KidsOutdoors

Thanks to a £5,000 grant from the Youth Opportunity Fund, Ayers Explorer Scouts were able to organise a trip to Betws-Y-Coed, in Wales, where the we stayed in the Swallow Falls Youth Hostel. On the Saturday morning we collected 28 Mountain Bikes before heading off on a ride past Llyn Elsi. Thankfully from the fleet of bikes we only suffered 3 punctures whilst enjoying some beautiful views of Snowdonia.

The main activity of our trip followed with a visit to Canolfan Tryweryn - The National Whitewater Rafting Centre, based near Bala in North Wales. The centre developed the first commercial white water rafting operation in the UK in 1986, and since then has grown to become the largest and most well-respected rafting organisation in the UK. The Tryweryn is a dam released river so water is often flowing when other British rivers are dry, thus producing a unique year round white water venue.When we arrived at Canolfan Tryweryn we had two hours in which we managed to get four runs down the river.  Each trip down offered new and exciting challenges as we became more confident paddlers and the guides became more determined to get us wet! Each run down the river lasted approximately 20 minutes, and the rafting course is around 2km in length. It is a steep, rocky course and the river is classed as a grade 3/4. (This is a worldwide accepted rating that grades the technical difficulty of rapids on a river. Grade 1 is gentle flowing water, and grade 6 is considered commercially un-runnable).

The aim of the Youth Opportunity Fund is to involve young people, especially those who are hard to reach, in identifying positive activities and things to do, and to support their role as decision makers, grant givers and project leaders. The fund is part of the Every Child Matters initiative created by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It is administered locally by the Youth Work in Cumbria Partnership.

Ayers Explorer Scouts have an extremely active programme of activities and it is thanks to the support from organisations such as Youth Work in Cumbria that we are able to make exciting activities affordable for our members.