Summer Camp Ardèche, France
Wednesday - ancient caverns, cliffs
As we finally come into the full swing of camp, it's becoming less difficult to send campers to bed in the evenings and more difficult to get them up at the ripe hour of 7.30! Poodle, the river specialist, was on wake up duty but had to recruit Pebble (yours truly) to compose a little song - as annoying as possible - to get the last stragglers out of bed in time for breakfast. Luckily everybody made it, because today involved a big outing for the River Adventure crew - a visit to the Caverne du Pont d'Arc, an incredible replication of the Chauvet Pont-d'Arc cave located very close to our camping grounds. The cave contains the oldest known examples of homo sapiens art - cave paintings made with charcoal, of lions, buffaloes, bison, owls, horses, mammoths, and more, all dated from about 36,000 years ago, during the last ice-age. It was a mezmerising hour, being guided through an exact replica of the cave and learning all about the works of art.
After having lunch there, the river crew returned at about 2.00 PM to join the French Language students for the afternoon session of outdoor sports. The french-language students went off to check out some caves, while the river crew split into two groups that played basketball/football and did cliffjumping. As the VC camp is only a stonesthrow from the Ardeche river (literally!), we can simply stroll down and swim across the river to find the perfect rocks to jump from. Epic!
After coming back for dinner, Moose made some announcements and had them translated into all of the languages spoken at the camp: French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Estonian, Hungarian, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Italian, and Polish! You can see a picture of the group lined up infront of the bar in the photo album. In addition, we had the second night of our 'Secret Friends Box', a box that people can put special anonymous messages to other campers that then get read out after dinner. There are so many new friendships starting at camp!
After that, everybody went out for a 'water games' on the field, which involved a secret stash of waterbombs (the games devolved VERY quickly into all-out water fight anarchy...) Now the campers are getting ready for another big day tomorrow, and a few of the older kids are catching a bit of the Wales/Portugal game. See you tomorrow!
PS: Ardeche has talent! I've noticed a few keen young photographers at camp, and have included photos in the photo album for today. The polaroids are from Anastasia, and the photos of the cliff are from Jamie - he says "hi mom!"
- Breakfast: A selection of breakfast cereals with fruit, yoghurt and honey. Baguette with butter and jam. Orange and apple juice. In addition - Pain au Chocolat and Nutella!
- Lunch: Wraps with a healthy selection of salads, hummus, cheese, salami, ham, eggs, avocados, sauces, pickles, and veges!
- Dinner: Sweet and sour pork with rice and a vege option (tofu and mushrooms). Sweet chilli cold noodle salad, soy and ginger brocolli salad, green salad, olives, pickles, and bread. For desert: doughnuts!
- Subject to change. Vegetarian options always available.
Click here for more information about Summer Camp nutrition
Latest photos from Ardèche, France
- Cliff jumping
- Caverne du Pont d'Arc
- Waterfight
- Football
