Kandersteg 2026 - Travelling again
It has been a while since I have written a blog entry and
today feels like the perfect day to be writing again. The last week has seen me
in Switzerland with a school Scout trip, we arrived expecting mountains,
activities and adventure. We left talking mostly about the people we had met
This is our Explorer scout group that is part of our school
so the trip has a kind of dual personality to it, both with it’s own rules to
follow, but as the trip is only open to the scouts in our school it is really a
scouting trip.
The week has seen us set off from home on a very Saturday
morning. The tail end of a heat wave across Europe meant travelling in air
conditioned vehicles was absolutely bearable. The journey is a 650 miles trip
through France into Switzerland. Really straight forward and easily completes
in a day. Eurotunnel had other plans and a 2.5 hour delay on our outbound
journey was an unwelcome start to the journey. The rest of the drive was
largely uneventful. Miles and miles of countryside, wind turbines and simple
landscapes makes for an easy drive. We had 2 vehicles allowing the van with
tents to lead off ahead with the goal of putting up tents before the minibus
with the kids turn up. A simple plan and without the delay would have given meant
a 7pm arrival and plenty of daylight to get the camp setup. Arriving at sundown
was far more of a challenge and with the weather predicting storms overnight
meant for something of a race against time.
Still the bus arrived a little after midnight and the rest
of the party got settled in really quickly into their tents and down for a good
night sleep.
Sunday was a slow start which was a welcome start to the
week. Mess tent, food shop and finishing setting up our camp meant that we had
our home for the week.
Monday:
Our first high octane day, White water rafting and high
ropes. Not the earliest of starts for us but a prompt morning routine which
everyone just got on with meant we arrived at the centre early and ready for
the adventure. White water rafting is a brilliant mix of adventure, pushing you
to the limit and also enjoying the scenery in the quiet parts of the river. The
water was really moving and with an unexpected man over board very early on, it
looked like we were going to be in for something of a white-knuckle ride. Our
instructors were brilliant and whilst we bounced off rocks and paddled forward,
back, got in, we all made it down without another incident. The water was cold
which was a great contrast to the heat of the day and the jump into the lake at
the end of the run where the water was clearer and warmer finished off the
activity beautifully.
The evening was the first opportunity to really meet others
on camp. The Centre hosts an international BBQ together with dancing and music.
Always a popular evening and a chance to swap badges, neckers and just get to
know other people. Our hosts, the pinkies, played a great collection of music
to get everyone dancing and Katie, a pinkie from Scotland, together with the
help of some guides from Scotland, taught everyone the Ceilidh dance. It was a
brilliant night, even if some mad fool kept shouting, 1 more song, yes you are
right that mad fool was me. The weather was against us with some drizzle but
the kids were having such an amazing time and the pinkies managed to squeeze 2
more songs well after the intended end. A little positive peer pressure can
work wonders, with lots of our explorers coming back with numerous neckers that
they had swapped, and stories of people that they have met. More about these
later.
Tuesday – a quieter day with an outing to a Swiss Castle and
lunch in the town. A little retail
therapy but the weather was hot and humid. Lots of locals were clearly enjoying
the river running through Thun by jumping off the cities bridges and into the
river for a swim. Thun is a really beautiful city with an interesting castle
that is in great condition despite being over 600 years old. As it was still in
use until fairly recently it was in really good condition.
The relaxing pace of the day gave us the perfect chance to recuperate
after the Monday activities.
Flamboree campfire in the evening.
This is the second one I have hosted at KISC but with bad
weather we took it into one of the shelters. Totally unsure if anyone else
would come and join in, but with a large banner and a note written on the Whatson
board we had a number of drop-ins from various groups over the course of the
evening. A mixture of singing, story telling, badge swapping, camp blanket
sharing and of course s’mores meant more and more people kept coming by.
There was also a little bit of gentle persuasion going on as
some people were a little too nervous to stop by and singing but with the
promise of a Flamboree badge they were soon joining in.
Another great night with our Explorers exchanging socials
with others from all over the world!
Wednesday – the change to the plan. The weather was planned
to be horrendous with showers all day in Kandersteg so we made the decision on
Tuesday to swap out an 8km hike to Blausee, a beautiful lake but an area with
no really covered space would have been a fairly miserable day. I don’t know
why but were the weather plays against us and we have to make a dramatic change
to the plan it ends up coming up out
really well.
Maison Cailler, the chocolatier now part of the Nestle business has a factory fairly nearby, a 90 minute drive. The chocolate factory has a really good tour about he history of the Cailler chocolate brand and also a really interactive working part of the tour where you see the process and most importantly a chance to sample the different chocolates. This was a real hit led to the gift shop being hit quite hard.
The afternoon took us into a Bern City for another taste of Switzerland
and what a beautiful city and a chance stumbling on parking meant we are in the
heart of the city and a couple of hours to wander around the city. A chance
find of a scout shop and then of to look at some of the statues, amazing
streets and architecture kept everyone looking around and really wanting more.
This was where probably one of the strangest moments ever happened outside the
Cathedral. Someone walked up to me and said “you’re Andy Cooper”. Which is a very
true statement but I am hardly a celebrity. Turned out to be a parent of a
student I taught more than 5 years ago and a fellow scout leader too. His son
now an A & E doctor was there and it was great to catch up with the family
too.
Back at the centre, and another dinner cooked and arranged
by the scouts led us perfectly to the Swiss culture night. The locals from the
village come along and either do a dance, horn blowing or some other cultural
thing. The week was Swiss dancing with a
live band of musicians playing accordions and a double bass.
A brilliant night filled with more meeting of other scouts
from other countries, more swaps and more people going away with a Minerva
clothes pegged attached to them!
