3 Days Packrafting and Camping Along Remote River Wilderness

That's it mate, just straight down that way. It looks steep. Not sure about coming back up. Wow. Got pretty real out here. Bit of a choose your own adventure type situation and yeah we're getting there but very steep going. Pretty sure we're just on a goat's trail. Oh bush tucker man, what have you got? Something cherry? I can't remember. He's going to eat it on the first day of the Packraft trip. I'm not carrying your body up there just so you know that. Once upon a time, in a land of rugged mountain ranges, there was a man, with the spirit of a boy, and probably a little bit of ADHD, forever destined to seek out adventure behind every corner, down every river, in every little silly moment he finds himself in. His feet and legs are his wings, the world his oyster, increasingly resistant to the pull of man's machine, the nine to five rat race, the mind numbing existence of modern society. Holding on to a more poetic life, where the trees are alive and the birds sing stories of old, where if you slip, you might not get back up, but if you make it to the top, boy is it a hell of a view. Follow me on an adventure as I make my way into an ancient world where few ever bothered to journey. Here we are again, my favourite part of Packrafting. I can't wait to hear everybody's tips and tricks on filling this up faster. Like getting one of those little pumps? Yeah. We really need to get one of those. Oh mate, we do. We need one of those little pumps. Takes like two seconds. Like rub passes from Tazzy. He's all about that little pump. Alright, here we are again boys and girls. Out on the rafts for a little paddling fun. I'll see you in a bit Scotty. Going down the first section by accidente. Just started drifting. Scotty's still setting his camera up. Easy. Enough talk, let's get into some turbulence. That's what I do for a living. My middle name is Turbulence. Four letters. Oh yeah, so I put out a little questionnaire or whatever on Instagram asking what you guys think I should name my bright blue raft. Obviously blue wouldn't be my first choice, but I love it. Anyway, the name that I have decided upon for this raft is Packrafter. After the great Australian tennis player. Shout out to Matty B for that name. He's a painter, he's an artist. I will link his pages and stuff down in the description below. He's done some really nice artwork based off some scenes from some of my trips. They're beautiful. He does amazing work. Check him out on the description link below. I'm too excited to speak. There's nothing I won't hit. Yeah! He's unstoppable. Scotty about to hit his first big rapid. Oh, where'd he go? Oh my gosh, he jumped. I've borrowed Scotty's favourite pair of shades actually. I don't know about these. Yeah, as usual I left something at home. Well, I actually left my sunnies in my car. So they made it that far and then at some point just didn't make the final cut by accident. So now I'm looking like a true squire with these fluffy sunnies. There are some who say that life is short, that tomorrow is never promised. Now, I don't live like every day is my last. But when faced with an opportunity to grab life by the horn, I bloody do it, mate. It'll be a hell of a shot. Well, they said it couldn't be done, but I'm out here to prove them wrong. Alright boys, let's get this bread. Where's my paddle? Nobody even knows. I'm up, I'm up. Shit creepy no paddle. And Scotty's over there looking for it right now. And I'm just going to check this side. Because obviously I can't get anywhere else other than where the water puts me. Right, the case of the missing paddle. How about jumping that? Yeah. And just... Yeah. Enjoy the ride down. Oh God. That was chaos for a second. But it's still chaos, we have no paddle. Are we meant to attach the paddles to something? I was thinking that... I feel like that's a hazard. Yeah, well that's why I didn't, because I've got a kayak. Like one for the kayak. Ah, he's taken me straight into a rock wall. Bushcraft 101. Does nothing. Now I'm going to test the theory. Where did my paddle go? Where the stick goes, so too does my paddle. We've done the unspeakable. We've split the last remaining paddle, and we're going to go down the last little section here and hopefully find my paddle at the bottom of the next rapids. Just like the olden days. A single stroker. When the chips are down, it always matters what company you keep. A positive attitude and a sense of humour makes all the difference. I'd rather be out here with 30km to go and no paddle than be back at home stuck in traffic any day. Bloody hell, boys. Bloody David Copperfield. Bring on adversity, bring on a challenge, and bring on some real life stuff. You can keep your bloody investment apps for your highs and lows. I want the real deal, out here on the river. Oh yeah, this is a real situation. This is a real situation. Look, we can do it. Less desirable. Found it, just over there. There goes my hero. He has spotted the blue paddle. Paddle it, paddle it. Look at the intensity. We did it! Off we go to find camp, get a fire going, boil some water, have a hot cuppa, because we're both pretty much shaking just from being wet and it's really not warm today. It's very overcast. Once you're wet, down in this valley, you get cold pretty quick. We found it. There is something to be said for the simplicity of camp life. The way it draws you in to focus on being present. I have a very busy mind. When I'm at home, I find myself feeling buried beneath a lot of what I deem to be very unnecessary tasks. Out here though, I have room to breathe. My thoughts can run free in the open and my time is my own. Not a thousand other people's. I feel at peace. One cast. Look how many he has to do. I'll just do one. He slipped over. I wish I got that. He did a little stumble and now he's got his dry clothes wet, which is actually a bit of a disaster. Happens to the best of us, Scotty. So many boulders in this river. Who put the boulders here? I want to know. I'm going to write them an email. Alright, here we go. As I paddle through the gorge, I feel alive. I know my time on this earth is fleeting. My life is chance. A gift. Rare. My only wish is to live it so. I ask for no more and expect no less. There are things to see here that many of us miss in 80 years. A lifetime isn't long enough to see it all, but I'll fill my boots. I'll dirty my