EPIC drop thanks to the good people at @orialoutdoor - I decided not to do an unboxing video, but to rather use the opportunity to showcase just how awesome their recently released 65L Duffel is by actually packing it for a weekend away and showing you just how perfect this bag is for what I love doing….
There’s a 30L Dry Bag in the mix too, not to mention a fresh water bottle and PLENTY of incoherent rambling by yours truly to make a relatively good product plug look like a madman explaining his toenail collection.
HUGE thanks to Team @orialoutdoor for taking such good care of me and my dreams - being on board with an exciting, innovative, motivated and #ProudlySouthAfrican brand like yours is nothing short of an honour and privilege.
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#Flyfish | #Flyfishing | #Flyfisherman | #FlyfishingLife | #FlyfishingJunkie | #FlyfishingAddict | #PecheALaMouche | #TheTugistheDrug | #FlatsFishing | #FlatsFlyFishing | #SaltWaterFishing | #SaltwaterFlyFishing | #FishingGear | #OutdoorGear | #GearReview | #GearReviews | #Outdoorsman | #ModernOutdoorsman | #Duffel | #DuffelBag | #Orial | #OrialOutdoor | #CatchMyDrift | #CatchMyDriftBlog
•Letting Go• Better late than never - time to let go of 2024.
I’ve never been very good at letting go - I’m overly sentimental, carry resentments and often catch myself in the “coulda, woulda, shoulda” doldrums. I hold on to things, often long after they’ve lost all their original values, and I attach future significance to things that were relevant in the past.
That’s why I’m letting go of 2024. It was an exceptional year - a rogue wave in an already seemingly never ending storm of peaks and troughs. My grandmother passed. I was in a mental hospital. I got the diagnosis I’d needed/deserved/required all my life. I grew immensely and am finally in the position to at least tackle a realistic version of myself with realistic challenges and an honest discomfort. Through it all my relationship with @melissa_de_villiers grew and strengthened beyond my wildest dreams. We moved homes. I joined a startup and started chasing passion projects again. Melis and I had a son together and named him Jan Wilder de Villiers.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not planning on forgetting any of the above. Most all of it is etched into my memories and neurological pathways for ever.
It’s just that, much like with the fish in this clip, I now know I’ll never get those moments back. Setting them free is my ultimate acknowledgement of their endless potential and profound beauty.
I wouldn’t mind a slightly less rocky 2025, but I wouldn’t trade in 2024 for the world - so I’ll just let it slip gently back into the stream of life with a smile and a shaka 😊🤙🏽
Writing this I can only look forward to an exceptionally exciting and intensely demanding year with plenty of learning, growth , calm and chaos lined up. Looking back briefly, I rate I’m up for it…
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#Flyfish | #Flyfishing | #Flyfisherman | #FlyfishingLife | #FlyfishingJunkie | #FlyfishingAddict | #CatchAndRelease | #TheTugistheDrug | #MentalHealth | #MentalHealthAwareness |
Last of the #Iris series I’ll be posting. This one surprised me - the flower I was shooting on the night didn’t open, and I almost cleared the disk immediately in frustration when I woke up next to it the next morning. I didn’t, and was incredibly excited when I found this other bloom doing its thing on later, closer inspection.
Definitely not the subject of the clip, somewhat under-lit, almost humble and shy. What shook me was not that I had almost deleted workable content, but rather that something so incredibly beautiful had happened and I’d almost missed it completely…
Made in collaboration with @kleinood_deboerin to launch their terroir inspired “Iris” parfum - one in a range of four now available at Kleinood’s tasting room and on their website. Shot on @kleinood_farm, at night, about this time last year.
🎧 @resonate.audio
🎹 Kyle Shepherd
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#ThisisthefarmKleinood | #KleinoodFarm | #Kleinood | #DeBoerin | #DeBoerinOfKleinood | #Parfum | #Parfüm | #Parfume | #Parfumerie | #Parfümerie | #Parfumeri | #Parfümeri | #Iris | #IrisFlower | #IrisFlowers | #IrisOpening | #GardenLove | #GardensOfInstagram | #TerroirParfum | #TerroirParfumes | #IrisesOfInstagram | #GardenLovers | #PlantLover | #PlantLove | #FlowerBlooming
What a way to end the week - releasing so much more than just a fish…
@reelflyfishingza @orialoutdoor @skoutsupply @grit_equip
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#Flyfish | #Flyfishing | #Flyfisherman | #FlyfishingLife | #FlyfishingJunkie | #FlyfishingAddict | #PecheALaMouche | #PescaConMosca | #Muskareni | #Fliegenfischen | #FlueFiskeri | #FlueFiske | #VliegVissen | #PeixeVoador | #Muharjenje | #Flugfiske | #CatchAndRelease | #TheTugistheDrug | #Tilapia | #TilapiaFish | #TilapiaOnFly | #FlyFishingSouthAfrica | #LetThemGoSoTheyCanGrow | #ReelFlyFishing | #ReelFlyFishingZA | #KeepItReel | #🎣
Making “content” and feeling “content” can be one-in-the-same or worlds apart. Ironically the one word describes an affirmation seeking action, while the other describes a state of not needing any.
