Lightwater Valley can be a little wet 'n' wild should you take a splash on Wild River Rapids. This family friendly water ride is certainly a ride of two havles, from the elevated turns up above, to the choppy waters that await below!

After you have made your way to the rather bare minimum boarding platform, it is time to take your seat in one of six boats in operation. Each person has their own seat, with a grab rail in the middle should you feel the need to hold on. Departing the station your boat slides off and plops into the water, slowly floating around a 180-degree bend before reaching the lift hill - brace yourself for a very juddering climb.

When you finally reach the end of the 40ft climb, your boat slides into the first of the elevated turns. Skimming on a thin film of water, your boat aquaplanes into a 180-degree turn that triggers the start of your boat spinning around, before straightening out briefly and then dropping into a 360-degree elevated spiral. As the water sloshes up the side of the troughs and the boat is jostled around, you get faster and faster before entering the long straight drop. As the boat gathers speed and the churning waters below get closer, you cower before you hit the water, causing a reasonable splash but falling just short of getting you wet.

Your fibreglass vessel is now afloat in the 'wild rapids' and has to navigate itself around the bottom level of the ride. Carrying momentum from the drop, the boat turns towards the station, before going around a sweeping 180-degree turn, sending it past a huge water fountain that may trickle into the boat should conditions be windy.

From here you will enter a straight stretch between the lift hill on the right and the drop on the left - be sure to smile for the camera above!

A small chicane ensures there are a few waves for your boat to climb over before a final turn that sends you towards the station. However, don't think you're home and dry just yet! Making your way through the final S-bend at an alarming rate, your boat will crash into a wall water just before the station, leaving the unfortunate closest passenger soaking wet.

Whilst Wild River Rapids delivers on every level in terms of ride experience, unfortunately the ride fails to tick many boxes when it comes to appearance. Whilst the green paint job looks very nice and adds some colour to the area, the rather tacky lighted-palm trees do nothing for the ride's overall look and execution. Add that the ghastly on-ride photo booth, the very dull station and crude air-brush artwork on the perimeter walls, Wild River Rapids certainly isn't the prettiest ride to look at.

Overall Wild River Rapids is a short yet very fun water ride that delivers the unexpected and will probably leaving you feeling either wet or wild!

Wild River Rapids, manufactured by Reverchon, first stepped onto the scene back in 2004 when travelling showmen, James Mellors, debuted the ride at a fair in Coventry. Since then the ride has been an ever-present at popular fairs up and down the country.

In 2009 the ride was given its first permanent home at Lightwater Valley. Wild River Rapids was brought in to replace the departing Grizzly Bear rollercoaster on a year-long lease. In late 2009 Lightwater Valley announced that they had purchased the ride, believed to be in the region of £500,000, from Mellors Amusements following its lease.

• Wild River Rapids was leased from Mellors Amusements during the 2009 season!
• Wild River Rapids weighs over 120 tons!
• The whole ride can be squeezed onto just 5 lorries!
• 2 pumps are required to pump over 58,000 gallons of water around the ride!