GLSE Austria 2010 Expedition

Signing Out!

2010-08-07T10:41:00.004+01:00

As we pack our bags and bid farewell to beautiful Austria I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that's made this amazing trip happen:

Carol and the Team, the Village Leaders, the Group Leaders, Jeka, the drivers, parents ...... and you all!

Wishing everyone a safe journey home!

Auf Wiedersehen!
Sarah x

Wow, it's Friday already!

2010-08-06T14:41:00.019+01:00

So here we are, drawing towards the end of this amazing trip, trying to ensure we enjoy every minute as our last day whizzes by!

Last night's Silent Disco at the castle was amazing, many thanks to Lewis for taking a slow drive out here in a van to bring out the headphones & kit. This was our 2nd event for the whole contingent to get together as one group & again it was fantastic seeing the sheer number of young people we have here! We held this in the most amazing medieval room, it was brilliant watching the young people's faces as they came inside - I am certain they will tell you about this event! We had stage two of the DJ competition, congratulations to our winner Luke Shelley! Well done also to all the finalists and thanks to everyone for making this a success, we've got some real talent out there. We also had a non-headphone disco in the same room, with 'cheesy music' dancing & vocals led by the Stanzach Village Leaders on the stage so we all had three choices of music (two channels on the headphones & one with them switched off). Imagine one room with people dancing & singing along loudly without hearing themselves to one of three different types of music, hilarious. If anyone's interested in booking a Silent Disco party back at home take a look at www.silentdiscolondon.co.uk & contact Lewis or Chas.

A daily update on the weather: today has been quite surreal as we've had different weather depending on where groups were & what activity they were doing - we've had participants experience sun (hmm, not much), rain (no surprises there!) and snow (yay!). The groups who had their cable car thrill today were met by 3 inches of snow at the summit, -3 temperature & a blizzard! Needless to say, the group posed for a couple of quick photo's then dashed back inside for hot chocolate!

The Austria fleeces are proving perfect to snuggle in so everyone's still happy. I've had some enquiries as to whether more fleeces will be available to purchase when we get home - the answer of course is a potential yes, but this will be on the condition that we get a minimum order of 50 and also if someone contacts me or Carol to offer themselves as a volunteer to co-ordinate orders. We are so grateful for the assistance we had prior to the trip from Carol's sister organising the merchandise, but going forward we need a new person to fill this role so please get in touch if you are able to help.

The last groups visited the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle today and will no doubt return to you with tales of culture! Make sure you've all got your Chitty DVD's to hand, this could be a nice choice for the much-needed (and inevitable) Sunday afternoon chilling/snoozing!

Today's activity of 3hrs cycling/3hrs swimming may have had the participants competing so see which activity got them most wet - but the waterproofs will have have been put to good use again and they would've seen the pretty Heidi chalets along the valley. Fortunately this group stayed on track and didn't get lost... :-) you know who you are guys, you had us worried the other day! I wish I'd done this activity, it looks perfect as a fresh-air hit!

The Community Project this morning had the young people walking from Forchach across the hanging bridge down to the flood plains. The groups played several games in the rain and one of the female Explorers found an antler from a roe deer. In the afternoon the next group walked from Stanzach to Verderhornbach and back again trying to collect rubbish but without much success - we can only aspire to the Austrian culture, they just don't have grafitti or rubbish in the streets. the morning finished with more games and an educational talk about the river and the local areas of Flora and Fauna.

This project draws to a close for us today so Gwyn & Stuart presented a plaque to the Nature Park Tyrol Lech staff to ensure the British Scouts are remembered for our important contribution. We have made an amazing difference to the long term environmental/conservation project in the area and estimate we have given over 400 man hours which has been greatly appreciated and everyone should be really proud!

I'm off to pack now so will wish you all goodnight!

Sarah

Adventure continues through the rain...

2010-08-05T18:03:00.015+01:00

Fact: the Austria scenery is lush.
Reason: Plentiful rain(!)

