Day 3

The weather last night was pretty terrible. There was torrential rain for most of the time, and everyone found it hard to sleep. Some people were genuinely concerned that the river would burst its banks – we needn't have worried, it did rise a bit, and the flow increased greatly.

The morning brought the promise of better weather, there were still low clouds lurking, but blue sky was poking through. After breakfast, we prepared for the day's activity – a hike up to Oschenensee. 400 metres up, over a several km walk. By the time we'd reached the base station for the gondola lift (which some lucky leaders went up!) the sun was out, and sun cream was being applied.

The hike up was steep, and we all found it challenging. There was much moaning and grumbling (especially from William and Zoe!) but we all made it. The prospect of being overtaken by a Dutch family with their toddler was too much even for the grumpiest of Scouts! At the top we were greeted with a beautiful panorama, and the air was full of the sound of cows' bells. Sitting in a huge natural bowl was the lake, with a restaurant and cafe next to it. We all had lunch, and watched some maniac Scouts swim in the lake (which is glacial melt water!). It was too much for Ben and Alex, for got their trunks on, charged into the water, only yelp at the cold and then come charging back out!

After lunch we hired some rowing boats and spent a relaxing time rowing around the lake. Well, it was relaxing for a few minutes, until they discovered that you could splash other boats with the oars! A group of Gibaltarian scouts decided to pick on Ellie's boat and start a war. Big mistake. By the time we all came back to shore Ellie's boat was a little damp in places, but the Gibaltarians where extremely upset and drenched. Moral – don't start a war you aren't prepared to finish! :-)

Next we headed for the toboggan run at the top of the gondola lift. This was extremely popular, and we all had loads of goes. It was far longer than any toboggan run in the UK.

Finally we headed back down, this time going down the steep decent beneath the gondola. We staggered back to camp just in time for tea.

We've asked the Scout to contribute their own blogs – so here is the first one, from Darcy:

Darcy's Blog

Hi people in England.

I hope the weathers good there. This is Darcy writing here. Everyone else is busy writing their diary's. Ha I've already done it. In their faces.

We are all really tired but its none stop action. Its just our that we are next to the train track. We are all asleep when VROOOM and train speeding by. But you get use to it. We are in tents that leak. I am in a tent with Ellie. L, Ellie. H and Katie C. The tent to the left of us is full of boys- Will, Sam, Greg and Matthew. The tent in front of us is Zoe and Annabel then the tent next to theirs is Ben and Dean. Then a couple of the adults are in tents to.

The weather here is a bit weird. One minute its Sunny then it turns cold and starts to rain. Our tent decided to leak the last night. But I have the best ever sleeping bag. We had the most tiring day ever. We climbed up a mountain 2x the size of Snowdon. It took us 2 and a half hour to climb up and 45 minutes to get back down. Some lucky people took a cable car. The lake was amazingly beautiful it is so worth the climbing. Tobogganing was amazing you had to sit on it while you are taken up a hill on a conveyor belt thing. You go down at a top speed and zoom round corners. Unfortunately some people don't know the meaning of Excel rate so a couple of times there was a bit of a traffic Jam.

Walking down everyone was counting how many blistered they have or tipping stones out of shoes. But we all were glad we've done it. :) We practical were half dead but what an amazing day.

Everyone is having an amazing time and we all miss our family's so much if my mum is reading this I love you loads and I hope I can get back in contact some time soon. The food is quite nice. The showers are the best thing I have washed in. The shops here a tatty stuff for celebrity prices. But I have found a couple of things I will be buying.

Over and Out from Darcy here in Switzerland at Camp site 25 !!!!!!

(To Ann and Roger Farrant- I will be sending a postcard. Tell Theo to keep out of my room but I love him loads)

Dfarrant

Holmwood Studios