers of whom we are all very proud!
– Beatrice Palmer, Group Leader
Green Group: Languages, Archery & Frisbee Golf!
21st July 2021
Our morning commenced with languages lessons, consisting of really fun singing and games for all our keen linguists.
Meanwhile, those who don’t study a language went on an adventurous hike in the sun, playing blind-cone in pairs and scrambling through the river finding flora and fauna and learning to skip stones. Both group leaders and campers agreed it was one of the best spent mornings, and many discoveries and splashes in the sun were had!
In the afternoon, all of us played sports on the football pitch, including archery and frisbee golf. Iñaki was amazing at archery, whilst Ines stunned the crowd with her abilities with the bow and arrow.
Later this evening, there will be an all camper and staff barbecue in the forest. Until tomorrow!
– Megan Carey, Group Leader
Yellow Group: Moving Mountains!
After a good night’s sleep following yesterday’s glacier visit, this morning the Yellow group commenced their day with language classes. In French, they studied the vocabulary for directions and also families! In English they studied cultural differences.
This afternoon, after a tasty hot lunch, we headed to the sunny football pitch. Here we enjoyed an afternoon of ‘Moving Mountains’; a unique and brand new Camp Suisse activity! It involved a series of team building games; Charles and Itziar particularly enjoyed the ‘spiders web’, while Sejal and Samantha especially enjoyed the team building ‘bomb disposal activity’. This evening the campers headed up to the picnic area for a delicious barbecue dinner before an evening of games and sports!
– Hannah Parry, Group Leader
Red & Blue Groups: Glacier Day!
Today the Reds and Blues managed to make it up to Glacier 3000. This exhilarating excursion brought us up to an altitude if 3000m (hence the name)! Campers had an early start this morning to make use of this jam-packed day.
Once we arrived up onto the glacier, we began with husky-sledding. Campers zipped around on a sledge entirely powered by huskies! After this, they got to meet the friendly dogs 1-on-1 and Kate particularly enjoyed the snuggles. We then went sledding ourselves down hills on the snow. After a few crash landings from Bertran and Flavia, and some impressive dexterity from Spencer, we settled down and had a well-deserved lunch. Next on the agenda was the world’s highest alpine coaster! An amazing ride that sent campers thundering down the mountain and having a fun and wild ride! And now, this evening is the famous Camp Suisse barbecue, sure to fill hungry bellies from today’s excitement.
– Sam Kelly, Group Leader
Green Group: Lake Day!
20th July 2021
The sun was shining over Lake Geneva today as the Greens headed down the mountain for an action packed day of water sports. Arriving at Villeneuve Pool at the far eastern end of Lake Geneva, campers relaxed by the pool and dived into the lake to cool off. In the morning, they took to the lake for a fantastic Stand Up Paddleboard masterclass with instructor Yann. Learning the basics, they were soon off on a scenic tour to Chateau de Chillon – followed by a race back to the pontoon to test their skills!
In the afternoon, it was more play and less work with banana boating. Although the lake was perfectly flat, no camper was left hanging on as they went on a whirlwind banana ride around the lake on the high speed powerboat.
After lots of time at the lake, the Greens are looking forward to some chill time, playing some games in the shade of our alpine football pitch – what an awesome day!
– Louis Brown, Group Leader
Yellow Group: Glacier Day
Bright and early this morning, the Yellow Group awoke (a little earlier than usual…) to their second excursion of Session Two – Glacier 3000!
They ambled sleepily to the dining hall, where we had breakfast, grabbed our packed lunches and hopped onto the bus. After a winding bus ride down the mountain, across the Rhone Valley, and up the Diablerets Massif to the glacier, we then boarded the gondola which whisked us up to the top of the glacier.
Our first activity was husky sleigh rides – the Yellows zoomed across the snow, and even got to pet the dogs after! Next, we arrived at the sledding zone- where we all slipped and sledded down the slope until our hearts content! We even had some staff-camper races… in which the campers came out on top!
We then headed up to the Alpine Coaster (Europe’s highest altitude roller-coaster!) – which Lucie and Samantha particularly enjoyed!
It was then time to embark on the exhilarating Peak Walk; a hair-raising walkway that links two mountain peaks, where the views were absolutely stunning. All too soon, it was time to get back on the bus to Camp, where this afternoon we chilled out and played a few games.
Until tomorrow!
– Mary Brown, Group Leader
Red & Blue Groups: Languages, Climbing and More!
