Southlake Waterpark slipway
This slipway serves South Lake at Southlake Waterpark, a commercial watersports venue built around three former gravel-pit lakes near Southoe in Cambridgeshire. The park runs bookable sessions for wakeboarding, an inflatable aqua park, open-water swimming and paddleboarding, and does not offer casual unbooked access.
Roughly a mile south, in the same stretch of the Great Ouse valley, another chain of former gravel pits forms the Little Paxton Pits nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest. It holds one of England's larger inland cormorant colonies alongside nationally important numbers of wintering gadwall and other wildfowl, part of the wider run of worked-out pits between Southoe and St Neots that the wetland wildlife of the valley now shares with the waterpark's own lakes.
Nearby
On-site café at Southlake Waterpark, in the waterski clubhouse, serving hot drinks, cakes and lunches.
Website180-pitch Camping and Caravanning Club site on the Great Ouse at Eynesbury, bookable by non-members as well as Club members; open late March to late October, about 2.5 miles from the slipway by road.
WebsiteConditions to check
Southlake Waterpark also runs powered water-skiing and wakeboarding boats on the same site; the operator directs paddleboarding sessions to a separate North Lake, away from that boat traffic.
SourceThe operator advises that lake banks and launch steps may be slippery, and that the lake bed may contain sharp stones and shells underfoot.
SourceSwimmer's itch, a skin reaction to waterfowl parasites, can occur in these warm freshwater lakes.
SourceQuestions
No questions yet
Ask about parking, access or conditions. Anyone who knows this water can answer.
Comments
No comments yet.
Save your own spots
Keep the places you launch, check the wind and shelter before you go, and log every paddle. Add a spot to the directory too, and other paddlers will find it. Free to start.