Hannes Van Eynde, 17, Belgium
All good things come to an end…

And unfortunately today will be the end for us on this amazing selection camp ! However our engagement for the project has only just started. We’re part of the YEP-family now !
Of course a selection camp also has a selection… A scary, but exciting moment ! And unfortunately a selection has people who pass and people who don’t ! Well I didn’t 😀 !

It was an extremely sad moment, but we knew from the beginning that only 8 of us could make it to Indonesia. And that’s life . Everyone were amazing candidates and it must have been a really tough desision for the Mike Horn Team to disappoint 7 of us ! But Eugenie, Kerstin, Michelle, Simon, Dongkyun, Rodrigo, Garrett and Daniel, you guys really deserve to go !

For all of us, our YEP adventure is only just getting started. And I really want to thank the Mike Horn team for everything they did for us ! We needed their support, but now it’s our turn to support them in everything we do and to spread the message of Mike Horn and his Pangaea Project !

And for the YEP’ers, you guys are my family now ! We have so much in common and yet we are so different, I’m going to miss you guys … every single one of you !

Rodrigo Neves Steinman, 16, Brazil

After five hours of sleeping in the tents that we had to put up, the alarm rang and it was time to wake up. The raid was about to continue. We put down our tents, swallowed the breakfast and pumped up the boats. We were all exhausted, but we needed to move on and finish the raid. Between the map work, the rest, and the motivation screams , we paddled our kayaks , carried them uphill and moved on with our itinerary. After about 2 or 3 hours, we arrived at the lake, where the next group task took place. We had to make our own boats with some rope, wood and barrels, and then paddle until the other side of the lake. This was a difficult task that could only be done with the whole team.

The raid continued and we took more than 2 hours to complete it. The last check point was the hotel, but before that we had to climb a huge mountain, and I must say that I was reaching my limits. We learned that every member of the team is essential and always have something to add, something to share. Without the teamwork, none of us would have done this to the end.

An amazing but exhausting experience that I will never forget.

Garrett Celestin, 15, USA

Hector Prats L Castro, 16, Spain

Soledad Escribano, 19, Argentina

The first day of the raid!

We began at 12:00, after interviews and a big lunch. Everybody was very excited, yet nervous. We packed our bags with the minimal amount of stuff, so it wouldn't be too heavy. We were split into 3 groups and began the raid with a list of coordinates. We had to find the coordinates on the map. The first task was to go cycling and to find our guide. Once we found him, we began cycling up a steep incline. It was a hard way to start the day. We then left our bikes and continued hiking up the mountain. It was a difficult climb, but the views were amazing and we were all proud that we were doing so well. After about 1,000 meters, we reached the top and did the Via Ferrata. This was a highlight of the raid, but it was very difficult because we were completely surrounded by fog.

After the Via Ferrata, we walked back down the mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, we grabbed our bikes and rode mostly down hill. Then we got to the first exercise. There were two wooden walls, each standing about 3 meters tall. The whole team had to go to the top of the first wall. We then pulled up a long plank of wood and walked to the next wall. At this wall, we climbed down and brought the plank down with us. It was a fun, yet difficult task – especially because the planks were so slippery.

Once again, we got on our bikes for a very short ride. At the end, the team was waiting for us with snacks – which we were all glad to have. We left our bikes and walked and went to the next activity. We had to climb to a plank of wood. It was unbalanced so our team members had to pull the ropes below to balance us. This was another hard activity, but it was a lot of fun for the team.

We then continued our walk and went to a flying fox station. It was about 250 meters long and we went really fast. This was another highlight. After we finished this, we walked down a hill and through the woods with only our headlamps to guide us. We grabbed our bikes. The sun completely gone down. This made for an interesting ride! It was a lot of up hill. We went through a few villages. We were on the highway and it was impossible to see more than 2 meters in front of us. This made the hill seem endless, as we just kept climbing! We were all really tired, but knew that food and rest were coming soon. This was our main motivation to continue.

We finally reached the lake and the team gave us food, sleeping bags, and tents. We prepared our own dinner and the hot soup was a great way to warm up. We were all ready to go to bed, knowing that the next day would bring a lot more.

