Canoe Trail

The river is a classic English river with tree lined banks and plenty of wildlife for eye spy and excitement for children and young people. We provide all equipment necessary with buoyancy aids, paddles, map and dry bags with a simple briefing.

Woodland camping with our paddle and camp trips

Canoe Trail has a private riverside campsite with beautiful clearings, open fires and space to relax and enjoy the great outdoors. The site is set in a stunning woodland on the banks of the river. Matchstick wood was voted Top 52 Things to do in the world by Lonely Planet for family activities and Top 3 Destinations by Red Bull Magazine for SUP Adventures.

It is extremely popular with families, friends and groups to enjoy time around campfires away from TV’s, screens and allowing time to unwind and spend quality time together. You can select ‘add on’s ‘ with tip tents, luggage service, firewood and grills to make your trip more manageable. Talk to us about larger family groups with our private bookings.

Kids Birthday Parties

Canoe Trail run a range of birthday parties for children and young people with different themes activities including watersports, SUP safari’s, climbing and bouldering and bushcraft. Each party includes games, challenges and guidance to make it a memorable experience with additional time on site to unwrap gifts, for cake or picnics and to enjoy the surroundings.

Wildlife and History

The River Great Ouse is teeming with wildlife including otters, woodpeckers, kingfisher and herons making it an incredible tree lined waterway to explore as families. The landscape changes from rural fields and open spaces to Bedford’s iconic Victorian Embankment with historic bridges and locks and hidden backwaters such as the Etienne Stott White Water Arena named after our Olympic Gold Medallist. Other interesting locations include the blue plaque showing where John Bunyan, the writer was baptised in the river in 1650.

Kempston Outdoor Activity Centre

At our base at Kempston Outdoor Centre we can offer a wide range of outdoor activities for schools, youth charities and birthday parties in different formats.

• Archery

• Air rifles

• Axe throwing

• Bushcraft

• Canoeing

• High ropes course

• Indoor climbing

• Kayaking

• Outdoor climbing wall and abseil tower

• Raft building

• Stand up paddle boarding

• Urban coasteering

• Tag archery

• Zorbing

Coaching and courses for Families and Children

Canoe Trail is a Gold Delivery Partner for Paddle UK offering coaching courses and qualifications including Paddle Sports Instructor, Paddle Sports Safety and Rescue courses and Touring Leader.

We also offer learning to roll(kayak rolling), intro to white water courses and the personal paddling awards, Paddle UK Start, Discover and Explore qualifications.

We hold a large number of quality assurance and safety awards including AALA (Adventure Activities Licencing Authority), Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Mark and Adventure Mark as well as being members of the Institute of Outdoor Learning.

Sport England and Outdoor Industry Association Research showed that young people who are involved in outdoor activities as teenagers will remain involved and active in these pastimes throughout their lives (75% retention rate).

School Activity Days

Canoe Trail offer a wide range of activities including bushcraft, watersports (canoeing, kayaking and SUP), raft building, climbing, high ropes (leap of faith, Jacobs ladder, postmans walk, crate stacking, axe throwing, urban coasteering air rifles and other

Expeditions

Canoe Trail offer a wide range of expeditions across the UK and overseas including:

• Introduction to moving water at Bedford

• Introduction to white water at Matlock

• Jurassic sea kayak expedition

• Norfolk Broads paddling expedition

• River Tweed, Spey, Spey, Stour and Tay canoe expeditions

• Best of Scotland and Wales canoe expeditions

• Algonquin and Yukon Canoe expedition

Many of these are suitable for families to enjoy an activity break together and in many cases we can offer them as a private group booking for families and friends.

Some of our achievements,.

• Featured in I-paper, Times, National Trust Slow Adventures book, Great British Paddling Adventures Book, Wanderlust, Paddler Magazine, Huffington Post, Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine and BBC1.

• We deliver over 13,000 activity sessions per year delivered from short one hour hires to camping, adventure school holiday club, overseas expeditions and coaching courses.

• We have over 300 craft including canoes, kayaks and stand up paddle boards

• Our sister company Inspired Life www.inspiredlife.org is a social enterprise and London 2012 Inspire Mark Project that has engaged over 48,000 young people since its launch using inspirational role models including Olympians, adventurers, Paralympians, artists and musicians

Canoe Trail’s Pedigree

Canoe trail is a family run watersports and adventure company run by professional adventurers Ashley Kenlock and Richard Harpham FRGS, a motivational speaker. Bedford’s human powered adventurers have covered over 15,500 miles of expeditions including sea kayaking Vancouver to Alaska, canoeing the Yukon and cycling the Sahara and producing their guidebook Great British Paddling Adventures.

(www.richadventure.com) Their expeditions have featured on BBC1, Huffington Post, and events such as BBC Countryfile live and Kendal Mountain Festival. Canoe Trail has a large staff team with a passion for the great outdoors.