The May Bank Holiday weekend is typically a time for lounging in the garden sipping the first of the summer Pimms and scoffing cucumber sandwiches. ‘Not So’ say all the folk who headed out with us on Saturday and Sunday! Water levels on the River Tay are holding nicely due to the snow steadily melting off the numerous Munros (a peak over 3000ft) of the Lawers range. The Sun even made an appearance too, boosting the temperature into balmy double figures! in Scotland………..imagine !!?*

The Keltney Burn Canyon is proving as popular as ever! More and more people seem to be returning to have a go at ‘that cliff jump’ they perhaps didn’t pluck up the courage for last time around!!

Here’s what you had to say about your time Rafting and Canyoning with SPLASH over the past weekend.

What was the Best thing about the trip?

“The Big jumps and then the pub!!”

“Our Guide Toby had charming banter that added to our rafting experience”.

“I highly enjoyed the whole experience, the staff are a nice bunch and the new pub/cafe is ideal. Good fun Thanks.”

“The staff have a Bad Attitude, Bad as in good! Gnarly Dude!!!!”

“I didn’t know what Canyoning was. It was Awesome.”

Romance is evidently in the air (must be the sunshine). Some of the handsome chaps on the Saturday Stag Party seemed to take a fancy to the best looking of our Guides.

“Great Staff! maybe consider topless Laura and post-rafting ……” We will leave that one to your imagination!

When asked what we could have done better one chap simply proclaimed.

“FREE CIDER”………………..We are working on Simon at the Tully Cafe Bar!

Cheers. Enjoy the Sun. (from the water, its the best place to be).

THE SPLASH TEAM.

After a few months away the biggest, hairiest, most bearded, most dread locked of our guides is back! Toby Saxton.

After a winter of throwing himself off snow-clad slopes and getting pulled around on skis by a huge dog!, he’s back and raring to immerse himself and our clients in the sparkling Scottish Whitewater! Tobys local knowledge and personal expertise make him a valuable asset to any team.

You are likely to bump into him if you are heading to the River Tummel for a raft trip or into the depths of the Keltney Burn for one of our Canyon Adventures! See You There.

Sunday 27th April saw SPLASH play host to a Charity Raft Race organised by The Round Table.

Tim Dew did a fantastic job getting all the teams in the right place at the right time and handing over responsibility to the SPLASH TEAM.

Brilliant sunny weather, a health dose of “Friendly Rivalry” and a ‘Le Mans’ style start saw mayhem and madness prevail off the line! As the field strung out and began to tire, the cracks started to show and the Gaps started to open! Leading ‘from the off’ and never looking like being caught was the team guided by ‘Nelly. Second and third places respectively were whipped all the way to the finish by ‘Sticky’ and the ‘modern-day celt’ Davey Campbell.

A well earned feed at The Inn on the Tay was followed by Refreshing drinks in the Scottish sun at our New Rafting Venue, the Tully Cafe Bar! Awards were received by the fastest teams and the teams who managed to raise the most money.

Big Fun had by all. Thousands of pounds raised and we look forward to welcoming the group back next year!

♥ ♥ The weekend of the 26th and 27th of April saw the biggest numbers SPLASH have hosted from our new Rafting Venue at the Tully Cafe Bar. Saturday saw our clients taking to the water in Rafts, Bugs and Testing their boundaries, Cliff Jumping in The Keltney Burn Canyon! Blessed by sunshine and continued good water levels the Guides all came back with smiles on their faces as big or bigger than the clients!! (even the ones who took some impromptu swimming lessons!)

It also appears that our guides are looking better and better (not older and older) each day! When asked if the trip had ‘Any Highlights‘ one lady (who shall rename anonymous!) commented about the river trip. ” Our guide was hilarious, but made us feel safe at the same time”. Then went on to mention a party in the evening after the river trip.

“Who knew your guides where so multi talented”!? Obviously referring to his dancing prowess!! He will remain anonymous for leg (or broken ankle) pulling reasons. A good time had by all.

Here at Splash we have always strived to work with the environment with minimal impact. After all the environment is our office and place of work. We have always had an environmental policy which is dynamic and we are always looking for ways we can reduce our impact.

A major progression in 2008 is a massive reduction in our bus transport requirements. By moving our client meeting point to our new location at the Tully Cafe/Bar we are able to reduce our bus journeys by half. This has been further enhanced by working with a proactive transport provider who will supply larger buses on busy days again reducing the impact of our transport requirements. This has been further enhanced again by working in partnership with another activity company to share bus transport.

The net result of all of the proactive measures above has seen a massive reduction in car and small bus journeys. We are now exploring how we can reduce the amount of cars and small buses that come to visit us from Edinburgh and Glasgow by innovative use of larger bus transport.

