Go Country

I’d bought a voucher from Groupon for a canoeing and cliff jumping adventure experience. It’s been a great introduction, as I’d never heard of Go Country before, and now I know them, I’d definitely want to go back and do another activity with them.
The experience was fantastic! A bit mental, but fantastic! We canoed over the loch, parked the boats (or whatever it is you do with boats) on the far shore, and then swam over to the little islands. I thought he was kidding when he said we had to swim, but nope, no joke. Then we climbed the little islands and flung ourselves off from various heights and positions. It was magic.
I was really impressed with the whole set up of the place. There were 2 gentlemen dealing with us at the start, and they were really friendly and full of light-​hearted banter, presumably to help us feel less nervous about the impending cliff fling. They issued us all with wet suits, spray jackets, life jackets and helmets, and carefully checked that we had everything on correctly. We then had a brief introduction on safety and how to paddle properly, and then off to the canoes! The instructor had a wee motor boat, which was good, as he was able to herd us all together with the boat like a sheep dog guiding its unruly herd, and was quickly able to get to any canoe that was struggling. He had a job on his hands, as in our group there was one canoe team who just could not steer and fell way behind — they ended up getting a lift in his boat, another one who were fighting against the wind with only two people instead of 3 and ended up hitching a lift by clinging on to the side of his boat, one canoe that took on too much water, and he had to give them a bucket to bail out with, and one canoe that tipped over, ditching the 3 people into the loch! And then he had a few people (myself included) who were havering over the big jumps. I must have been to the cliff edge about a hundred times before I finally jumped. This guy was patience personified.
The facilities are a basic set up, but this is what you would expect. There are portacabin changing rooms, which are basic but clean, and chemical portaloos. Don’t be expecting any hot showers when you’re done. The setting itself is beautiful. When we were paddling back to base we had a stunning view of the hills, with Ben Lomond towering in the distance, and afterwards we sat on a bench just watching people and ducks go by on the loch.
They have an inflatable water park which looks like it could be a real laugh, and other activities like hamster balling, kayaking, mountain biking, archery, climbing and abseiling and other various outdoor activiites. They’ll even hire you everything you need if you want to do camping. Next on my list is gorge walking!
They also have an agreement with the McDonald Forest Hills hotel which is directly opposite, so if you’re with a group of people, and not all of you want to do the outdoorsy things, some people can choose relax in their leisure suite, or have a massage treatment instead. They really have thought of everything — it’s a very good set up and I’m looking forward to doing another experience with them again soon.

My boyfriend and I purchased a groupon for a day of canoeing and cliff jumping here at Go Country. It was a crackin deal, so we figured, why not, let’s get some summer activities in before the cold temperatures are back. Sigh.
This wee place is great. Not the newest of equipment the wet suits especially were a bit on the well worn side, but the staff are super friendly (and local– we saw them at the pub later that night) and very helpful. We went off with a group of about 25 or so for a wee canoe around loch ard over to some cliffs that were near by. My boyfriend and I were hoping to get a two seater boat, but there was a stag do there and other people who got to them first, so we were plunked in with one other guy we didn’t know. His cousin ended up going with someone else in their boat.
We were given a crash course on paddling and what to do if we tipped the boats and we were off.
The leader of the group followed us along in an engine powered boat, making sure we were all safe and he was able to help if anyone tipped over their boats. Really funny guy, making jokes at those of us who seemed to paddle in circles. Once we got the hang of it, our boat made good time, with me sitting in the middle, probably the weakest out of all of us, it was fun none the less.
Once we got to the cliffs, we parked the boats and hiked a bit before we swam across to the cliffs. They started us off with a wee cliff, which my boyfriend and I jumped off no bother. It wasn’t until the highest cliff that I loved my life more than I thought and would not allow myself to leap to my death. Haha. It wasn’t that high, and loads of people jumped a million times, I just went up, looked down, anxiety set in and I backed away. I got heckled a bit for not jumping, but that’s ok. We had a blast none the less.
After we’d had our fun, instead of hiking back to our boats, we were given the option of swimming back. I chose to swim, as it’s been a while since I’ve swam anywhere. It was great fun!
We paddled back to Go Country and that was that of our day on the loch. It was a lot of fun and should another groupon surface, I’d go back. The prices are a bit high for what you get (without a groupon).