Thursday – Oeschinnesee
The evening saw the adults having a dinner takeover, cooking
a feast of a BBQ on an open fire, giving the scouts a break but also some
inspiration to try and do something on fire isn’t quite as daunting as it might
seem.
The post food activity was the light trail hosted by the
Pinkies. This is a reflective walk around the centres immediate area with some
reflections about us. Some pointed questions and readings, whilst being split
into different groups meant a chance to ask questions, share something about
ourselves and also meet some new friends.
What struck me most wasn't the activity itself but the
conversations afterwards. We ended up chatting with a newly arrived Canadian
group who, despite still trying to set up their site, immediately invited us
over. Within minutes we were swapping stories about Scouting, where we'd
travelled from and what had brought us to Kandersteg. One of the things I love
most about this place is how quickly strangers become friends.
Friday – Service project and International Campfire.
It is always good to give back especially to a place like Kandersteg. Each year we do a service project. The last 2 years were based around the wood stores but this was a chance to clear the area and paths around the chapel. The Chapel is an outdoor space used for quiet reflections and open to everyone of any and all faiths and for those with no faith either. It was overgrown from the spring and needed weeding and clearing. The team were brilliant at it, they got straight on and worked like troopers to get the place completely clear and ready for the summer. We finished early as the kids were on it from the start and our pinkie guide was really impressed with their work ethic.
A quiet afternoon walk into town to get souvenirs and then
the international campfire in the evening. This is always the highlight of the
week. The photos I took of the before and during hardly look real, with the
mountains and all of the scouts facing the stage. We like to get involved and
volunteered to run a couple of songs/skits. Cecil seems to be our signature
piece and then I was going to do the Mango song a little later in the evening.
Well, Cecil went down a storm with the crowd, even with Lili
almost taking out a Pinkie who had a hard hat on the second time she came
round. It was brilliant and funny. Something I love are the impromptu little
infills that various groups do between songs. Mostly in a Scandinavian language
so you end up listening in awe. So I thought it only fair to join in with a
Duck check! I’ll explain that particular piece of madness later. The stories
and songs performed by other groups make for a really memorable evening.
Then the evening took a bit of left turn. Mango was due
after one of the staff, who ended up doing a skit about hating bugs which was
so similar to the Mango song I had to improvise! Joe’s button factory didn’t
let me down and the whole crowd were soon pushing buttons with all manner of
parts of the body before the finale of the evening with the pinkies performing
if I were not in Kandersteg.
A Russian scout leader I'd met earlier in the week came and
found me after the campfire. Five minutes later I somehow found myself walking
across camp to join an Israeli group celebrating Shabbat. It wasn't something
I'd ever experienced before, but that seems to be Kandersteg in a nutshell. One
conversation leads to another, one introduction becomes three more and suddenly
you find yourself learning about a completely different culture from people who
only a few days ago were complete strangers.
Saturday - Our last full day on camp.
The conditions were perfect for a couple of hours of
adrenaline fuelled sliding and going down as a connected group meant it felt
even crazier but so much fun.
World Scouting – a dive into the history of scouting and
KISC.
This was a new activity that we hadn’t done before looking
at the history of both scouting and also the Permanent jamboree site of
Kandersteg itself. What a really interesting session that our explorers got so
much out of.
Pizza dinner
Our final dinner in Kandersteg was in the local Pizzeria a
chance to let everyone have a break from cooking and enjoy a meal out together.
Final Campfire
When we got back to our pitch we put on a small campfire to
use up the wood we had left over and the scouts went out and brought some of
their newly made friends for some s’mores and games around the fire. Our
friends were from Canada, USA, Norway and Sweden and leading a couple of silly
games, This is a tick, These sticks are crossed, as well as a couple of simple
songs were a great way to spend the final evening. I led a little moment of
reflection about meeting people and how we all experience the world slightly
differently. With 8 billion people in the world we all have a different
experience and meet different people and during our journeys and travels it is
the people we meet that we learn the most from. The things we like, the bits we
don’t and how we can be mindful of these and learn from them both and end up
being the person we’d like to meet on our travels!
Ducks!
Now for the ducks. I previously mentioned these but haven’t
really explained about them. Ellie, decided that we all needed a rubber duck at
the start of the week and that we had to look after them and keep them on us in
case of a random ‘Duck check’ throughout the week. Whilst this started off as a
bit of fun it almost became our signature battle cry during the week, including
during the International campfire. Unsurprisingly the ducks weren’t collected
back in at the end of the week as they had become emotionally attached to their
owners!
Pegs
The Pegs are another trademark of travelling scouts. I
picked up about 600 wooden clothes pegs that were rationed out to the scouts.
They then write a message on them and go around clipping them onto unsuspecting
people. There was a leader board for this but as you can imagine this got
rapidly out of hand!
Swaps
Badge swaps and necker swaps are another really important
thing to get involved in whenever scouting with others from other countries as
these are an amazing source of unusual items but more importantly meeting
others. A chance to practice a language with another group, a chance to share
some time with other people too. Building into our experience and worlds, these
swaps form a simple but tangible way to interact with other people. Some people
even attempt to play higher value on these and have a bit of a bartering trade-off
going on. The badges and neckers are nice keepsakes, but like most things in
Scouting, they're really just an excuse to start a conversation
Final Reflection.
Kandersteg is often described as a permanent World Scout
Jamboree, and after another week here I completely understand why. The
mountains are stunning, the activities are exciting and the setting is unlike
anywhere else, but it is the people who make it special.
In a world that can sometimes feel increasingly divided,
spending a week being reminded how much we have in common with people from
every corner of the globe feels more important than ever.
Kandersteg isn't really about rafting, castles or
mountain tubing. It's about people. Long after the ducks disappear, the pegs
are taken off and the swapped neckers are packed away, the people and
conversations are what remain.
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