What makes this post confusing to make is that I really, sincerely just want to share something beautiful with the world. The making of which was in no means laborious and only a pleasure in its own right.
So I’m already content with my content and I hope the contents of it shares some of the contentment I get from it with you.
Made in collaboration with @kleinood_deboerin to launch their terroir inspired “Iris” parfum - one in a range of four now available at Kleinood’s tasting room and on their website. Shot on @kleinood_farm, at night, about this time last year.
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#ThisisthefarmKleinood | #KleinoodFarm | #Kleinood | #DeBoerin | #DeBoerinOfKleinood | #Parfum | #Parfüm | #Parfume | #Parfumerie | #Parfümerie | #Parfumeri | #Parfümeri | #Iris | #IrisFlower | #IrisFlowers | #IrisOpening | #GardenLove | #GardensOfInstagram | #TerroirParfum | #TerroirParfumes | #Content | #ContentCreator | #Contented | #ContentedLife | #ContentWriting | #ContentWriter | #Mindfulness | #MentalHealth | #MentalHealthAwareness
Surely amoung the most magical projects I’ve managed to get my silly self involved in somehow.
Working with @kleinood_deboerin yet again, this time exploring another from their parfum range - the graceful and timeless “Iris”.
It would have been impossible to capture a flower opening during the day on a busy @kleinood_farm, but I was persistent in that the flowers had to be growing on the farm.
Opting to shoot at night gave me the opportunity to manage consistent lighting throughout, without losing a drop of detail.
Nothing was for certain, and I spent many nights shooting flowers that simply didn’t open. Other times a battery died or a moth landed somewhere stupid and that was another night gone.
I became a bit obsessed, now that I think back to ‘round about now a year ago. Had it not been for that I would not have been able to wake up one morning to this on my SD card…
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#Iris | #IrisFlower | #IrisFlowers | #FlowerOpening | #FlowersOpening | #FlowerTimelapse | #TimeLapse | #TimelapseVideo | #TimeLapsePhotography | #Parfum | #Parfüm | #Parfume | #Parfumerie | #Kleinood | #ThisisthefarmKleinood | #KleinoodFarm | #DeBoerin | #DeBoerinOfKleinood | #🌷 | #NaturePhotography | #NatureVideography
Looking forward to plenty more moments like this over the coming months. Such a huge, yet intricately refined distraction - being completely absorbed in a stream of water and what lives beneath.
The Cape Streams have given me so much to be grateful for and humbled by. I have yet to spend a day on the streams without a valuable take away, fishing related or otherwise. I guess that’s why I keep going back…
Rod: @reelflyfishingza Origin 2wt
Reel: @reelflyfishingza Origin II Click Series
Line: @reelflyfishingza 2wt Floating Freshwater Presentation
@orialoutdoor @grit_equip @skoutsupply
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##Flyfish | #Flyfishing | #Flyfisherman | #FlyfishingLife | #FlyfishingJunkie | #FlyfishingAddict | #PecheALaMouche | #PescaConMosca | #Muskareni | #Fliegenfischen | #FlueFiskeri | #FlueFiske | #VliegVissen | #Flugfiske | #CatchAndRelease | #TheTugistheDrug | #CapeStreams | #CapeStreamTrout | #DryFlyFishing | #DryFly | #DryFlyOnly | #ReelFlyFishing | #ReelFlyFishingZA | #TroutBum | #TroutBums | #OrialOutdoor | #FlyFishSouthAfrica | #FlyFishingSouthAfrica | #🎣
Last of the @kleinood_deboerin #WinterWater parfum moments I’m going to share - this one captured on a particularly cold morning outside Sutherland, with my phone, through a magnifying glass.
The breeze was icy cold, and gusty, making the frost covered foliage dance as I held the phone in my one hand, the magnifying glass in my other and tried to line things up.
I was stupidly underdressed and shivering badly myself, so I only managed to sneak a few seconds that kinda got what I was going for - an inquisitive engagement with the abstract beauty of Winter Water in the unexpected context of a frosted over Karoo succulent with a meltwater stream gurgling past in the background.
I really like this moment. The undertones of soft-focus and gentle liquid sound carrying sharp accents of light through ice and splashes of deep, vivid green.
I rate I’d give finding this little clip a 9 out of 10, and posting about it now a 1. But at least I’ll have that 1/10 on here as a reminder whenever I need a 9/10 memory - so best make this darn post I’d say 😊
Thanks for reading & have an awesome day 🙌🏽
