Race across Europe

Modern travel is great. Airports and budget airlines help make the world smaller and make it easy for us to visit new places, see new horizons and travel further, faster. 

I used to travel a lot by plane - using cheap flights to open quick travel all over Europe.

I never considered using the train, considering it "too slow", "inconvenient" and "expensive".
Coming to KISC, with a fresh environment and different way of thinking persuaded me to try taking the train home to the UK for a holiday. So I packed plenty of books and magazines for the hours ahead of me. Next I got on the internet to see how many connections it would take me to get home. The answer, pleasantly low - 4 from sleepy Kandersteg village, through to a similarly sleepy commuter belt town near London.

My journey was all booked for Kandersteg - Bern - Paris - London - Welwyn Garden City. I found it slightly cheaper booking the different segments separately with Rail Europe (Bern-Paris), Eurostar (Paris-London) and local tickets at either end.

I'll take you through my day of travel and race myself on a similar journey - but by air.

05:50 and I'm standing at Kandersteg station - a familiar spot, unfamiliar time of day. Waiting for the 05.54 train, trying not to think to much about the early start, and instead enjoy the alpenglow and approaching dawn on Blumlisalp instead. 

As I travel down the valley, looking back up to the Alps, I think about the equivalent flight and realise that I would be on this same early train - travelling to Bern on my way to the airport.

07:29 see's me leaving Bern on the TGV - who knew that French high speed trains came so far into Switzerland?! I settle into the coffee and gipfelli that I hunted down in Bern station and wonder what to read first. First impressions of the TGV - very comfortable - but disapointingly slow for the fastest passenger trains on the planet.

09:30 see's me travelling through france like a speeding bullet. It turns out that the TGV travels through Switzerland at the speed of a regional train. Across the boarder in France, high speed rails let our driver put his put on the accelerator. 
Where would I be if I was on the plane? Well, I'd just have arrived at Geneva Airport and would be fighting with baggage checkin and security checks for the 11:25 flight to London Luton. 2 hours checking procedure (compared to 2 minutes for the train) - means that train is winning the race.

12:30 see's me in Paris, enjoying the sun. I'm travelling light, so decide to walk from Gare de Lyon across to Gare du Nord for Eurostar. Walking in Paris is lovely - lots to see and I pick up a fresh baguette for lunch. The metro provides a quick simple alternative for a rainy day. In the plane, I would be passing high overhead now, moving into the lead in this race. 

At 16:00 I pull into London St Pancreas station, Eurostar proved as quick and comfy as the TGV before. From here, it is a short hop across the road to Kings Cross and the 20 minute commuter train to my final destination. By 17:30, I am at my final destination. 


You may be wondering now, who won the theoretical race - of train vs plane. Well, unsurprisingly the plane pulled through and won. It landed at 12:05 GMT, a short taxi around the airport, the wait for bags and then a 30 minute drive sees me at the finish line for 13:30. 
But despite this, I am happy. As they say, "its not the destination, but the journey". I had a great day watching Switzerland and France slide by, exploring Paris and reading. The experience was a lot more relaxing than the stress of airports and security checks. And in any case, I expected the plane to win by more than 4 hours.
Also, more importantly, I had produced in the region of 1/20 the amount of Carbon Dioxide as the equivalent journey by air.

This method is maybe not so easy with a Scout group in tow -changing trains and organising the logistics. But having said that, it is not much more difficult then getting a group through the airport. We spoke to 8th Holborn Scouts who travelled to KISC by train this winter.

"I was at times rather apprehensive of making the trip this time all the way by rail, but actually it all worked out. It may assist others coming from the UK to have the following details on your website, as it took some effort to work out the logistics!"

They took the following journey:

 

London St Pancras dep. 0923 Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord arr. 1247.

Go downstairs to the Metro, two stops on RER (Express Metro and Metro): follow signs to RER line ‘D’. (Buy a metro ticket from the machines. They have a touch screen and an English button. Cash and cards are accepted. All southbound RER ‘D’ trains stop at the Gare de Lyon, but always check the TV screens. At Gare de Lyon look for ‘Grand Lignes’ in the main hall upstairs.)

Paris Gare de Lyon TGV dep. 1423 to Basel SBB arr. 1726.

Basel dep. 1731 Eurocity to Spiez arr. 1902 (change trains across platform).

Spiez dep. 1912 Regional-Express to Kandersteg arr. 1941.

 

Rail isn't the answer for every trip, but it is definately worth consideration - on the carbon saving alone. But also for the overall experience and as a mode of transport, it is full of surprises.

 

Jon (UK)

Programme Director

 

 

Shimmering, Soft, Six Sided, Snowflakes!!

In the past week we have had 30cm of fresh snow turning the Kander valley back into a Winter postcard. At the moment cycling to and from KISC freezes our hair and gives us a fresh new coat of snowflakes. If you put a gloved hand out in front of you it is easy to see the perfect six sided shape.

So a question was asked during a staff coffee break; how do snow flakes form?
I know that my answer to this question would interest our guests as well as our Staff team…

Snowflakes are created when ice crystals form around suspended dirt particles in the atmosphere. The crystal grows in size until it can no longer be held in suspension and so it falls to the ground.

But if they form with dirt particles and water why are the snowflakes white in colour?
This is because of how our human eye perceives colour. Although it is not truly ‘white’ our brain compensates for a light source, therefore the other colour tints are subtracted and we see it as white. The snowflake scatters light over all its surface and into all its other colours and our brain only sees white.

Are there different shapes of snowflakes?

Yes there are, the snowflakes formed in very cold temperatures have sharp tips with branches on their arms. In warmer temperatures the snowflakes grow slower and have less intricate shapes. The symmetry of snowflakes can be affected by a number of environmental factors such as uneven temperatures. The shape of a snowflake reflects the weak hydrogen bonds within the water molecules. The shape of the snowflakes is dependent on the alignment of the water molecules.

