An Aussie PACKRAFT_ WILD CAMPING Adventure..

Yes! There you go, nice little bass. I feel like I'm paddling through a Jurassic Park movie or something. I don't think I'll ever get sick of this, eh? Oh man, too bloody good. Well, g'day guys. So we're out here on a little packraft adventure this weekend. So I got a packraft a couple of months ago and haven't actually used it yet, so pretty keen to give it a go. But unfortunately the river's a little bit higher, moving a bit faster than I would have liked it to be. This week I was going downstream. I'm actually planning to paddle upstream a couple of k's and set up camp up there for the night, and then paddle back down tomorrow. So I think we'll be fine against the current a bit, but I kind of expected that coming out of here. We've had a fair bit of rain recently and I've been watching the water level gauges and they're just constantly staying pretty high. So I thought I'd give it a crack anyway and we'll see how it goes. So I'll probably get the raft out of the bag and we'll get that blown up. Alright, well she's all ready to go. Oh man, just have a look at her, eh? She's absolutely gorgeous. Look at those curves. Oh, so keen to use her. Absolutely love this thing already. And for those who are interested, the brand is called Alpaca Raft and this is a caribou. Now, for this trip we've decided to strap the pack to the front of the boat, but there is also this zipper at the back here where you can open that up and you can actually put gear inside the boat and then obviously zip it back up and then blow it up. But this time around I thought I'd just strap it to the front and see how that goes. So yeah, let's get on out there. Man, this feels strange. Going from a canoe to this. Feels like you're paddling around in a pool toy, which you pretty much are. Judged by how fast I'm moving against the bank, this might be a pretty long paddle. I've paddled probably about 50 metres and I'm already buggered. This is really hard going, eh? It's definitely one hell of a workout. I think I'm going backwards. This current right here is really strong. Alright, so we've come to our first obstacle. So I've got a couple of rapids here and unfortunately I can't paddle the pack I filmed, so I'm going to have to pack up the raft and hike up the river bank for a couple of hundred metres to get back out into some nice, flat, open water. So, pretty annoying, but it's what has to be done. Man, that's crazy. Look at all that flood debris. That's probably at least 15 metres higher than the actual river. That would be a hell of a lot of water moving through this valley. And how's that? Got a camo hoochie amongst all the flood debris. Gosh, you would not want to be the person laying underneath that when the flood came through. Hopefully they weren't anywhere near the river when that came through. Well, I'm not going to lie, some of these rapids look pretty menacing when I come back down tomorrow. And I've never done any whitewater rafting, so, yeah, it's going to make things pretty interesting. Just having my gear strapped to the front of the raft, I can just see me coming off and my gear going, washing down the river. So, I'm going to have to play it pretty safe tomorrow. Man, what a gorgeous spot. This is real pretty. But, once again, I do not like the look of those rapids. Definitely above my pay grade. I've found a really beautiful spot. It's a nice, big, pretty flat, sandy beach here. Nice and high above the river. And it's kind of just by these rapids here, so it kind of climbs off. It looks like a really nice spot to go for a swim and maybe there might be even some bass hiding around there. This is a pretty good option. I might just go a little bit further up the river, see if I can find anything a little bit better. But I think a little bit further, I think the rapids kind of die off and there might be a nice, big area to sort of go for a bit of a paddle. Alright, so I've just hiked up the river a little bit. I'm just blowing up the packraft. So, I sort of scoured the water and had a look around one of these rapids and stuff. And I think there's probably one rapid that I can probably run with my skill level, which is pretty much nothing. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to jump in the packraft and there's some flat water here for a couple hundred metres. And then at the base of that, or at the start of that rapid, I'll probably pull over and then grab my bag and I'll probably run my bag around to the end of the rapid. So, that way I can run the rapid without the risk of my bag falling off or everything getting absolutely soaked. Because, like I said, I've never used a packraft before, so I have absolutely no idea about my capabilities or the packraft's capabilities and how it's going to sort of handle in rapids and things like that. So, I'm going to try and play it safe. So, I think that's probably what I'll do. So, we'll jump in the raft now and we'll make our way down. Well, this is definitely a nice way to explore these areas. So, I'm just going to have a little bit of a paddle around here just so I can sort of get used to the packraft and how it handles. But, man, what a backdrop, hey? This is a pretty beautiful place to come for a