Today we woke up to big, blue, empty skies and already increasing temperature. We got to the local bus and got off next to the ancient church. We walked down a winding street that goes right into lake Orta. We stood at the end of the jetty and jumped and waved to call over the ferry which goes around the lake. We got off at the town of Orta into a beautiful square. We explored the small shops and had a coffee in the square watching a muscovie (I think that's how ...

Having arrived the previous day from Kandersteg, we decided to have a lazy morning that consisted of having coffee and biscuits and nothing much else!! After lunch, we headed down to town to look around and have an ice cream, which was extremely nice considering the hot weather! In the evening, we decided to go out for a meal, which was easy because the local restaurant was only a short walk. Was great fun and I am looking forward to going into Orta tomorrow!!! ...

Last morning of hotel luxury, so got fully 'fuelled up' with the Full Swiss Breakfast; bread, cheese, salami, egg etc. then drove up to the international scout centre. The Crowle lot were all there sorting kit, inspecting tents and checking paperwork. After our farewells we took the boys back to use the hotel facilities to sort their bags. Which were in surprisingly good state given the chaos of the weather and 5 adolescents per tent. Don't think anything very...