Why is KISC’s crystal in the shape of a snowflake?

The Crystal was first used as the logo of the World Rover Moot in 1953, where it was also raised the first time as a flag. The idea behind it is that it’s composed of 6 fleur-de-lis / arrowheads, the symbol of Scouting, thus uniting two essential elements of KISC together, representing the essence of the Centre. It’s resemblance to a snow crystal transmitted the Centre’s dedication to Alpine Adventures, often taking place on snow-covered mountain peaks in the Swiss Alps, while keeping the Scouting element as a core component of both the  logo and the Centre.

And just as the arrowheads combine to form something new, Scouts from all over the world came together at the 5^th World Rover Moot in 1953 and still do today. Through this, the Crystal also represents the bonds of friendship that are formed at KISC.

Have a nice Winter.

Melanie (UK)

Assistant Programme Director

with a little help from Pol (LU)

 

Kakani International Training Centre, Nepal

This week, I have been on my travels visiting Kakani International Training Centre in Nepal.
This is a small Scout Centre about 23km away from Kathmandu, the capital located high on a ridge at about 2000m altitude on the edge of Shivapuri National Park. They have just under 44 hectares of land running down each side of the ridge.

The main Dormitory building at Kakani, with the 8000m peak of Manaslu in the background

At Kakani, they have many fantastic - eco ideas to make themselves incredibly sustainable and eco friendly, so we will run a series of eco-blogs about Kakani so that more people can see some of the incredible work that they are doing here.

One of the main things that they do at Kakani is grow a lot of their own food and this first blog will look at their food production.

Tea is the main drink here and is consumed morning, noon and night. Ask any pinkie and they will tell you the importance of a good Tea Break.... At Kakani they have 20,000 tea plants within their grounds which currently produce 8kg of tea each year. That's a whole lot of tea, but only fills about half of their needs. As the tea plants grow and more plants are planted they hope to make all that they need.

Eco can be refreshing! Fresh tea bubbling away at Kakani on the solar oven

Aside from all of this tea, Kakani provides food for itself by keeping chickens, goats, having a greenhouse and nursery to grow vegetables and having over 20,000 fruit trees - which mainly go into Jam. Kakani produces a lot of the food that it needs and then buys the rest from the local community, reducing food miles and helping the local economy.

The Greenhouse at Kakani

As everyone who has tried our Secret Life of Bees activity knows, bees are under threat worldwide and are really important not only for making honey, but also for pollenating our crops. So it was really good to find the bee hives at Kakani and see the bees doing what bees do best - making honey. True to form the bees here are under threat and only 3 of the 8 hives were inhabited. The bees here are being bullied and chased away by the somewhat frightening Asian Giant Hornets which are after the honey. A sting from this bad boy of the insect world can kill a human and the bees have little or no defence against them.

Inside one of Kakani's bee hives

Look out for future eco blogs about Kakani Internaitonal Training Centre - or if you want to learn more visit their website www.kakani.org

Jonathan (UK)

Programme Director

New Recycling Centres

For many people it does not sound that exciting, but here at KISC it has happened... we have new recycling centres all over our buildings!!

As I am one of the many Staff who deal daily with rubbish and recycling I am always keen to make our system more eco friendly, and, at the same time easy for our guests.

Swiss recycling is a very complex system and different from systems in other countries. This is why we try to make it easy and educational for our guests from all over the world.

But what’s new?

All our recycling centres are now exactly the same- and colour coded! 

The different containers have examples on them so it is no longer necessary to read the English to find the right container!

Happy recycling!

Michael (DE)

Maintenance Manager

Snow & Ice

Coming from a hot Mediterranean country when I think about ice it`s usually in a glass with a nice cocktail but this week I learnt there`s much more to it! After ice skating for the first time during our last staff night out and enjoying every second of it, I was looking forward to the Snow & Ice Combo up on the Frunden glacier with some other staff members and our awesome guides Eoin (IE) and Darren(ZA).

 

Glaciers are pretty awesome things and here’s 10 facts about them:

1. They are persistent bodies of ice that form when snow and ice don’t melt and keep accumulating for centuries.
2. Glaciers are constantly moving downwards or flow like a frozen river.
3. The Taku Glacier in Alaska is the thickest glacier in the world; almost 1.5km thick!
4. Glacier melt comes from both the ice that’s melting at the top of the glacier due to the sun’s heat but also from the bottom due to the heat from friction caused by the flow.
5. As glaciers move they eat away at the surrounding rock to eventually form valleys that have a U shape like the Gasterntal!
6. Crevasses form due to differences in glacier velocity as parts move at different speeds and directions, forces cause two sections to break apart, opening the crack of a crevasse.
7. The fastest glacier moves between 20-30m a day!
8. Even the planet Mars has glaciers!
9. When walking on a glacier one has to be very careful to avoid going over snow bridges that might have formed over crevasses since these are unstable and one might fall through!
10. You should spend more time on glaciers because it’s great fun!

 

 

During our time on the glacier we learnt how to walk safely being tied to each other, using ice axes and crampons. Progress across a glacier is sometimes slow because one has to negotiate crevasse jumps and check if the ice is stable enough for people to walk on. We also simulated a crevasse rescue where we were lowered into a crevasse and the remaining team rigged up a system to lift the person back up to safety which is what would be done in a real life situation.

 

So now you know a bit more about glaciers and how awesome they are I ask you to do one simple thing to give them a hand! Always switch off the lights when you’re not using them because global warming is a glacier’s worst enemy as it causes accelerated melting! So go out there and save those glaciers!

 

See you on the ice!

 

Jean-Marc (MT)

STS Summer 2012