Duke of Edinburgh Residential Trips

Driftwood Days is a RYA training centre based in the Stunning Surrey Hill, South East England. 

Our residential experience will take us along the Wey Navigation and onto the Thames where we travel towards our capital city. Visiting 2 Royal palaces and enjoying the amazing scenery.

With a maximum of 9 participants per trip you will work as a team, running the boat, locks, catering and day to day maintenance. All under the guidance of our RYA Instructor and Crew.

During your residential Experience Participants get the opportunity of learning about First Aid for Mental Health. We cannot go boating 24 hours a day (unfortunately) so during the downtime we cover the 4 hour First Aid for Mental Health Awareness Accredited course. The certification for this is included in the Price. We also spend one of the evenings doing some waterspouts such as Kayaking and Stand up Paddle boarding.

All Participants will receive the training and assessment for their RYA Inland Waterways Helmsman Certificate, for those involved in Scouting we can also assess your suitability for an Adventurous Activity permit. 

The Full residential experience includes the RYA qualification, Mental Health First Aid Qualification, Accommodation and Food.

Feedback from Abi, who was on our August 2021 trip:

I completed the residential section of my gold dofe award with driftwood days on board Whistling swan and the entire trip was an incredible experience, you could tell how much thought and effort had been put into it and it really paid off. Paul, Lizzie and Erin were amazing instructors and made everyone feel comfortable and incredibly welcome. The whole experience was a really nice way to finish the Duke of Edinburgh award.