3 Day Wild Camp | Testing My Packraft

Hi everyone, thank you so much for joining me. In this video I'm going to be trying out my new pack raft from Alpaca. So I got this fairly recent and I guess I just haven't had the chance to come out and test it out and right now we are experiencing a heat wave so I thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to come out and test it out for a camp but it's a lovely day, super warm and I've got all my kit with me but this is the first time I've actually loaded it up so it's all a learning curve, new experience, getting used to where everything goes and how it manoeuvres. I've been on the boat once already and it's been brilliant. I am finally at a place that I'm really happy with here. So this is down south, I live down south so it's fairly local and it's like a little bolt hole to go to when I want to be on water and test out my boat but it's also a really nice peaceful spot as well just to come and chill out. So this whole trip is an aid for a Scotland trip that I'm hoping to do fairly shortly so I want to take my pack raft, my lovely pack raft and fish a jumping and use it in some locks around Scotland and make a little trip out of it. I haven't been to Scotland this year so I'm really missing it. After spending a month there last year it's just got a hold of me and travelling abroad is very slim at the minute so yeah I thought I'll go out today, get used to my boat, get used to being in it, packing it and what sort of gear I need. Already I've learned so much, it's crazy, like I'm thinking of getting different wet bags now, different ways of tying my kit on and stuff like that but it was a great paddle down here, it isn't too far, it's a fairly easy paddle and I'm just gonna keep on paddling, just getting used to my boat especially it's completely different with weight in it and then find somewhere to set up for tonight. So while I'm here I'm going to get out the trusty old fishing rod and give it a go. I haven't done that in ages so we'll see how that goes, I'll probably end up in a tree or something. So what try a spinner. The camera work on this right now, it's been a long time since I've done this and you meant to lick it, put it together. You know I think they were lying when they said women can multitask so I'm struggling right now. That's that done, lure is on, I'm just gonna burn off the excess line but that is the five turn grunner knot but like I said it's been ages since I've done this so I'm so rusty but I guess it's just like everything, anything in life. Right I'm gonna get a lighter and burn the excess off and then give it a crack, see how it goes. Right we're rolling, all set, ready to go. Just gonna go down here and just start casting from the bank but I don't have a real idea of what's in here judging from what I've seen it looks like perch but there probably is like pike and stuff in it but I don't have a wire tracer on so yeah it's just gonna go straight through my line. I do have one with me but I'm not using it at the minute so we're just gonna see if I hook into anything. This is great it's like bringing back my childhood memories, love it. So I'm just gonna have a little explore around really before the sun goes in because it's starting to like go behind the clouds and I think it's supposed to be really, what do you call it, I think it's meant to be really grim for the next couple days in terms of rain and stuff so I want to make the most of the sunshine, enjoy it. That's why I don't really want to set up camp too early and then find somewhere to set up and to make some food, sounds like a plan but that is a really nice spot and I was debating staying there. I might come back though, I'm just gonna see. Fishing was good though, I enjoyed it, it was good fun. I got snagged up a couple times but that's just standard isn't it, like I said I've got really rusty. I think we're literally just coming to the end of this heat wave so I think I've got the nice, the last real nice day before it turns a bit crap again. But I can't believe how well this boat tracks especially with stuff in it and that big bag on the front. I've just been looking for somewhere to set up for tonight along this stretch. So I've been here before to that other bit and you've probably seen it on my videos if you watch them but I come up here, there's a really nice place just here, like secluded, nice view right next to the river, flat ground, everything ticks all the boxes. But the wind has really picked up and I was like surprised how much the wind has picked up. I just looked at the forecast for tonight, it's supposed to be, well it's yellow warnings of a thunderstorm. Right, I was talking and the battery died on this so I checked the forecast and I wondered why it was so windy. It's because there is a thunderstorm coming in. I'm going to show you this which I found amazing. Basically everything that I've bought with me, pretty much all your essentials when you go on trips, you put inside the boat. So here I've got a cargo zip that I paid extra for so you can put stuff internally into the boat. Some people might be put off by this, some people might think it's a great way of storing extra gear because in small inflatables that is such a mission when you're trying to go on a trip and take your gear with you. So what happens is I undo this zip and all the air will come out of the boat because it's basically you're opening up the chamber of the boat. So I'm going to get out my tent and things and start setting up so I've got to take the boat down. So I think it is a good idea in a way because it takes your boat down and then you blow it back up when you need it. I'm very very hungry now. It has started to get really cold so I've just got a Russian pack meal and it's really nice so I'm going to eat this now. As you can see I'm wearing this now. The midges have got so bad. I'm guessing it's because I'm right next to water but they have got pretty bad so I can only imagine what Scotland's like at the minute. Morning. I slept really well last night but as you can see there isn't a storm which is surprising because it was forecasted but it is a lot colder. What I'm deciding today is whether to move on and just paddle a bit further down and change camp or not. I don't want to do this and then it absolutely tips it down. Yeah so I am debating whether to move because I don't want to go further down this canal because of all the locks that you have along the way and I think this is one of the sections along this canal so I don't want to go further down and it's not the best. So I've been fishing for quite a while now and I've had no joy which is a shame but I've