After extensive planning on many meetings throughout the year we had gained the necessary skills to safely canoe as a group down the Themes. Although this was only a practice for the real DofE canoeing expedition, it still took all of our training and left us very ready for the real thing. The weekend was very well put together and personally I had a lot of fun. I felt like i learnt a lot, not only from the canoeing but also from the first aid course and map reading.  

Every morning we were up at 7:30, making our own breakfast (from barrels of food we’d prepared before) and convened at 9:30 for our daily achievements. The activities were well led and very enjoyable, other than the mud and the occasional bad weather I had a lot of fun.

At around 1:30, after lunch time we got into the canoes and went up and down the river, putting into practice all we’d learnt before. I did manage to fall in the river at one point, but that was Livia’s fault.

On the second day we were driven in the early morning to a town up-river and canoed back down to our campsite. This took the whole day and defiantly taught us everything we need for the real thing. Very well put together and was fun for everyone!

Luke 2k13