paddle. These things are so easy to spin. They basically spin on a dime, hey? Compared to like a canoe. I guess you just do 360s down the river. Oh, man, these are so fun, hey? Love it. Can't wait to do some more trips with this. This is going to open up so many fun possibilities. Some pretty cool rocks hanging out of the water here. I'll give you guys a look. Probably good spots to fish around here. Probably a few bass hiding in these little nooks and crannies. All right, well, I just pulled up the raft and, yeah, dumped all my gear on this sandy beach here. Do you want to stop? I'll probably end up camping here a bit later. So, a really nice spot. Nice sandy beach behind me. Set up a tent and, yeah. Oh! It nearly pulled away from me. Sorry. That's a good start. Yeah, but I think I'll probably end up camping here a bit later. But I just wanted to have a quick look at the rapids and just double check. And I think I should be able to get through them. I think I can find a nice little path to get through them. But, like I said, this is my first attempt at whitewater rafting. So, anything can happen. But fingers crossed it all goes well. So, I'm going to jump back in the raft and figure it out. Oh! That was so fun. Phew! Oh, that was so fun. Phew! Alright, let's pull over before I get on the next rapid. Oh, man. That was so fun. Definitely not as bad as I was expecting. To be honest, that wasn't the worst rapid in the world. I think it was a nice one to start off with. But, man, that was really fun. I want to do it again. Well, that was a lot of fun. I think it was a perfect rapid to ease me into whitewater rafting. It wasn't too big. It wasn't too small. It was just right. So, yeah, I had a lot of fun with that. I could easily just do it over and over. That was really good. You can definitely see how people get addicted to pack rafting or just whitewater rafting. It's a bit of a rush. So, yeah, a lot of fun. Anyway, it's getting close to 5 o'clock. I actually think it's about 5 o'clock now. So, I'm going to get a tent set up and then muck it right out and go for a bit of a flick and see if we can catch ourselves a nice little bass. And, yeah. So, you reckon I like the color green? Maybe just a bit. So, after my last video, I had a fair few people ask me what tent I was using. This is the Veschl Exigen 1. I used to call it Weschl, but I had a lot of Germans message me and tell me that it's actually pronounced with a V, not a W. So, it's Veschl, apparently. So, yeah, that's my best attempt at German. So, yeah, it's a pretty good tent. Completely freestanding, so you don't even need to peg it in the ground. It's even got a pole that comes out to the sides. But, yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. It's nice and lightweight. I think it weighs about 1.5 kilos and it's, yeah, a one-man tent. So, pretty happy with it. And just for my mat, I've just got, yeah, Sea to Summit, Heath to Light. This is their non-insulated version. Super comfy mat. Really happy with this one. I think the only thing I don't like about this mat is just it's a little pump sack. It's not that big compared to my Nemo Tenta, which has, like, a really nice big pump sack. It only takes, like, four breaths with the Nemo Tenta, whereas this one takes about ten. So, a little bit longer. But it is pretty cool that it's incorporated into the bag. So, that's pretty handy. Saves them some weight there. And just for my quilt, I've just got a Sea to Summit Cinder. It's a really nice summer quilt. Nice and lightweight and, yeah, quite warm. Now, with my quilts, before I sort of put it in there, I like to sort of hold it horizontally and then shake it. So, that way all the down goes to the bottom of the baffles and then you can sort of just even out nice and even. All right. Sweet. Yeah, so it's about 6.30 now. So, might have a bit of a cast. See if we can catch ourselves a nice little bass or something. I'm not going to cook it up. I've got a nice little steak sandwich to cook tonight. So, yeah, just going to see if we can get any bass in here. Like, this is usually pretty good with bass, but I'm not sure it's sort of, yeah, there's much water moving through it. So, it's quite murky as well. I don't know whether that's going to affect the fishing or not, but we'll find out. Oh, damn it. Something wrong with the side of the spool. I've got to have the bail arm open. Whoops. Notice how I haven't got the reel in the sand for once. I'm learning. This is such a nice reel. The last thing I'm going to do is, yeah, fill it full of sand. I might actually, yeah, use the surface lure today. There's nothing like catching bass off the surface, so we'll see if this has any luck. Yes! Tiny guy. There he goes. It's a small little guy. That's not, that's not living at all. Alright, gin and tonic time. Well, cheers guys, to another cracker of a location. Bloody hell, these places just keep on getting better, eh? I don't think I'll ever get sick of this, eh? Just being out here by yourself and surrounded by so much bloody beauty, oh man, this cannot beat it. That's why I'm really, yeah, excited with the packraft as well. I think it's going to open up some pretty fun possibilities and, yeah, I think it's going to take me to some pretty