had a few knocks and I've actually seen a perch chasing my spinner in the margins but other than that I haven't caught one but I think I'll try again a bit later or the prime time like near dusk as us when they're most active really but I've tried different lures so I've used a jelly and a spinner and yeah I've just mixed it up a bit. But anyway I wanted to talk about my new purchase well I say new I waited I think it's about three months till I got this so I ordered this in February so yeah ordered this in February received it in June so yeah four months three four months um and it it came which I'm so excited about. So this is the alpaca caribou they do loads of different models alpaca but I chose this one it's one of their lightweight range so it's a really light raft but it also carries a lot of gear it's designed for bike packing so the straps at the front where I had my backpack is where you normally keep a bike and store it on there I don't have the proper straps so I need to sort of do a DIY um purchase some straps you can also get the skirts on these so they go over you and you don't get all the drips off the paddles on you so you stay dry. The boat is one chamber in itself which some people could disagree with because you usually have more chambers to keep you inflated and upright if one chamber goes down but this is really strong material so there is a there is a slim chance it will punch you unless you've absolutely hammered it and then in this chamber you can store a lot of your gear so I mentioned yesterday that a lot of my stuff was inside the boat in the cargo zip so what you can do is buy the boat with the add-on cargo zip and you can put stuff inside in wet bags so you can get the wet bags that come with alpaca or get your own and you can get them an inflatable bag so you can blow air into them so they're buoyant so I think that is a really cool feature because when you have an inflatable or a kayak you really struggle with nowhere to store your stuff if you're going for a longer trip so having that access to get inside the boat and store stuff is incredible design so the caribou comes in two colours red and like a dark green you can see that I did go for the more stealth option and like I said they do plenty of other models for different things they do heavier ones that can carry more weight um they do two men two man ones they do a white water raft in range they do this lightweight range or they just do like the standard pack raft range so they've all got different shapes and do different things I think these are great pack rafts they are super popular because it enables you to go out into the outdoors and hike but also have that option of carrying a boat with you in your bag or on your bike so I think that's so cool that you can have a tiny compact light boat and be able to travel on foot and on water or bike and I decided to go with alpaca because of their range and the quality of their boats it's a really strong but light material they can be pricey but this is something that's going to last for a while and it's something that I'm going to use a lot I don't I put a lot of my money and my savings into my hobby and what I love doing so yeah I have saved for this and I'm going to look after it and use it a lot so I think it is worth the money and what I've spent out I'm going to get back in experience and enjoyment but overall it's been great for using it over the past couple days and getting used to how it works it's really comfortable it comes with an inflatable seat that you can put in there it's got enough leg room for me and to store a few bits inside I'm really looking forward to heading off to Scotland and trying this out seeing how it performs and yeah I'll be videoing that so make sure you look out for them them videos that go on right as you can see I am at a different location so I've decided to move just to it's fancy moving really and to another lovely spot I didn't paddle too far made my dinner I had a noodle meal and then I finished it with a chia charge bar which was really nice so it's been such a nice day yet again it's been a real chilled couple days and nice to get some experience with my pack raft you don't believe what's just happened I literally did overhand cast in the boat and I've got a fish I've got a little perch it's only small but I think it's because it's taken so long to get one it's so hard trying to paddle and fish though ah that is a lovely one look at that I love these fins here on a perch okay so now I've taken the hook out see how this goes there he is so I'm gonna put him back now in the water nice and gently hey I love that must say I'm pretty pleased with my multitasking there that was three things before filming talking trying to paddle and handle a fish sorry about the filming here the camera is literally just sitting on my boat first fish just a little one but still buzzing I'm sticking with the overarm casting though seems to work better in the boat so walking back with my boat and this happened they are really intrigued so they were on the opposite side of the bank somehow they crossed over and now they're just meters away from my tent essential items coming out don't know what this is used for it's for the midgies it's like a great alternative I've had such a brilliant day today it's been so nice so I'm just gonna sort my gear out now everything's a bit of a mess at the minute so I'm gonna sort this out and then probably start thinking about going to sleep I am knackered and um also the midgies quite bad so hopefully that skin so soft will work its magic I've also got that um jacket with the head net on that I was wearing yesterday and I'm feeling like in the night them cows are gonna come over here and start tripping over my guy lines and waking me up they were so fascinated by my boat for some reason so they followed me all the way over here and then they were just standing staring for ages so we will see what happens tonight I guess good morning I am now leaving camp which is quite a shame but it's been such a nice few days slept really well no cows to disturb me um and now I'm just gonna be heading back so I hope you enjoyed this video thank you so much for watching I want to say a massive thank you to Alpaca for making such a quality boat for me to use this weekend I want to thank Kendall Mint Cake for fueling this adventure as well as Outdoor Provisions and Cheer Charge they're really great brands when it comes to energizing yourself when you're on adventures and doing exercise and I want to say a huge thank you to all my Patreons who I will at the end of this video for making this possible so thanks again and take care