If having been with us on a Splash Adventure and you have noticed how we may be able to reduce our environmental footprint please let us know your suggestions

When you come Rafting at SPLASH we will give each member of your group an Interactive Disc to take home for FREE. As well as the images of your trip that have been shot by our PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER there are films and information on all of our other activities. This means you can whet you appetite for more adventure and see how much fun others had doing things like Canyoning or taking on the rapids of the Tummel River in our one-man River Bugs!

Here at SPLASH we are always trying to stay on top of our game. Now that we are operating all River Tay Rafting from our new base at the stunningly refurbished ‘Tully’ Cafe-Bar, we are keen to see what YOU THINK.

We asked… Any Highlights? This is what we got back from you last weekend……………………..

“Fantastic watching my ten year old really get into it! He loved it, and will be back”.

“Getting stuck on the rock, but not flipping over!”

“Again, Again!”

“A pleasant guide with a sense of humour”.

“Great Leadership”.

“ALL OF IT! I never thought I would do it”.

“Very casual and friendly, but with a STRONG EMPHASIS ON THE SAFETY of everyone”.

“The look on my eight year olds face said it all.”

It looks like we are onto a winning formula with our new location. Situated only 100m from the take out point on the River Tay. Gone are the days of getting off the water to jump on our transport wet (and sometimes a bit chilly). Now, it’s straight back to our heated changing rooms, into your nice dry clothes and into the Tully Cafe-Bar for a well earned feed and beverage or one of Simon and Bernie’s legendary Hot Chocolates while you have a laugh at yourselves on our big screen. Our Professional Cameraman will display all the antics from your river journey, then provide you with a FREE COPY OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS TO TAKE HOME!

Well 2007 was one of the highest water years Splash has seen in Scotland but as always time passes quickley and here we are well into the start of the 2008 white water rafting and adventure sport seasons.

Some new developments at Splash White Water Rafting

 As well as our normal Splash base and sale office in Abefeldy we have now co-located with the Grandtully Hotel in Grandtully Village. We have gone into partnership with the hotel owners and all our river tay trips will be run from this location as it brings many advantages for our clients, the first being that the hotel is only 200 meters from the end of the trip so people are dry and in the cafe and bar within minutes of finishing the trip.

Splash onsite facilities now include

1. Male and Female changing rooms and toliets

2. Onsite Cafe and Bar

3. Onsite accommodation for up to 24 people self catering or B&B ( we have other accommodation options for up to 100)

4. Onsite campsite for camping or touring caravans with toliets and shower blocks

5. Onsite briefing and lecture/film rooms

6. Onsite music nights

7. Onsite parking for up to 100 cars/buses

 Within 2 minutes walk of our knew base their is also the following extra services. Riverside pub with a good range of meals, coffee and gift shop, village store.

Splash are sure that these new developments will enhance our clients experence of their stay with us as we know your off water time is just as important as your activity time

We have all seen the hen weekends in Europe’s top cities. You can sort of spot them with the various costumes that seem to be all the rage these days. Well there are also a lot of hen groups who are trying out some very different hen weekends. They often choose to combine adventure and a bit of luxury.

They spend the day white water rafting and maybe a bit of canyoning or paintball or charging over a Scottish mountain on a quad then it is back to the spa for a bit of pampering or maybe straight back to a luxury lodge and a long deep dip in the hot tub.

Scotland is proving to be a magnet for the hen groups who are willing to try something different. It may be the attraction of all these attractive raft guides who look after them on the weekend but I think it is more to do with top class accommodation to relax in with a day of fun, excitement and yes a little bit of terror thrown in as well. (more…)

Okay it is April now, and around 300000 couples will get married this year so it is the month that many are thinking ahead to their stag party. Now stag parties take many shapes and sizes and we can all think of the more traditional activities shall we say that often go on during a stag party weekend! Well more and more stag groups are thinking about doing alternative stag weekends as many have been on several events before and have done the heavy drinking and stripper thing.

Scotland is a favourite destination of stag groups who prefer a weekend of adventure and adrenaline rather than just a booze fuelled rampage through some unfortunate city. The groups that tend to come to Scotland are often a little bit older and have been on stag weekends before. They are looking for something different and Scotland is the place to provide something different that is for sure.

Last year our most in demand Stag Weekend was a Splash Weekend of a couple of nights in a stunning self catering lodge on the side of a mountain and a Splash day of white water rafting and canyoning. Some groups could not get enough and did two full days of rafting , canyoning , river bugs and mountain biking.

You combine this with a few beers in the evening and a roast pig on the spit and you have a weekend that no one in the stag party group will ever forget. Stag Party Activity weekends are the stag event of today.

We asked some of our stags last weekend if they thought we could have done anything better…………

“Nothing!. The Instruction was great. The Guides instruction, sense of fun and local advice were all well done.”

“A great experience. Well worthwhile and a good way to clear the head!”