It was a great day on the River Dee today. The river was running at a ’7′ on the gauge at the Old Mill, giving plenty of flow, but not making things too frantic. Combining that with a dry day and good company, made for a fantastic day to be out canoeing on the river. I [...]

Looking to make the most of the milder conditions, Chris Hughes and I teamed up for a day’s paddling. We had hoped to paddle from Lanerfyl to Meifod on the Afon (River) Banwy, but inspection of the water levels at Llanfair Caereinion suggested that it would have been a bit of a scrape along the [...]

I was invited to spend this weekend working with a group of pupils from Oswestry School. Several times a year, the Adventure Education department organises a weekend trip to North Wales, taking advantage of the fact that they have such a fantastic area just an hour and a half away. These weekends are aimed at [...]

I actually got the chance to do some skills development of my own today! I don’t get that much opportunity, so it was great to spend the day on the River Dee with fellow instructor Colin Crockart. Colin and I are both looking to move our paddling qualifications further along the BCU’s scheme, and today [...]

Having spent Wednesday afternoon climbing with a group from Concord College, it was great to meet up with them again as soon as this afternoon for something a bit different. After being land based last time, we ventured onto the water at The Mere in Ellesmere in canoes for a couple of hours. I found myself [...]

Moreton Hall is a local independent girls boarding school. Although they are situated close by, I haven’t done much work with them in the past, so today was a fantastic opportunity. Obviously, we are in the middle of the school holidays, but have a number of things going on including language schools. I got to [...]

This morning I had the pleasure in putting on a kayaking birthday party for a group of 7 girls looking to have a go at something a bit different. After a few games on dry land, we got on the water and started to paddle without paddles (if that’s possible!) The idea was to get [...]

This morning I had the pleasure of spending some time with the staff from the Birmingham branch of the Pegasus Planning Group, based in Sutton Coldfield. Today was their chance to get out of the office and let their hair down with an ‘jolly’. When they originally contacted me, the plan was to spend the [...]

Following on from Tuesday, when I took the Adventure + group canoeing on The Mere, we decided to go for a canoe journey on the canal. Last week’s group had gone on the River Severn, but the wind during this Tuesday’s session meant that we weren’t able to cover as much, so the canal seemed [...]

This morning I met the kid’s from the Adventure + programme at The Mere in Ellesmere, ready to go canoeing. Having got there early, I was able to get all the canoes and kit ready before they arrived so that we could crack straight on with things. After a few silly warm up games, designed [...]