The year is 1994, a little girl sits glued to an action film that was destined to affect the course of her life. Enthralled by the actions of Meryl Streep as she masterfully navigates a raft down the epic waters of The Gauntlet, our 6-year old girl knew that this was what she wanted to do with her life. What film you ask? The River Wild.
That little, 6-year old girl was none other than Bonnie, co-owner of River Wild Adventures. She was inspired to follow her passion for white water, which progressed her career from a degree in Outdoor Education into becoming a freelance raft guide and expedition leader. Bonnie spent over a decade working hard for other companies, having a great time with clients and learning about what it meant to offer a great service.
After meeting and marrying Jen, who shares
her love of all things water, Bonnie started to reignite the dream that started in 1994. She and
Jen would spend long car journeys talking about what they could do together with their own
company and the experience they would want to create. For a while it seemed like something “for
the future”. However, in 2021, following the loss of a dear friend who was taken far too soon,
the message of “Don’t wait, do it today, don’t expect that tomorrow is always going to be there”
took hold. Bonnie and Jen decided it was never going to be the perfect time, all they had was
now. So, 27 years later, River Wild Adventures was born. Thank you Meryl Streep – for
everything.
And Claire, we’re going on an adventure with you.
At River Wild Adventures, our focus is firmly
set on ensuring that you have an experience to remember, right from the moment you get in touch all
the way through to you smiling and waving goodbye at the end of your day. We want to create an
experience that makes you want to come back and maybe even tell your friends about us. A key to this
experience is the guides that look after you.
We only want you to experience the best,
which is why we only employ the best. If you want to know a little bit more about the people looking
after you then feel free to click on the smiling faces below.
Bonnie has worked in the outdoor industry for over a decade, sharing her love for white water with hundreds of clients over the years. She found her way to rafting through her degree in Outdoor Education and knew that she’d found her home. It combined her love for white water with her desire to share the experience with others. Whilst operating as a freelance guide, Bonnie was able to build a vast array of experience and knowledge, not just of the activities but what the “best of the best” could look like. Her passion for customer service and memorable adventures led her to fulfil a lifelong dream – establishing River Wild Adventures! When she isn’t guiding in Scotland, Bonnie leads expeditions to developing countries such as Ecuador, Borneo and Tanzania for Camps International. Bonnie is also a committee member of the Scottish Rafting Association (SRA), who support and deliver good practice in commercial rafting for Scotland.
Favorite River:
The Garry (Inver) – because “it’s awesome and fun! It’s such a great river for surfing, which I love”.
We follow international training and safety standards to ensure your experience is fun and enjoyable!
As a mobile business, we are
immensely aware that we require vehicles to support our trips. Whilst the shift to electric
vehicles is something we greatly want to do, the development and availability isn’t quite
ready for our needs. Therefore, we want to make sure that we’re doing what we can to give
back.
This mindset ranges from the small details to the big steps that we can
take. When we offer you a hot drink at the end of your trip, know that we’re using
compostable cups to avoid adding to landfill. We also use eco-friendly detergents to wash
our equipment to ensure that nothing bad is being added to the environment. Everything that
is possible to recycle is recycled. And we have created a great partnership with a cause
close to our hearts – Trees for
Life. River Wild Adventures makes regular donations to their amazing work and we
hope our contributions will only continue to grow. At this time we’ve requested that our
donations are actively filtered into their tree planting efforts to make a dent in our
current footprint.