Rain, rain & more rain today - I think we may have had our quota of sun now, hey ho. Earlier in the week we had the sunshine and I doubt anyone would disagree that the mountains still look spectacular in the mist.

Last night's Tyrolean evening was very entertaining - in a curious way?! We were treated to a traditional show of Austrian dances, lederhosen, yodelling and thigh slapping.

Well done to our adults who joined in with the dancing on stage, they were all great sports! One of Stanzach's Village Leaders, Danny, then led the singing with a willing Jeka Rep on stage. The finale must've had our Risk Manager, Alan, on his feet: four axe-wielding Austrians chopping and sawing a tree trunk with the Cubs and Scouts in the front rows excitedly catching pieces of wood as they pinged off! I struggle to find words here.... 'incredible' seems appropriate :-)

Today's Community Project returned to the flood plains to clear rubbish to protect the local environment and wildlife. As a bonus the young people were encouraged to go up to the top of the observation tower, where they could see amazing views of the whole of the Nature Park. Although this project has been referred to as Community Service by some of our keen teenagers(!), this has been so well appreciated by the local volunteers and it is fantastic that our young people have given a little back to the local Austrian Community.

Having fun in new and unique ways is what this trip is all about. Today some of our young people were treated to a 2 mile down hill alpine coaster ride. What's that? I hear you say. Well imagine the Barclays advert with the giant slide. It's similar to that but a real life massive version down the side of the mountain in small kart! A truely unique and fun way to see the Austrian scenery.

Thank you for all of your kind wishes and comments, we are are passing these round to all the houses daily!

Sarah

Wednesday already???

2010-08-04T17:14:00.010+01:00

We're half-way through the week already, can you believe it?! Time's whizzing!

It’s been lovely weather today, the sun has returned, yay! Another two day hike set off this morning so it’s fantastic for them that it wasn't too hot and the clouds have lifted so they will see the beautiful views as enjoyed by the first group earlier in the week.

Last night’s Silent Disco in Stanzach village was very popular. It was hosted in Bergland House (known now as Burgerland throughout the village but, shhhh, don’t tell them) :-) and participants from Groeninghe House and Verriest House took a walk up the hill to Bergland for a couple of hours of dancing, singing & looking cool in wireless headphones. The DJ’s who provided the music for one of the two channels for the headphones were fantastic, well done guys! Also big thanks to Lewis for bringing the Silent Disco kit out to Austria and organising these discos in each village, they are a real hit.

Some groups sampled white water rafting today, with different options according to age. Everyone’s feedback has been so positive about this and you’ll have seen other great comments on previous days’ blog posts. I think everyone would happily have another go at this if time/money permitted! This activity is a popular choice and really exciting so we imagine you’re going to hear plenty of good stories about their experiences.

Today's community project was in two groups at different locations. After a couple of introductory/icebreaker games, the first project had our young people crossing a freshwater stream and walking along a water-logged path which had over-the boot water in places. They were cutting down invasive willow saplings growing on the flood plains which were stopping the rare dwarf bullrushes from growing. The other project had young people cutting out non-native reeds from another flood plain leaving the smaller reeds. We were given special thanks for the significant difference this has made. It will give the Tyroler Lech Naturpark a great start to one of their many conservation/ecological projects.

The Zugspitze (highest cable car in Germany) was chosen by lots of people as an activity - and what amazing views they saw. If your young people bring great photo's home please remind them to contact us as we want copies for our Austria presentation at the GLSE AGM.

So fear not, everyone may be pushing their energy levels but an amazing time is being had - we can always sleep on the journey home!

Sarah

The Amazing Adventure Continues....!

