On Monday the 12th of August 2024, I set off on a challenge to kayak the Great Glen Canoe Trail. This is a ‘coast to coast’ of Scotland, a journey along the Caledonian Canal and a series of Lochs from Fort William all the way to Inverness. It is 60 miles in total and took me 3 days to complete. In the process, I used the challenge to raise some funds for Lochaber Mountain Recuse Team, who are based in Fort William. Carry on reading if you would like to hear more about this adventure!
Tryweryn Festival (fondly known as T-fest) has to be one of my absolute favourite white water events on the calendar. Quality white water time, fun well organised events and plenty of time to catch up with old friends and make new ones! I’ve just got back from this year’s T-fest and once again am struck by what a brilliant weekend it has been! This article is a summary of the highlights of T-fest 2024!
I was thrilled to be invited to Plas y Brenin‘s third ShePaddles event which ran on the 10th-12th May this year. This event first ran in 2022 after the lovely Katie Simmons came up with the idea. It was hugely successful and has been a highlight on my calendar ever since. The last two years had been beautiful sunny weekends full of fun and laughter and the 2024 event proved to be just as good. As I drove over to North Wales on the Friday evening, the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia were basked in sunshine and it was still beautifully warm. I arrived at Plas y Brenin (PyB) to an enthusiastic welcome and a delicious dinner from their restaurant. It promised to be another wonderful weekend.
On Saturday 6th April 2024 myself and Tom got married by the river Etive in Scotland. In the middle of storm Kathleen and in the company of three of our closest friends, we became Mr and Mrs Clare. It was a crazy and wild day but it was the perfect wedding day for us. I wanted to share our wedding day with our wider friends through here so please read on and enjoy my account of our special day!
The river Dee is an absolute UK white water kayaking classic! The Dee is a North Wales river that flows all year round thanks to the fact it has water released into it. It is so good that some brilliant local paddlers decided that they wanted to organise a festival on the Dee and so was born Dee Fest! Dee Fest this year was held on the 13-14th April and it was brilliant! So here is a little account of Dee Fest 2024.
A few months ago, I was asked if I was keen to be involved in the East Midlands (EM) ShePaddles weekend that was happening at Broadway’s Meadow on the first weekend of September. I love paddling and sharing that love with others so of course I said yes! It turned into a brilliant weekend with amazing weather and lots of happy paddlers. I wanted to share that through an article so please do have a read.
You might have seen the videos of scores of paddlers floating down Holme Pierrepont on inflatables and wondered what was going on. The answer to that is the Dewerstone European Open! Euro Open is a freestyle focused event that happens at the end of August every summer in Nottingham. It is one of my favourite events and one that I highly encourage people to attend. Here is my recount of Euro Open 2023.
If you were in Nottingham at Holme Pierrepont white water course at the end of August, you might be wondering why every eddy and every feature seemed to be full of teenagers in playboats. The reason is because the GB Freestyle Academy Camp was happening! This was a camp aimed to improve and inspire young paddlers in freestyle kayaking and something I was lucky enough to be involved in. This article is here to tell you all about it – enjoy!
Tryweryn Festival, lovingly known as T-fest by most paddlers, is without a doubt one of my favourite paddling events of the year! It has the perfect mixture of kayaking, competition and social time which makes it a truly enjoyable weekend. I wanted to share what a fun weekend T-fest is and so this article is an account of the 2023 event. Enjoy!
We did it! 24 hours of kayaking on the Dee to raise money for three brilliant charities! Over the weekend myself and 5 friends took on a mammoth challenge. Kayaking down the river Dee (horseshoe to town falls) and back up the Llangollen canal for 24 hours straight. We paddled over 100km in total and as of the time writing this blog have raised over £5000 for Young Minds, Rainbows Hospice and Air Ambulance. This article is a more detailed account of the challenge!
You can still donate here if you would like to!