We’ll spend five exciting days together, journeying along one of Scotland's most iconic canoe routes, using a wide range of skills taking us beyond standard paddling.

Our team will work with you to develop your traditional canoe skills in a real-world environment where the use of these trad skills will greatly benefit your enjoyment and experience.

On the first day of our trip, we’ll spend the day on Loch Insh & the Upper stretches of the Spey for us all to get to know each other and refresh our skills, before having a comfortable night and some great food (plus beer) at one of our fantastic local venues.

We’ll start our trip down the river to Spey Bay from Loch Insh the following morning.

Our team will guide and support you during the trip, ensuring you have a truly awesome experience.

During the trip, if you want, you’ll gain your British Canoeing Multi-Day Touring, Open Water Touring and Canoe Progressive awards, as well as gain lots of valuable experience which will help you on your pathway to both Open Water and White Water Open Canoe (and even advanced) Leader awards.

Learning Journeys made easy!

We know you don't want to worry about logistics when you're on a trip, so we've covered everything! 

Where there's a shuttle needed we'll take care of it, and when it comes to food we have a mouth-watering menu put together, so all you have to worry about is enjoying it. 

Our fleet of Hōu Canoes is available for you to use either paddling solo or with another member of the team, if you have your boat feel free to bring it along and we'll discount your trip appropriately.

During most of our trips, there are opportunities to gain your British Canoeing Multi-Day Touring, Open Water Touring or Canoe Progressive award, (for a small additional cost). 

Do you need to be a pro boater?

No, it’s called a Learning Journey because learning is a big part of our trip. So what level do you need to be?

Living in the outdoors?

Firstly you’ll need to be comfortable spending time out in the elements.

Scotland is famous for being able to have all seasons in one day, but more often than not it's cold and damp, so you’ll need to be content spending time in that and taking anything else as a bonus. 

Padding skill?

We’ll be on the river (where we will be paddling class/grade 1/2, and working through bigger stuff) so having spent some time in those environments before that would be great, as it’s always nice to be able to have brain space for learning and not just surviving!

Solo vs tandem?

It doesn’t matter, but if you want to be tandem you may need to bring a friend!

It’s nice to have a mix on big trips as it gives people the chance to explore both options, so we may jump around during our trip.

What to bring 

Not too much but not too little!?

It’s always a real challenge when packing for expeditions to decide what is needed and what is unnecessary, on this trip, we’re going to take care of the food, but you may still want to bring some snacks and extras.

We’re big fans of keeping our kit fairly light as if we have to portage the lighter the kit the easier the task, so let us break it down then.

Check out our full Kit List here.

Day 1 - Loch Insh and upper Spey

Day 2- 5 -Loch Insh to Spey Bay

*This is our ideal itinerary however it may change when we're on the go as we'll work with the weather and pick campsites best suited to us on each day.