I found myself working for Arthog Outreach today. Based in Wellington (Telford), they are a branch of Telford & Wrekin Council’s outdoor education centre on the Welsh coast, and provide a wide range of activities for schools and college’s in the local area.

Today, I got to spend the day with a group of nine Year 5 pupils from a local primary school that wanted to go canoeing on the River Severn for the day. Having picked them up from school, issued kit and got to our start point, they were ready and raring to go. We’d made the decision to paddle from Cressage down stream to Buildwas, which is a fair way for this age group with the time available. So, to help keep things moving, we rafted 4 canoes together to create 2 rafts and put an adult in each one to help motivate and encourage as well as provide a bit of useful steering.

Having just got on the water, and the excitement that that creates, it wasn’t that easy to get everyone to quieten down as we rounded the first bend to be confronted with fishermen. It turned out to be a popular day for fishing, with is coming across 10 to a dozen fishermen on our trip. There were no problems, but I’m always eager to cause minimum disturbance to fish that are being hunted!

The two teams worked really well together, and generated quite a competitive spirit to the day, always wanting to be in the lead. The only time it it made life harder was when trying to draw their attention to the wildlife – sand martins, swans with cygnets, dragon fly, ducklings, herons etc.

We stopped for lunch on a nice looking gravelly beach and spent time skimming stones across the river. We even had the privilege of singing ‘happy birthday’ to the class teacher and sharing cake – not what I expected at the start of the day.

The group were fantastic today. They worked hard, were competitive in a fun way, and really seemed to enjoy their day out on the river.