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Canyoning with ACE: Maddie’s and Theresa’s Experience

a man canyoning in moray scotland

Canyoning – the best way to combine water sports with rock climbing. Also a nice side effect: enjoy the natural beauty around you and get your thrill while trekking through river gorges and jumping into pools!

Let me tell you about my own personal canyoning experience! I’d describe myself as a fun and adventurous person and I did hear of canyoning before but never came around to actually doing it. So just last week, Theresa my best friend from Germany came over to visit me and we decided to try canyoning.

Together with a Dutch guy and of course Jim as our guide, we went to the Allt Aireimh in the Ardclach parish. Ardclach can be translated to “high stony ground” from the Gaelic so it’s a perfect setting for canyoning.

We started with the most exciting part: the 45 ft abseil from the waterfall. Despite not having any experience in rock climbing whatsoever, I think we still managed quite well and overcame the first hurdle with flying colours – I think so at least…no one broke anything which is good, right?

Once we all made it down safely, off we went through the river gorge. While we were on our way down towards the River Findhorn, the sun broke through the trees and the forest around us was in all kinds of different vibrant colours – what a beautiful sight to see!

The most fun part for me was sliding down the small streams – each one is a little different so it’s always a fun experience to just swoosh down these water slides. I enjoyed feeling the array of textures the gorge has and of course there was plenty of ducking and dodging our way through fallen trees and branches which was a really cool way to give variety to the trip. Some little jumps into pools spiced it up even more!

After approximately 2 hours or so, we made it through the burn to the River Findhorn where the trip ended. After a quick picture, we tackled the short walk back up to the bus and went back to ACE. While we got changed at the changing facilities on site, Jim set up the pictures he took of us and we could see them on the big screen – they turned out pretty good!

a man standing next to a waterfall

If you want to experience your own canyoning trip, check out our canyoning page and book your next adventure! If you sign up for our newsletter, you’ll even get a 10% discount!

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