Details

By Niki Norman

Would you like to spend a week paddling in the sunshine, on clear turquoise waters in stunning scenery?

Following on from the huge sucess of our club trips to Bulgaria, Slovenia, and most recently, the Pyrenees, the club is running another kayaking trip to Slovenia in 2016.

The dates are Friday 27th/Saturday 28th May to Saturday 4th/Sunday 5th June (actual dates depend on departure times and travelling arrangements, still to be confirmed.) This is half term week in most schools.

We will be staying in Bovec and there is one main river called the Soca, and if river levels are high enough, there is also the Koritnica. The Soca has sections of grade 2, 3, 4 and 5, so is suitable for anyone who has paddled some moving water. The Koritnica is a mixture of grade 2 and 3. I think it is probably about the same difficulty as the Dart Loop at a level when the water is lapping the ledge at Newbridge. The water is really is turquoise!

This trip was booked immediately on our return from the Pyrenees, and we have filled our accommodation. However, several people have expressed an interest in joining us, so we are investigating the possibility of booking a second holiday house. 

I will tell you what we did previously, to help you decide whether this trip is something you'd enjoy.

We left Maidstone on the Friday evening, used Eurotunnel and shared the driving, to arrive in Bovec mid-afternoon. This is a long journey and flying is an option, but you would need to get your kayak there and arrange to get from the airport to Bovec (I think it is a three hour drive or there may be a bus). 

Once you are in Bovec, all the gets-ins are quite close, so there isn't much driving around while you are there. 

We ate out together some nights, some people shared the cooking on other nights, we had a couple of barbecues and some people ate out every night. Food and drink was reasonably priced. There are several restaurants and a couple of supermarkets in the town. There are also a couple of bakeries.

We paddled every day! For those of you who haven't been away for a week before, this does wonders for your skills and confidence. We paddled easier and harder sections. We would base our choice of sections to paddle on the abilities within the group. This trip is not suitable for complete beginners (unless you are able to arrange your own coaching). We would expect you to have paddled the Dart Loop or something of a similar difficulty. If you have only started paddling moving water this year, we would take you on easier sections appropriate to your paddling skills, and then while the rest of the group are paddling the harder sections, you would be able to enjoy walking, cycling, paragliding or even sunbathing, if we are lucky with the weather (my ideal is rain at night, sunny during the day). There is a good tourist information office in the town and they speak English.

The cost of the trip will depend on how you get there, vehicle insurance, how much the holiday house costs and how many you are sharing it between. It will probably be around £300-£350.

If you are interested, you could let us know here, tell Mark Corti at the club or email me. Please feel free to ask any questions. Richard and Lee would also be able to tell you more about the rivers. If you decide that you want to join us, get out paddling! The more you paddle here, the more you will be able to do in Slovenia. There are still spaces on the Dart trip in December. 

 There are videos on the Club Youtube channel from our previous trips - come and join us!

• Prev
• Next