We were beginning to get fed up with people coming back from their holidays and telling stories of how they swam with dolphins, climbed waterfalls or went white water rafting! It's not they aren't great things to do, it's just that we were starting to get a bit jealous.
So if we couldn't afford a holiday to the real Amazon, where could we do it over here? We also set ourselves a limit. It had to cost under £50 each including travel and a post raft beer.
We struck gold really quickly, we found a purpose built water sports centre in Northampton. Tickets only cost us £36 (thanks to a perfectly marvellous 25% discount). A quick check on Google Maps and a bash on the calculator and worked out it was going to cost us about £10 each in petrol from London.
This kept us on track for our budget but we were worried that we have to buy equipment (I don't think there is any space left under the stairs due to accumulation of under used sporting goods, most notably rollerblades). A quick check on the website, and we discovered they provided ALL the equipment. Surely we could find a beer for less than £4 in Northampton?
So Sunday morning, while the rest of the UK was taking a nap and waiting for Euro 2008, we hit the road. Just over 2 hours later we pulled into the Nene Water Sports Centre just outside the Northampton town centre.
After strapping on the XL sized wetsuit ,and picking up the life vest and helmet, we carried the raft out to the purpose built course. After a few lessons we were in (literally) the rapids. I'm lucky enough to have been on a few activities and sometimes you feel like you are waiting for your turn, but not in this case.
I don't want to give away all the secrets of the day but here's a few tips to get you going.
- You need to bring the following with you: closed toed shoes (old trainers etc..), swimming gear, a towel, shower stuff and a warm jumper.
- You can get six people in each boat
- You need to be able to swim (as you will be going in the water)
- Try and be at the centre on time as people will be waiting on you.
- You don't need to be big or strong to do this, but you do need to be able to help carry the boat to the course.
- Don't wear too much hair gel or makeup as you can go through the rapids on your back like a waterslide (if you want to) and you don't want the products going in your eye.
This is my definitely my favourite trip the summer so far.
White water rafting is available at a choice of locations throughout the UK
If this sounds like your cup of tea, why not keep updated some of other great ideas of how to unleash summer.
www.lastminute.com/unleashsummer
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Posted by: windshield replacement | 23/08/2011 at 04:39 PM