The 23rd Stafford Guide Unit take the international highroad to "Our Chalet"

A party of 24 from the 23rd Stafford Guide Unit travelled to the World Guide Centre, "Our Chalet" in Switzerland in early August. A great journey combining flying to Geneva, catching the train through splendid Swiss mountain valleys followed by a winding bus journey, with a contingent of Girl Scouts from Canada, to Adelboden. The final stage was completed on foot, where high on a hill we reached "Our Chalet".

After eighteen months of fund raising we were finally here and were going to live in this great wooden palace. What a fantastic week followed, great physical challenges: rock climbing; abseiling; walking in breathtaking scenery; zip wire flying; crossing rope bridges; a night climb to enjoy a magical sunrise from a mountain top, swimming in a glacier lake and white water rafting. This was mixed with trips to historic towns and castles and a visit to a specialist chocolate maker, yum, yum.

Top of the list was the opportunity to meet with and make what will be life long friends with Guides and Girl Scouts from around the world.

A memory that will last for five of our Guides will be the surprise presentation of their Baden Powell Awards at the camp fire on the final evening.

One of the challenges we set ourselves prior to travelling to "Our Chalet" was to find the centres Geocash. This required solving some challenging questions linked to Our Chalet and WAGGGS. We were successful and left our Guiding Centenary Travel Bug, named A little token of Staffordshire Guides with the request for it to travel to all of the World Guide Centres and then on to countries around the world where there are Guides. Returning to the UK we have discovered our bug is already on its way and we are following its moves almost on a daily basis on the internet.

The permanent and volunteer staff at "Our Chalet" do a great job and have created a fantastic summer programme. The list of individuals is too long to provide with a big thank you to them all and a big hug to the ever energetic Nancy. Are we going back? all we can say is "try and stop us", roll on the summer of 2013.