Equipment Outfitters

Snorkeling is a pleasurable way to swim gently along the beach or in clear waters where fish and reefs are in view. The detail from the surface, or up close in the shallow areas, is what most swimmers equate with snorkeling. However there is a darker, deeper, and extreme type of snorkeling that few would consider doing without a tank, if at all.

Blue water hunters are a combination of freediver and spearfisher, and swim down slowly into the water, careful not to disturb any of the larger, and tastier, inhabitants. The diver must maintain a state of calm and heightened awareness in order to get a glimpse of the big fish they seek to catch. Quiet, methodical movements are the only way extreme snorkelers will avoid scaring their prey. Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-trip checks

The first step is to take pen and paper and make a list of each and every item you intend to take, including food and water. Put in quantities and weights.

When I buy any new item I enquire about the weight. When I get home I weigh it again, both as a check, and to get a filled weight for such items as petrol stoves and water bottles. The new item and its weight are added to a list I keep pinned behind the equipment cupboard door. This list has proved extremely useful over the years and I suggest you prepare one.

Having compiled the list for the trip, criticize it. Is there anything you can leave out? Add up the weights. It concentrates the mind wonderfully to realize you may be planning to do 20 miles a day over mountains carrying 5o lb. of gear. Should you reduce the load, shorten the stages, change the route, or abandon the trip? Take only what you need, for it soon becomes clear that something must be changed. Having reduced your load to a reasonable, but not dangerous level, check every item carefully. Read the rest of this entry »

By this stage, half way through the book, the sensible person should have assembled a suitable range of clothing and equipment, learned to find their way about, in good weather, and have a grasp of what to do if something unforeseen happens. It is now time to go out into the wild and consolidate your knowledge by putting it into practice. Common sense plus experience is the basis of good technique and there is no substitute for experience.

Let us look at outdoor living from the moment we form the intention to make a trip, right through to our return home. Read the rest of this entry »

Tent pegs, ‘dead men’, and guys

Getting a peg to hold in snow or soft ground can be a real problem, especially in high winds. Hammering a peg into frozen ground can be very difficult. In winter carry some thin steel pegs to cope with the latter difficulty and take a selection of long wooden, serrated plastic, or aluminium pegs for better holding insoft ground.

If they still fail to provide sufficient grip, you can use a `deadman’. These are flat metal plates which you can bury in the soft ground or snow, and their shape offers good holding properties. You can, however, use your initiative and construct your `deadman’ from your normal pegs, or whatever aids come to hand. Read the rest of this entry »

I first met Ed many years ago during a fishing trip to the streams of the Western Cape: I had spent a long day on the upper Elandspad River with two friends and was making my way downstream when I happened across two anglers fishing a quiet run on the bend of the river. One waved me a cheerful greeting as I walked behind through the bush, giving them ample berth to continue their upstream angling. These two anglers, it later transpired, were Ed Herbst and Tony Biggs’s late son, Damon. Though we did not meet officially that day on the Elandspad River, I followed Ed’s writings with interest. His experiments with artificial flies interested me because he was forever importing unusual fly-tying materials to try in his patterns. To me, Ed is the Gary LaFontaine of South African fly-tying, and I believe that in the Xmas Xaddis he has developed a patternthat will come to be regarded as an African fly-fishers.

The Xmas Xaddis, like many successful South African dry flies, evolved on the fast, tumbling mountain streams of the Western Cape. Ed says the pattern is a combination of existing facets of fly design and two new materials - Cactus Chenille and nylon organza - which, when incorporated into a dry fly, significantly enhance its appeal. Read the rest of this entry »