Alpacka Packraft Review : Lake Paddling

Instead of just sight-seeing at lakes, now I have an easy means to paddle them. On a tour of Bali's string of crater lakes, I could not resist inflating the packraft to go on a short paddle. Lake Tamblingan is one of the smaller crater of the 4 well known lakes in the central highlands area. Going there required a short 10mins walk from the car parking area.

The coolest thing about carrying the packraft was the next-to-nothing weight, and everything just fited in a small backpack. Since the packraft was first made with the backpacker in mind, many of its first users were carrying the minimum paddling gear to save weight, and that included not bringing a pfd. I thought that was unwise as pfd should be mandatory gear for any paddling activity. But what do I know about trekking since I am not much of a trekker myself. Perhaps the rivers they went were shallow streams for float out only.

Anyway the gear I carried were same as those for I used for a kayaking daytrip: 4-piece paddle, pfd, whistle, drybag.

As I found out already in the pool I had to use high-angled strokes, and punching above the eyeline to keep the packraft straight. But mostly I was just floating, enjoying the cool mountain breeze, admiring the huge crater, and saying 'hi' to people fishing. It was a good break from the routine sight-seeing and eating stops. As the wind whipped up I had this urge to open a sail or even an umbrella, since the packraft was just so light ! Well maybe next time.

It was short paddle but still it was cool to be able to paddle just like that... even Wayan, my guide could not resist the fun of the packraft and went spinning !