On day one of the raid, many of us got injured. We were shocked by electric fences, fell from our bikes, twisted our ankles, got stung by poisonous plants, and tripped while we were walking. But what would the raid be without a few injuries!!

by Jose Baz, 20, Lebanon by Eugénie Guillaume, 18, France

Waking up 6.30 in the morning is quite sweet, but i can assure that biking first thing in the morning is the best feeling ever. After we were done, we headed back to the hôtel had breakfast and headed to the conference room were Dr. Rosevita from Germany who gave us a presentation on Indonesia where the next expedition will be held. It was very interesting because it nearly covered everything about the country. ( from culture to religion, geography, climate, tropical rain forests, bio diversity, economy…) and much more. The présentation nearly took around 5 hours, all the Young explorers were excited to acquire this useful information that will help them in their expedition. It was lunch time, we all headed to the dinning room. Afterward, Brian Cutler from Spot Image USA came and gave us a presentation on satellite Imaging and how we could use satellite programs to post in our studies that we do on Google earth so everyone could get use of it. At the end, Brian had fixed in our addresses previously on Google earth, so we got to show the other explorers our houses, schools and universities. It was so nice because everyone of us wanted to know where we actually lived…

by Daniel Kotzé, 20, South Africa

Of course it was also Switzerland`s national day (we had pizza and dessert !) so there were Swiss flags hanging from every house, on every T-shirt and even the balloons and cakes was not uncrossed. The town put up quite a show and we were right in the middle of the action! The was a marching band and a truck with a spectacular flaming mechanism . We followed all the people up the hill and viewed some spectacular fireworks along with a bonfire and good music. The countryside atmosphere was magical! We decided to climb the hill to the church and end the night of with a breathtaking 360° view of lights, fires and a few late night fireworks.

Joyce Xiaoxi Wang, 16, China

Garrett Celestin, 15, USA

Kerstin Dörner, 18, Germany

Another great day at the young explorers’ training camp. Like every morning, we woke up really early – 6 :30. We began with a very nice bike ride along a river and up and down mountain roads. The scenery was amazing: mountains in the rising morning sun and some hot air balloons.

After breakfast we split into two groups. One group worked on editing their videos about water, electricity or nutrition. The results, which were presented in the evening, were great, amazing and funny. The other group learned about photography. We got to try out our skills at the local church of Château d’Oex. Afterwards we presented our favourite shots and discussed about improvements. Both of these activities were great learning experiences.

The afternoon activity was a surprise, as it often happens here. With Erwan, a mountain guide from Petzl, we walked across a thin wire 12 meters above the cold mountain water. We were harnessed in, but the phrase «don’t look down » became very popular. Once we crossed the wire we stood on a small platform, the water beneath us. We went down a flying fox, a sloped wire you zip down. Ways to fast it was over.

Another great meal from the chef – we work so hard throughout the day that we all help ourselves to seconds and thirds. We have a saying here – « At the Young Explorers’ Camp you have to earn your food!». We saw another great video of Mike Horn’s expeditions. It was inspiring.

The night is going to be long. We still have homework – because we were too busy throughout the week to do it, and honestly just decided to wait. Tomorrow will be another great day and we are all looking forward to the many activities we will do !

We have grown together into a perfect team. We are enjoying every single second. The time seems to fly.

by Michelle Nay, 18, Switzerland Rodrigo Neves Steinman, 16, Brazil

Today morning exercise was mountain biking. It was quite hard especially for the people that are not that used to the mountains. Some of us even fell, but fortunately nobody got hurt and we all made it to the hotel alive.

After that we had breakfast and went to the lake to do some kayaking and made a cairn. It was freezing but also very funny (we all finished it wet, but it didn`t matter). We had a great picnic by the lake and the outdoor activities continued. We moved on to the river to do the canyoning. Our guides explained us how it works and after we got in our wetsuits and our equipment (the hardest part of the day :-)) and then the fun began! It was just amazing, we floated, walked and slid through the canyon. The best thing was the ten meter jump off a rock! In the end it was a little bit cold, but some of the views of the canyon were just amazing! It was one more unforgettable experience for us in this camp!

Afterwards we had an interesting presentation from Nespresso and we learned how this big company cares about the environment and we had to discuss what we would do if we were the boss of the company! After the delicious dinner we shot some scenes for our movie project which we’re going to edit tomorrow! We’re all very tired but it’s so exciting here!

Hannes Van Eynde, 17, Belgium

Our Young Explorers group here in Switzerland is just UNBELIEVABLE !

A bunch of youngster from all around the world, all so different and yet we’re all the same… We’re all here with the same idea : pushing our limits beyond Imaginable hights ! Without asking anything in return, everyone was just helping and supporting each other from the very beginning. Like a real group should do.

Getting to know all the different cultures and countries is so amazing too. We could talk for hours about each other’s habits and languages. Just sharing all of our ideas and laughing together makes an international band that can’t ever be broken again.

The camp is just a giant shower of new and exciting experiences. And it will probably keep on flowing for the next 6 days ! I can only quote Daniel in our very similar languages to describe it : Lekker !

by Eugénie Guillaume, 18, France

by DongKyun Seo, 20, South Korea

by Hector Prats L Castro, 16, Spain

There is only one word to describe this 4th day in Switzerland: AMAZING!