amazing places. Hopefully you guys are keen for the packraft because, yeah, there'll definitely be plenty more of that in the future. Oh man, too bloody good. So I was just thinking about, yeah, this subscriber who's been following the channel for quite a while. He goes by the name of English Andy, I'm pretty sure. So if you watch him, mate, shout out to you. But he left a comment on my last video, I think it was the last one. He's actually done a few videos and he sort of mentioned how just being in England, he says there's just nowhere in England that you can sort of go to these kind of places. Everywhere's private property and there's just not that much national parks and wilderness areas left in England. It really sort of makes me appreciate what we have here in Australia. We have so much national park and wilderness area. We're so bloody fortunate, eh? It's one of our greatest assets. I think it's something that too many Aussies just don't appreciate. It's honestly one of the best things about this country is the fact that we can just get out here amongst it all and just escape from bloody society and all the rest of it. I get bloody goosebumps thinking about it. It's just so stoked to live in this country where we've just got so much bloody gorgeous country to explore. I'm definitely very privileged and I definitely don't take it for granted. It's a shame the other parts of the world, especially around Europe and stuff, they don't really have access to those kinds of locations but hopefully we can learn from that and going down the track we can keep all these kind of places preserved for many years to come. Alright, so for dinner tonight I'm going to make a steak sandwich but rather than using beef, I'm actually going to use thin kangaroo steaks. It should be quite tasty. I've just got some Turkish bread, the kangaroo steaks, some red onion which I'm going to sort of caramelise with some balsamic vinegar. I've got a tomato, some mushrooms which I'll add some thyme as well as some truffle oil to, some rocket lettuce, some goat's cheese and some olive oil. So yeah, let's get cooking. Balsamic vinegar. I've got some truffle oil. Now just kangaroo mince steaks. Right now the kangaroo won't need very long because it's a very lean meat and they're super thin so I think probably 30 seconds or so on each side I reckon. Mince is about done. Alright, first up some goat's cheese. Next up the red onion. And next up we've got the mushrooms. Next up the steak. Some tomato. This rocket smells pretty foul but let's add some on. Maybe lettuce isn't exactly the best thing to bring into the bush. And we'll just top it off. Man, that looks pretty bloody delicious, eh? Let's get stuck in. Well, it's a quarter to ten so pretty late dinner. Man, tower savings always throws me off, eh? This is so good. So good. Well, it's been a bit of a slow morning this morning. Woke up about 7.30, it's pretty drizzly weather. Got up out of the tent and then it just started getting heavier and heavier so I had to go back and lay in the tent for another hour or so until it passed. Silly me, I didn't bring a rain jacket with me. I checked the weather report yesterday and it said 40% chance of less than one millimetre so yeah, that was way off. But the sun seems to be poking out now which is good so I'm just going to probably jump in the raft and maybe go for a bit of a fish around here just while the tent sort of dries out and stuff and then after that we'll pack everything down and then we'll start making our way back down the river. I'm just going to pull up at this little beach just here and then I can sort of have a cast from the shore. Alright, now my thoughts are there should be a bass or two just hiding in this still water. This has got a little cicada so we'll see how that goes. A tiny little bass just came up to have a look at it but it was really small. Man, this place is so beautiful to paddle around. Look at the rapids up there, you've got the rocky escarpment, big deep gorge. Bloody gorgeous. I could just paddle around here all day hey. Bloody hell. That is pretty impressive. I feel like I'm paddling through like a Jurassic Park movie or something. Just had a strike. Dammit. Yes. Got him. Don't go under there. This is pretty hard to manoeuvre with a pack raft. Come here mate. There we go. Gosh, I almost don't want to get him in the boat in case he puts a hole in it. Yeah, there we go, nice little bass. First fish from the pack raft. Let's let him go. Well, there you go, first fish from the pack raft. Just goes to show you can fish from a pack raft but it's pretty sketchy. I don't know, even if I had a landing net I feel like if I was to get in the boat and it shook out the lure and then punctured the side of the raft I'd be in a world of trouble. Not the most safest thing to do but it can be done. Well, the bloody rain's back. I've just packed up my tent and I'm just getting all my gear together now and I'll chuck that all in a dry bag and then I'll probably strap it to the front of the boat and I'll probably run this first rapid with all my gear on the boat just to see how it goes. But after that I think I'll probably pull over and then probably deflate the boat and probably hike around the next three or