Dear Mummy Blog

My new friend ‘Inky’ the Paddlepak

Dear mummy, I was over the moon to win a Paddlepak as part of Trunki’s 10th Birthday celebrations! We entered a photograph of me on my Trunki kids ride-on suitcase at Belfast International Airport via Instagram and I won!

Our prize was a fantastic Paddlepak rucksack. We’ve seen them before and I’ve always wanted a sea creature as a little friend. We were sent Inky the Octopus, a fun, water-resistant backpack and he is part of a wider range of designs which vary from a shark to a clown fish!

The Paddlepak is a lightweight, waterproof backpack that is perfect for trips to the beach, local swimming pool or even outdoor adventures. They are perfect for kids and can be folded flat or rolled up for trips away or even camping.

Don’t be fooled by the size of these kids backpacks either, they may look small on my shoulders, but can carry a rolled up beach towel, flip-flops, a swimming costume, sun hat, suntan lotion and even my mermaid dolls! So the capacity is great! We took my new PaddlePak friend on holiday to Devon with us! He came in handy on a trip to Ness Cove in Shaldon!


The PaddlePak is really well made with padded shoulder straps, breathable padded mesh on the back, meaning that I wouldn’t get hot and sweaty carrying it around.

In fact I loved carrying my new friend around on my back and loved the way he ‘puffed’ out when I filled his tummy with beach stuff. He actually looked like an octopus! I also like the way his tentacles flapped around behind me when I walked. The PaddlePak also has padded adjustable shoulder straps which makes wearing a PaddlePak comfortable, especially for younger children like me.

The closure of the bag is really unique. The lightweight fabric rolls down to seal and then the sides clip together – not something we’ve ever come across, even a toddler can do it! And there are no sharp edges or rusty zips.

By having a roll-to-close seal on the rucksack it helps to prevent anything wet getting out and vice versa, perfect for keeping damp swimming costumes and towels away from little people’s skin. The clever material means that moisture is kept inside the bag if wet things are inside. It also protected my toys from the elements when the heavens opened on a recent beach trip and despite the rain, the contents of the bag stayed nice and dry.

We loved the attention to detail which really gave this rucksack an expensive feel. The reflective panels on the straps to help keep your child safe on their dusk adventures. A handy little dry plastic zip pocket, perfect for storing anything from my hair clips or my bobbles and pennies. The colour is amazingly bright too and the zingy green goes perfectly with the deep purple and I love the colour combination Trunki have used!

The PaddlePak even had funny shaped grip that you can hang your sunglasses through, push a Sunhat through or hang your goggles from! The branding was also super cool and we would expect nothing less from this funky British brand. I clipped my little sea turtle on my new bag and he also joined us in our adventure to Devon.

The bags retail at £19.99 which I think is quite reasonable and my ‘Inky’ PaddlePak will definitely get the wear out of him during the summer and when I go back to swimming!

Do you have a Trunki PaddlePak? What do you think? We love ours!

Love Bella x

Disclosure: We won our PaddlePak in the Trunki 10th Birthday celebrations, we thought it was such an awesome rucksack that we just had to blog about it!