New Record for Abernethy Canoeists

Tuesday July 11 2017

A team from the Abernethy Adventure Centres have broken the record for canoeing down the River Spey from Kingussie to Spey Bay.

The four – operation directors Pete White and Mark Kittle, and leadership students Roald Macaskill and Alex Metcalfe - completed the 74-mile journey in 15 hours, 24 minutes, beating the previous record by 26 minutes.

Sunday’s adventure was to raise funds for a new building project, The Courtyard Project, at Abernethy’s Nethybridge Centre in the Spey Valley.

Roald Macaskill said: “The team worked really well together, pushing through the long stretches with little flow in order to keep up the pace through enjoyable rapids as well as the tough slogs. We’re chuffed to have completed our set task and to have raised some money for Abernethy, but we couldn’t have done it without our amazing support team who encouraged us through the highs and lows.”

Abernethy is a Christian non-profit organisation which provides outdoor adventure experiences and spiritual development for schools and other organisations, families and individuals. Three per cent of all Scottish children will visit an Abernethy centre throughout the year.

As well as Nethybridge, they have adventure centres at Ardeonaig on Loch Tay, Ardgour on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula and Barcapel near Castle Douglas, as well as the newly-acquired Glen Kin bunkhouse near Dunoon in Argyll and a winter ski training base in Switzerland.

The Courtyard Project is a £1.5 million plan for a new building at Nethybridge, which has been operating since 1971, employs around 42 people and welcomes over 6000 guests a year. The project will provide better accommodation for guests and staff, and improved disabled access. Building is scheduled to start in March next year.

You can donate to the Spey in a Day challenge at https://mydonate.bt.com/events/speyinaday or text YARD10 £5 to 70070 to donate £5.

Post Tags: abernethy adventure

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