Today started of with our marvelous bilingual campers taking the challenge of learning a new language! Some of them even had a 5 minute Irish language lesson as they were so interested in one of our English teachers being able to speak it, what motivated students!
The second half of the day took part in the climbing wall where we had our very own spider man Bertran Pages Barba and Nicolas Guallart García|. We then took on the challenge of 5 a side football where our very own Cristiano Ronaldo as Spencer Beck scored the winning goal for the black team!
Before dinner we ended with a very competitive game of capture the flag where all our Usain Bolts came alive speeding past each other to try and get to the other teams side, to as you guessed it CAPTURE THE FLAG, it’s safe to say they all really like grabbing the win!
Lastly are campers emulated the talents of the world famous drummer Eric Singer of KISS as they drummed to their hearts content at Camps suisee most famous musical event JUNK YARD BAND!
see you all tomorrow for more exciting updates!
– Lauren, Group Leader
Red & Blue Groups: Labyrinth Adventure Park!
19th July 2021
Today the Reds and Blues went to Labyrinth Adventure! This is an exciting theme park, filled with many rides and games. The campers really enjoyed being able to go off on their own and explore it. There was something for everyone including a 10m high slide, which Maria particularly enjoyed! Spencer also enjoyed the rocking Pirate Ship, that thrilled many of our campers.
Of course, there was also the main attraction – the labyrinth itself! A twisting, confusing maze that required great path finding to navigate. Raya, Lucretia and Kate managed it, however, and made it safely out to the other side! Everyone also enjoyed the beautiful sun which made sunbathing also a popular activity. All in all, a great day was had by all and we all enjoyed the Labyrinth Adventure Park!
– Sam Kelly, Group Leader
Green & Yellow Groups: Language Learning & Sports Tournament!
With the morning sun shining bright over the Camp Suisse centre in Torgon, the senior campers began their day with the first class of language lessons of the session. Unlike the typical school setup, the spectacular views of the soaring Swiss mountains provided the backdrop for their outdoor classroom as the students learned about all things related to the international cultures of their classmates through the target language. In the advanced English class, each student shared facts regarding their families, interests and future plans and found out that they had more in common with each other than had initially anticipated. The campers made their way back from the outdoor classroom to the centre in time to enjoy a delicious warm lunch of hot dogs and salad cooked fresh from the kitchen.
After lunch the greens and yellows trekked to the football pitch for a sports tournament with a twist! Eight teams led by the group leaders battled it out with three-legged football, tennis-baseball, ultimate frisbee, and hockey. Greta gave her all on the footy pitch, while Hannah P excelled in in the ultimate frisbee. We witnessed thunderous smacks of the ball on the rounders bat, particularly when Mohammed stepped up to the mark. Nico was a real team player, keeping his team spirits up during hockey. Pablo and Vasily kept good rhythm during three-legged football and hobbled to victory for Suus’ team. It was Joan’s team who ultimately clinched victory in an epic moo-off.
The campers await an evening of rhythm and rhyme in one of the most popular evening activities- Junkyard Band! And an early wake-up tomorrow for the Glacier…
Hugh Duffy & Aisling Vaughan-Witts, Group Leaders
Red & Blue Groups: Languages & Archery
18th July 2021
Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour bonjour to the first dreamy day of session Two. Camp suisse was buzzing with energy as our fabulous new campers and equally fabulous veteran campers jumped out of bed ready for a fun filled day of games and being real life robin hoods in archery!
The marvellous morning involved our lingua-star campers flaunting and strutting their stuff in the language tests! They really put the bon in jour and the guten in tag! I think Maisy, Kate and Leah may have been speaking French in their sleep!
Lunch saw the campers enjoy some phenomenal hot dogs followed by the delicious delicacies of the Camp Suisse tuck shop.
After lunch, our fabulous campers strutted their stuff to the football pitch before become real life Robin Hoods and Little Johns as they put the bulls in eye. Awesome Ari and splendid Spencer really embodied the true heart and soul of Robin hood as they made archery look as easy peasy as a lemon squeezy, whilst Leo made frisbee golf an Olympic sport and Mia, Juan, Javier and Youssef smashed splat out of the park. Meanwhile, Mathilde, Maria and Nicolas made such an amazing effort at speaking English today and smashed It!
Very proud of our fabulous campers again today and very excited for session with these absolute iconic Legends !!!!
– Beatrice Palmer, Group Leader
