REALLY long entry!

Friday 13th August, one of my favourite days and dates!  J-W came home from work, and got into his scout uniform about 17:45.  He did not get out of it until about 15:00 the next day.  I wore my hi-vis jacket on the coach, and changed later.

We got the coach to meet us at Cranleigh. We had the same pair of drivers as last time, Mark and Steve.  Cranleigh and Shere & Peaslake were also on the coach.

We had to drive up through Shalford on the way up to the M25, which was playing at being a car wash, as it rained quite hard.  Saw one crashed car on the other side of the road.

The coach drove onto the boat at Dover.  Meet up with some Guides and some Cornish Scouts,  I think J-W had meet one of the leaders at the WSJ.

For some reason J-W played with the hands on his watch.

Did not think J-W should have eaten the sandwich he bought at 04:00, as the first ingredent was pain, and I did not understand what the other bits were.

This coach is a bit smaller that the last one, so it made it up the mountains in Switzerland.  Some of the mountains seem to have Icing sugar mines on their tops.

Started to rain just as J-W got the tent together.  It rained quite a bit on camp, mainly at night, so I rode around in J-W's pockets all the time, as some of the mud was as tall as me!

This guy with a Scottish accent was walking past and asked J-W if I was around.  This was Scotland / Stuart from the Gojamboree.org.uk forum.  He was in Kandersteg with his english unit.  We got together a couple of times.

Later in the week one of the older scout leaders, found that his old scout leader was also at Kandersteg.

We were right at the back of the main site, in the shade and half way up the slope, near the cliff.  I think this was because of the smelly socks the leaders were wearing when we got off the coach.

Day 1, we teamed up with the Cranliegh Scouts and went to see a waterfall.  The one Merrow scout with us, came along and slipped over in a river crossing, as J-W was half way through a warning about the concrete being slimy.  We then went down into the village, and some of the scouts went swimming.

We went back and helped serve tea.  We helped out in the kitchen at most meal times.

Day2, was worried as J-W, and Pauline and loads of the scouts were in uniform, so I thought we were going home!  Instead Mark and Steve took us (via a long low route due to rain) to the Chocolate and Cheese Factories.  I tried to get into one of the chocolate machines.  Some of the scouts did not get the idea that any choc's theypicked up had to be eaten in the serving room.  One or two went a bit green eating a whole handfull of different chocolates, it was great.

The coloured cow was still at the cheese factor.  The merrow scout had to go back 7 times for a new info phone, so he and J-W were last out of the desplay area.

At lunch J-W was talking to a family from Isreal.  No one was sick on the coach this time.

Day 3.

Off with St Savours and S&P to go rafting.  I stayed in the bag looking after the camera, as the river looked a bit cold.  Good sleep in the mini-bus.   J-W was on the tail-end raft.  Had fun breaking out of a rapid into still water to stay behind another raft which hung up on a rock.  Joe from S&P had to pulled out of the river when they were swimming at the end.

Day 4.

Off with St.S and Cranleigh to some funny coloured lake after going in a cable car thingy.  This has replaced the chair lift, boring now.  Rain stopped play on the tobbogan run.  Got most of the scouts to wash in the lake.  We walked back down, and J-W went down the hill onhisbottom a couple of times.  I think he wanted a go on the tobbogans.

Day 5.

Fun today, we went into the next valley and did Scooterland.  Took S&P and Cranleigh.  Not sure if we should have taken the scouts as  seemed to spend more time chashing than riding.  You could do a lot of different routes, including one on a gravel track with a stream down it. This got J-W wet.  I rode in J-W's knee pocket in his scout trousers.  Had to dodge a calf which was standing in the shadows under some trees on a bend.  J-W and another first aider got their gloves out.  We even got an ambalance for one of the scouts, so our guy who can drive uk ones , got to go for a free ride.  I liked the bruisers the leader got when he stopped the hard way in a cattle grid.  Was sunny for most of the day today, it has been cool and cloudy most of the time, which is J-W's thought for taking a full container of suncream.

Day 6.

Got J-W to go on a little walk with three explorers and a leader up the Gemmi pass.  The sun came out, and so did the rain again!  We dragged the explorers upto 2350m.  J-W said we got down to 1850 after going from 1200 at the bottom of the cable car.  Not sure if it is a car as I could not see any wheels.  The cows, goats and sheep were playing the same music as last time we were up here.  It is a really long way down from the Gemmi cable car station to the village below.  The icing sugar mines are much lower up at the station.

Day 7.

Today was the first day with no clouds when we got up, which was good as we spent the morning breaking camp and then spent the rest of the day on the coach.  We got off in france somewhere and it was about 30 degrees.  I found it a bit hot, so went to sleep on the coach, when not doing air guitar.  We got off the coach at 7am on Sunday.  The scouts were starting to smell a bit.

Nine nights away, so 117 nights away now.