The morning exercise, some basic but useful first aid knowledge, a great absailing experience (rappeling down in a great landscape, in the middle of a river canoon), finishing the fitness tests with the Mayo Clinic professionals, meeting new YEPers from New Zealand expedition (Annelies and Simon), a complete lecture of Swiss Army Knives from Wenger (with a Ranger Knive as present!), an improvisated birthday party (happy birthday yasmine!)… Everything has been really interesting!

The most important thing is the ambiance we have between us. We come from different and distant countries and, of course, we have all different personalities. But that doesn't matter, because we all make an effort to deal together and share our ideas, traditions, our ways of living, our culture…

Everybody is very motivated for all the activities and for doing as best as possible. We are very complementary and this is our strenght!

by Daniel Kotzé, 20, South Africa

Today was set to be the first day of being active and it did not disappoint. We got up early to have a short morning jog downhill to a jungle gym. We did some training and had real fun there, but then realized that the way back to the hotel was uphill and it was quite a hard run.

The group was then split up into two and group 1 had the task of interpreting maps and then going out into the town and coutryside and actually following our bearings that we calculating. Martin and mountain guide, Claude Alain taught us some very useful things. But hopefuly we will never get lost! And as always the food was great (lekker!)..

by Simon Havas, 15, Czech Republic

Today was a special day for me and also for other young explorers! We had the chance to discover our physical power with the help of friendly guys from Mayo Clinic (Minnesota).

We did lots of exercises! Group 2 stared the Mayo clinic testing. We are not finished-the second part still awaits us tomorrow. Today we did blood pressure, breath hold, flexibility, balance and the most exiting (VO2 test) on a treadmill. Thanks to modern technology New Leaf we perfectly know our results in endurance. When I think about the tests we had… Good team results!

by Soledad Escribano, 19, Argentina

Hi to everyone !!

After a very long, interesting, and tough morning we had a relaxed but stimulating afternoon. Geberit, the european market leader in sanitary technology, gave us a talk about their sanitations systems and mainly about water (what is it, it’s relevance, how we use it, and how to purify it). We ran short of time because everyone had lots of questions, and information to add. It seems that it was very useful because not only we learned new things, but also because we interacted and expressed our opinions.

The final task was to prepare a new video, related with some of the issues we have learned until today : water, nutrition or electricity. Everyone was quite excited, so we started right away !!!

July 27th, 2009
by Tim Rohner, 17, Switzerland

Today was just amazing ! In the morning, we got up at about 6 o’clock, had a big breakfast and then headed straight to the center of Groupe E, a big electricity producer. We spent the whole morning there, learning more about environment and visiting great infrastructure. After that, we went to a conference room and listened to a presentation from two Groupe E guys, talked about the things we have seen and what we are thinking about environment. It was great to discuss with a bunch of experts and people who have plenty of suggestions !
In the end we presented our posters, upon we wrote suggestions for the protection of the environment.

The morning was amazing and after the whole visitation, we drove back to Château D’Oex.

by Jose Baz, 20, Lebanon

After the morning workshop at Groupe E, we headed to the hotel. Lunch was already prepared by the Chef of the Mike Horn Team. We had chicken with salad and some potatoes… Each one of the young explorers helped the team in cleaning up the dishes. After that, Martin came up and told us about the afternoon session with the Mayo Clinic team. The worskhop focused on, how to measure fitness, how to stay fit and a nutrition part where the team explained to us more about the benefits of carbohydrates, proteins and fat. It was really interesting taking tips from such a professional team that conducts experiments on professional athletes. We also had to fill in some sort of forums about our own training back home.

At the end of the session the team took our BMI, weight, height and wrote them down in our personal files.

I realized that the job of the Myo clinic is really interesting, since afterall its because of them we know how the human body functions when doing sports.

by Tiffany De Klerk, 16, South Africa

it’s finally sunk in! I am really now part of the Young Explorers team. Everyone is so interesting and I am starting to get to know everyone a little better. I look at my watch and then outside the window at the Mike Horn Centre. It is still light outside but my watch says it’s already 19:00 and we have just had and delicious dinner.

Our program for tonight was very exciting. We had a short lecture about filming and the techniques used in camera work kindly done for us by our camera man Moose. Thanks Moose! We learnt all about preparing a camera before shooting, Planning each shot before actually filming it and then when shooting checking for things like Audio, White Balance. Moose explained all the different types of shots and positioning of subjects to create an interesting video.

Finally it was time to Act. We got into groups of 5 and had to make a short little video using all the techniques we had learnt. It’s much harder than it sounds! In my group… Garret was the director, Hannes was our ‘Lighting man’, Hector was our ‘Sound man’ and Eugenie and I were the two actresses. She was the thief and I was the ‘hero’ in our little story. It was so funny and our video actually won! Yay…Thanks Moose for teaching us all these great techniques. It was lots of fun.