Maciej and his friend Stanislaw Knapowski took part in the Il Carnevale Di Venezia. Every year approximetely 3 million people participate in the Venetian Carnival. However, they did while sitting in their packraft.
Maciej is a Polish cayak instructor and also a bushcraft and scout instructor. He also won (2nd prize) on a worldwide blog competition and got the 2nd prize in a Polish photo competition for students, Discover Europe.
Marciey is planning much more such trips - till May for several Polish rivers and then heading to Danube Delta in Romania and finally travel to Panama with the packraft in his backpack. Stay tuned!
by Maciej Tomkowiak, Poland
Saturday, 27 of January. Today at 18:00 will begin the night parade through the canals,
officially starting the Venetian carnival. Masks are displayed everywhere on the streets.
Real, Venetian, for 80 euros, looking at you with empty eyes from behind the windows of
the shops decorated with the brightly Christmas lights (the same are also used to illuminate
Venice during Il Carnevale), as well as Chinese masks, quite decent, sold on street stands for
5 euros. Crowds are marching around Venice.
Among them, attention is paid to a group of men dressed in one-piece pyjamas as pink panthers with long tails, Jedi in long coats, with glowing swords in hands and pirates, whom we meet again a day later in the middle of the Grand Canal, where they will prepare their pirate gondola to participate in the Carnival Parade. In the crowd one can also notice two Polish guys who are going their way through the pits, carrying an inflated packraft on their shoulders - Anfibio Delta MX, very light, only 1.7 kg, pontoon, which can be rolled up to the size of a middle sleeping bag. We are heading towards the nearest bridge to launch our urban packrafting trip across Venice.
Among them, attention is paid to a group of men dressed in one-piece pyjamas as pink panthers with long tails, Jedi in long coats, with glowing swords in hands and pirates, whom we meet again a day later in the middle of the Grand Canal, where they will prepare their pirate gondola to participate in the Carnival Parade. In the crowd one can also notice two Polish guys who are going their way through the pits, carrying an inflated packraft on their shoulders - Anfibio Delta MX, very light, only 1.7 kg, pontoon, which can be rolled up to the size of a middle sleeping bag. We are heading towards the nearest bridge to launch our urban packrafting trip across Venice.
Mantua
After travel with a truck driver from Szczecin, Poland, to Mantua, Italy, I've met with
Stanisław in our common friend's apartment. We've heard that paddling on the lake in the
winter, in Mantua at night, is probably forbidden. Because nobody does it. So we went to try
the packraft on a nearby lake, before we have highlighted it with flashlights, for a better
effect. During the march through the old town we were accompanied by a group of Italian
students, probably counting on some show. We were cheered up by an exclamation and an
Italian gesture of respect made by an old
man who came out from the passed cafe
to shake our hands.
La Serenissima Venezia
On Friday morning we hitchhiked to the subburbs of Venice, where we took the train to the
Santa Lucia station. We had the accommodation arranged by Couchsurfing in the center of
L'Arsenale, in a district whose canals unfortunately lead to the open, ugly water full of
vaporetto (water trams), and cruise ships, or to the military zone, where the gondola,
motorboat and pontoon are blocked with a steel mesh (we had no doubts that our urethane
nylon Anfibio Delta MX packraft was able to withstand a collision with a steel mesh, but the
fearsome snipers in the Arsenal aroused our fears).
Fogged canal leading to the military zone. In the mist there were lurking snipers waiting for
someone to flow in the pontoon through steel wires and chains fixed under the bridge.
On the first day we limited ourselves just to sightseeing.
Urban packrafting
"Ma sei pazzo ..." - our host briefly acknowledged when he saw us unpacking the folded
Anfibio Delta MX from a 30-liter backpack and assembling 2 canoe paddles from individual
parts of Anfibio Vertex Multi. A few minutes of catching an air with a special bag connected
to a pontoon, a few deeper breaths at the end and we have already had a small 2-person
pontoon - the best (and the cheapest) means of transport in Venice.
Launching our trip was undoubtedly hindered by slimy stairs – we really didn't want to fall
into the azure waters of the Venetian canals.
We began to paddle along the outer walls of the Arsenal, making the first maneuver of
swimming past the motorboat - successfully completed! Motorboat slowed especially before
us, so as not to create too large waves, and the Venetian returning home to eat pranzo
nodded friendly to us.
The weather was not good for us and the canals in the Arsenal together with the side canals
in San Marco district were not particularly representative. So we decided to start at the store,
buy pranzo and go, of course with the Anfibio Delta MX on our shoulders and with paddles
in our hands, through thousands of disguised people crowded in the narrow streets of
Venice. Anfibio Delta MX is just around 1,7kg, so it was easy to transport it.
Unfortunately, in reality, the masquerades were not too much, only sometimes on our way
we met noblemen, court ladies, old Jedi knights or men dressed in pajamas as pink panthers.
After I went out Stach fastly assembled Anfibio Vertex into the one normal cayak paddle
and parked our vehicle behind the motorboat.
Ghetto
We re-embarked in the former Jewish ghetto. The movement there was much bigger. We
were passing by Venetians in motorboats, ships transporting goods to shops, police and
water ambulances. As again it was not, at least on the channels, a representative part of the
city, we didn't pass the gondolas with tourists very much. The people themselves were very
polite, they let us in, they were helping and informing us when we could get rapidly through
the wider canals in order not to be pierced by the sharp prows of other vessels.
We skipped the night light show because of the faces of stressed policemen, trying to stop
tens of thousands of people, including hundreds of masqueraders, from getting to the
spectacle. The bridges were surrounded by banners so that no one could get down on their
edge and fight with the Narcissus sword (selfie-stick), pushing his predecessors straight into
the embrace of Venetian abyss.
The Carnival Parade
But the next morning, slightly stressed, but supported by the loud applause of gondoliers
and disguises, who at the sight of pumping Anfibio surrounded us, jumping happily in their
gondolas, we bravely crossed the entire Canal Grande. Through the high waves, avoiding
motor boats and sharp prows of the gondola we have paddled all the way to the "barca
rossa" for registration. The ship was moored on the other side of the canal. When we opened
our eyes, it turned out that we are standing in the middle of the gondola queue, among the
schocked and laughing people.
The rest of the day, however, seemed great. The sun came out, and ours, already practiced
by crossing waves and passing by gondolas, rowing skills were enough to spend some time
in the representative, social galleries of San Marco. Along our way, renaissance churches,
renewed and painted entrance to restaurants and the embassy of Thailand.
From time to time we had some special, let's say VIPs, viewpoints for the parade.