four rapids because I had a look at them yesterday and they look a little bit sketchy. I'd be happy to run it if it was just by myself. I'm actually kind of keen to do a bit more rafting just by myself but having all the gear strapped to the front of the boat, it just seems so unsecure. When I was paddling around yesterday it just doesn't seem like a good handle that much of a thrash around. I could be wrong but I kind of want to play it safe today. But what I can do for next time, probably there's some dry bags and stuff you can get that you can put inside the cavity of the boat, so inside the walls, so that way you're not strapping anything to the front of the boat. I think that would probably be a good way to run these rivers, that way you don't have the risk of your gear falling overboard. Any of you guys who do pack rafting, feel free to send me a message on Instagram or something, give me any tips or tricks. I'd love to do a bit more pack rafting and any advice I can get is good. How about we get all the stuff in some dry bags and then we'll go down the river. All right, let's do this. Having expensive equipment like cameras and stuff in the raft is a little bit uneasy about it so hopefully we stay upright and none of it falls out. I have strapped everything down as much as I could so we'll see how we go. Ah, I'm stuck. Not to a very good start. The water level is probably about half a meter I reckon. Oh goodnight. Absolutely drenched but I've got my gear which is good. I'm just going to pull up here and just have a look at this rapid. If I think it's a bit too sketchy I'll just pack everything up and hike it further down. Just decided to portage around this rapid just here. This looks a little bit out of my comfort zone. It's quite a narrow chute and quite rocky. I was contemplating just leaving my pack and stuff on the other side and just running it in the raft alone but I don't know. It's still a little bit out of my comfort zone. If I had someone else here then I would definitely do it but just being by myself I might just play it safe this time. All right, so just coming up to some more rapids here so I might have to get out and have another look around them and make a call whether I want to go through it or portage around. I'm just trying to decide whether I should run this or portage it. I think I might run it hey. I think I might even keep the gear on it. There is a little bit of a step, a little waterfall just there which I'm a little bit sceptical about but look, I'm never going to know unless I give it a go so I might just give it a shot. All right. A little bit nervous about this one but I think it should be all right. Let's give it a go. Everything is all strapped down. It would help to have the paddle around the right way wouldn't it. I'm taking on so much water. That was fun. That was really fun. I need to pull over and get this water out. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I can't wait to watch this footage back. I'm sure the look on my face is probably going to be priceless. That was a manoeuvring game. There's another one. I think this might be the last rapid coming up here. All right, sweet. That was the last rapid. There's some people there having a nice little picnic which is nice. Man, that was really fun. I'm so glad I decided to actually run most of those. There was just that one rapid there that I decided to portage around but in hindsight I probably could have done it. I was just a bit sceptical about keeping all my stuff on the end of the boat. It was a bit of a drop and then also it's kind of like a really narrow chute, quite rocky and stuff and I don't know. I just thought I'd play it safe since I've never really done anything like that before but now I'm starting to get my confidence levels up. I think I kind of know what I can handle and also what the raft can handle. I'm really enjoying this back raft stuff. I cannot wait to do more trips like this in the future. It's going to be really fun. I have lots of really fun possibilities. I'm sure it's nice going down with the current rather than fighting against it yesterday. That was an absolute punish yesterday. Now all I need is a couple of beers and I can sit here and just float down the river all day. I think it's about 6 or 7km of just this flat water. It would be a nice way to spend the day. This has been a really fun trip. I wasn't quite sure how I'd go this trip. But yeah, a lot of fun. It's so peaceful. No sounds like planes or anything like that. It's just birds and cicadas. I went past my take out spot. It's so hard to recognise when everything looks exactly the same around here. Man, what a backdrop. This place is pretty damn beautiful. As much as I don't want to leave, I think it's about time I pack everything up and head out of here. I've had a hell of a fun time. This has honestly been one of the funnest trips I've had in a really long time. Hope you guys have enjoyed this as well. And if you guys have, make sure you leave a comment below and let me know what you guys think of the old packraft. Because I'm definitely keen to do a few more packraft trips in the future. Anyway, on that note, big thanks to all you guys for watching. I'll see you guys on the next one. Hooray!