Breakfast check in at 7:15am in the dining hall at school.
Depart with 44 bleary eyed 9th graders and 5 chaperones in one big bus at 8am.
group split for day:
James and I plus 22 kids get off at 9am in Bellinzona for a tour of 2 of the 3 castles there. The kids are more interested in the "toilets" and the sewage drain than anything else. What else can you expect from 14 year olds!
Our guide takes us into the town for a brief tour and some free time to wander, get a hot chocolate etc. It's freezing so I opt to buy a pair gloves.
12:30pm we meet up with our bus driver and head to the Locarno area where we will be spending the afternoon Rock Climbing.
The groups switch over, we eat our bag lunches from school and then head off with professional climber Pesche and our very own Paul Greenwood. With our group in two subsections I landed the all girls group with the professional rock climber which I certainly can't complain about. Especially since I discovered later that James actually was dropped!
Rock climbing shoes, harnesses and helmets were provided for us and we were given a basics in gripping and walking up rock face. After that intro we moved on to basic belaying and practiced in groups of three: having 1 person climb up and 2 belay.
We were then able to move around the area where ropes allowed, and climb up and absail down. We had a great time and were suitably worn out by the time 4:30pm came around.
After a busy day we headed north towards the German speaking part of Switzerland where the hotels where located. Along the way dinner was in an autogrill - not exactly gourmet, but then we are used to that!
The boys' hotel turned out to be a backpackers hostel (I'm so glad I was with the girls!!!) in the town of Schwyz. We were more remotely located near Muotatal in a very typically swiss looking Auberg. The real drama came when we arrived at 10:30pm and found ourselves short 2 beds. When you're dealing with wealthy families this is not a good thing. After some crying and carrying on, and a couple of uncomfortable conversations with the father of an upset girl, we managed to get everyone settled and ready for bed. Showers ended up being cold for whatever reason, but by that point it really didn't matter and falling into bed was all we wanted to do.
Day one, over and out at just about midnight...
1 comment:
how exciting this all is - especially that you are able to do all these activities which require equipment and such and it's all part of the package - so great!
love nass
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