clothes and take some risks. In the end, we all move on. What you did or didn't do that was expected won't matter. Be bold. Be brave. Be adventurous. Or somebody else will have all the fun. It's just such a prehistoric sound. I don't know. Just gives this place a really ancient feeling. It's funny the contrast between a quiet place like this and just your everyday, everyday life. You'd think the balance would be majority like this and then when you gotta just hustle for a couple days in that absolute chaos of traffic and noise and commercials and buses, trains. Yeah, you'd just think that that would be something that we just have to do. We just gotta get through it for a couple days a week. Not the case. If you're lucky, you find spare time to come and be in a place as relaxing and soothing as this. Well, I say relaxing, but I nearly perished yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed that section. Here's Scotty talking about sandstone too much. Right. Yeah, okay. Yeah. True. Yeah. Just goes on and on. Yeah. This is just like the blink of an eyelid. You have to go through what looks like a pleasant little passageway through some trees, through some kasserina. So obvious from this side. Smash my bum on those rocks. So pretty in here. Beautiful. Mate. Lovely. How did that even happen? Yeah. I got over that. Well, that was a bit of fun. Lost the paddle yesterday. Lost the raft today. No worries. Scotty was just saying that they do say to use lockable carabiners for your tow rope, but now I definitely see why. Learn something every day about pack rafting. Scotty's bopping his way down this next section. Just the bird sounds are so beautiful in a place like this. Hey. Oh, mate. So good. All right. Well, we finally finished setting up camp, and we're going to go down and have a little fish because we've actually seen a couple big boys jumping up out of the water, so I'm pretty sure it was actually trout. But I guess we'll have to wait and see to confirm that. It may have been a bass. So I've just seen a little group of wild pigs over there, which is good given my sleeping arrangements for the night. Down in there, pig city, come get it. Looks like we're having bacon for breakfast, boys. They come trying to spoon me. Dinner's served. We did it. Not bad, mate. So it wasn't a trout, but we got ourselves a nice bass here. And there is supper. You're welcome. All right. So not too sure how we're going to cook him just yet. I've gutted him and left the scales on. I think we might actually just cook him on the coals tonight. Yes. Not a bad fish. Pretty stoked with that. Look how sad he is that I got a fish and he didn't. He won't rest until he's got a fish now. Straight on a bed of coals, you reckon? Yeah. It's been a while since I've done fish like this, actually. Straight on. Well, mate, I think this kind of tops off the freshly caught bass straight out of the river in a bloody epic way. That's it, mate. There's nothing worse than seeing fish jump and knowing that they're there and just not even getting a bite, hey. Hear it sizzle. Just leave it on this then. Dig in, mate. Nah, mate, it's all yours. You've got to dig in. All right, what have we got? What about a tasty fish, eh? Not at all. Mornings out in the bush are extraordinary. The sounds of the birds remind you that a new day is beginning and to rise up to meet it. It's like a reset button. Something that we miss out in our day-to-day life. We startle ourselves to life with the most obnoxious and disturbing alarm that we can find. Even trying to find a nice one is still the best of a lot of terrible options. How on earth do we do it? I always naturally wake with the sun and the sounds of the birds out here, in the open. Not fenced in and walled in, hidden from all the natural light. It's a lovely way to be. It's calming, but it's energising at the same time. Spending so much time on trips like this, I really do start to wonder how we ended up where we did. It's like somebody must have tricked us into giving all of this up. All right, well, the sun is out in full effect. We're going to pack up camp. We're going to jump in the pack rafts and head over to this little eddy on the other side of the river there where we saw a couple of fish jumping last night and have a bit of a fish and see how we go. Otherwise, pack it up and continue forth to where we pull out. All right, let's go. Goodbye camp. You're an absolute ripper. Fish. Fish hooking pants. Off we go. Where'd you catch, mate? Scotty's going to snag about. All right, well, we've given up on the fishing along that stretch. Continue on down. I don't know how I feel about this trip coming to an end. As we near the final destination of this adventure, I have mixed emotions. I always have this feeling that I'm about to press pause on my real life and head to some weird function or gathering organised by a friend of a friend that I don't really know or care much about. It's strange. It's quite isolating as well. I feel like I would head out on these trips for the same reason some tech geek would put on an AR headset with a big smile on his face before going on the biggest, fakest adventure of his life. But, these feelings aside, I'm always grateful to have had this experience out in nature, out in what wild places are left, even if only slightly wild. They bring me to life, feed my soul and heal my wounds. These adventures are a part of me. It's who I am. I'll always live for them, big or small, all shapes and sizes. Also, I feel it's important to point out that I didn't really want to dress in all black, but I just didn't want to go spending money on bits and pieces that I already owned, which, unfortunately, were already black. The Packraft Ninja. Packraft Ninja. The Dark Knight of the River. I like it. Yeah. We did it. You left your phone back down there. Well, my plan is to do a sign-off at the top, but I am pretty sure we are not going to make that. I think our faces says it all. Thanks for watching. That was absolutely brutal, but it was worth it. It's really hard to say that right now, feeling the way we feel, but it was an amazing trip. Cheers to Scotty for lining that one up and organising it, especially the big hike at the end. I really enjoyed that part, mate. Thanks for watching, guys. I guess we'll see you on the next one if we still feel like doing it. If we decide to do another trip. Thanks for watching, guys. Catch ya. Later.