2010-08-03T18:38:00.003+01:00

Today has been another great day, the groups have been returning in a steady stream of coaches to have their dinner back at their houses. We had groups taking part in exciting activities such as canyoning - this sounds like it brought out the adventure in everyone as they scaled rocks, walked along the rural scenery through rivers and tried zip wiring. We can't wait to hear their individual stories because the ones we've heard so far are full of excitement and BIG smiles! The Jeka guides who escorted this group today were lots of fun and full of encouragement to bring out the best in our young people encouraging them to notch up new life-experiences.

Some of the Network celebrated the end of the two-day hike (see this great video clip below!).

Day Two of the Community Project involved a walk on the flood plains of the River Lech between Weibenbach am Lech & Forchach, learning about the local area, collecting litter and generally making an amazing difference to the outlook of the beautiful & natural area.

Today also saw some young people face their fear of heights by going on the Jocheispitze (chairlift) up through the mist then whiz down the mountain on the Alpine Coaster. Excellent! Everyone had a ticket for two trips on this and we hear that most people left wanting more! :-)

Last night's Ice Disco was fun and a popular choice for many of the older ones. We have some great pictures such as this one:

Tonight we have a Silent Disco in Stanzach Village and we have apologised to the neighbours already and pre-warned them that a whole lot of English people might be heard singing (badly) later - with perhaps half singing something like Queen & others YMCA or something more cool!

We've not had much rain today and it's still warm. The weather forecast for tomorrow is good, yay!

Sarah

For info.

2010-08-03T18:13:00.005+01:00

Some of you may have heard that one of our young people got an additional adventure by travelling to hospital in the manner you may expect in the Alps, by helicopter!

We are delighted to advise that the young man is in good spirits and being well cared for.

Sarah

A Day of Fun!

2010-08-02T19:50:00.006+01:00

Well our sunny start to the expedition changed dramatically last night with the most spectacular thunder storm, backlighting the mountains and giving us very heavy rain. Today has stayed warm though the clouds have come down over the mountains as the day has gone on and earlier this evening we had more heavy rain. Our overnight hikers will have put their new waterproofs to the test! We have 117 of them staying overnight in a hut in the mountains - 'Lansbergerhutte'.

We have had groups taking part in a range of activities today such as canyoning, white water rafting, the Zugspitze (highest cable car in Germany) and cycling. We have also had a visit to Fussen (with the castle from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), some groups went on the Jochelspitze (chairlift), a one day hike and as mentioned earlier we had several groups set off on a two-day hike.

Today also saw the start of our Community Project in Vlis. A coach full of happy campers worked hard, played hard and got very muddy in the banks of the River Lech, but I'll let them tell you about that when they come home with their washing.....

So, all in all, another adventure-packed day which will hopefully mean everyone will sleep well tonight!

Sarah

Day of Olympic Games

2010-08-01T20:42:00.001+01:00

Today we all participated in a fantastic day of Olympic Games hosted by Jeka in the beautiful Stanzach village. This brought out the competitive spirit in everyone and we had a day of fun in the sunshine!

The games were typical of a sports day: sack races, three-legged egg & spoon races, ball skills and volleyball(!) plus lots of water games to help everyone stay cool. We had a group of local Scouts join us too which was excellent. This was our first activity with everyone gathering together as one group and to see so many happy faces was brilliant.

Contingent Safely Arrived in Austria

2010-07-31T18:57:00.000+01:00

Hi to all the parents, family & friends of Austria Expedition participants following this blog.

I can happily advise that everyone's arrived safely (and ahead of schedule!).

Let the Expedition begin! :-)

2010-07-19T21:31:00.000+01:00

This is the first blog for the GLSE County expedition to the Lechtal Valley in Austria. It has been a long time in preparation, but there is almost light at the end of the tunnel!

Less than two weeks to go now until we all depart on 11 coaches and the 14 hour drive to what will become our home for the next week.

Keep checking in regularly to see the updates of exactly what has been happening over the week including pictures and maybe even some video!!!!!

:o)

Welcome to the Austria 2010 Blog

2010-07-01T08:57:00.001+01:00

More posts coming soon.

During the Expedition itself information, news and updates will be posted here