Favourite Outdoor Gear Owned

I decided to do a post on all my favourite outdoor gear (owned). There are a few pieces I crafted myself and others that I altered to fit my liking. For some gear, I have more than one option available, for instance camping stoves. I always use the option that is best suited for/to the trip or adventure.

So here goes, in no particular order:

1. EDC BAG:

A small canvas bag (180mm x 135mm x 60mm) with various items. The items can deal with everyday issues like picking your teeth or fixing something broken. This EDC bag can easily fit into any trip's carry option, even into a small overnight bag.

I made this nifty little container out of an old pen. It contains some Bicarbonate of Soda which is used with Superglue to make a powerful bonding where some material are needed to fill.

EDC Bag Item List:

Leatherman Charge TTi
SAK Victorinox Climber
Victorinox SwissCard Nailcare
Titanium Spork
Lumeo Headlight (Red)
Lighter Windproof
Elastic Bandage
Ducktape (50cm)
Paracord (14 meter)
Sunblock Spray SPF 50
AS - Water purifying drops
Salt (table)
Fire Starters (x3/DIY)
Pen (black)
Cabelties (x6)
Cabeltie rubber re-use (x1)
Dental Floss

Sunlight Liquad and Sponge
Earbuds (x4)
Increda Pegs (x4)
Micro Cord (1m)
Hot Glue Stick
Super Glue
Bicarbonate of Soda
Surgical Blade (x1)
Safety Pin Large (x1)
Safety Pins Medium (×2)
Safety Pins Small (x2)
Large Needle

2. WOODEN SPOON(S)

Carving spoons from driftwood is something I started doing to keep my hands busy when I quit smoking in 2017.

My friend Ruhan gave me the idea of carving a very useful longstem teaspoon. Finding the correct piece of driftwood is the hardest. It must be  well "seasoned" from the salt water, but far from weak and rotten.

This is the longstem teaspoon I did for myself:

Two other I carved from a piece of driftwood I got at the Murasie. This longstem teaspoon I did for Ruhan.

All three together:

3. BUSHCRAFT SHOVEL

This started off as a very yellow and green Lasher garden shovel. I stripped the paint, grinded the shape smaller and to my liking and also put a patina-stain on it. Furthermore I swopped the plastic handle for a "wild olive" handmade knob handle.

Nice, but the green plastic still bothered me, so to the piece of "Wild Olive" I went !

Aiming for something like this:

With some other beauties

4. SMALL AXE

 

First I must thank my friend Zac for helping me enormously with this axe. The sheath he did almost by himself as well. Thanks boet!

A normal hand axe head was cut and grinded smaller, with some definition on the back to form a primitive hammer shape.

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Tried to get a nice patina stain on it with lemon.

Father&Daughter Stellies Trip

 

My daughter is interested in the Somatology course at the ISA Carstens academy in Stellenbosch for next year. We did a father/daughter trip to attend an "Open Day" they held.

We took the InterCape bus, leaving late at night. . . .  in the dark.

We stayed with my son who shares a student house with 3 other mates. We had some time to kill and visited Exotic Animal World in Klapmuts.

 "Costume dress-up" in a Chinese shop 😃

Went for a stroll above Coetzenburg stadium while Tiaan gym, around the dam and under trees.

We even watched the Maties womans rugby team play for a short while 😀

The next morning was spend at the ISA Carstens open day. 😱 It was a complete eye-opener for me! Very professional and service oriented. The dissipline and passion is also next level!

Late afternoon we went for a properse walk in the mountains around Stellies.

Too soon it was time to leave again. Special thanks to Tiaan, Lenz, Ferdi en Anristo that we could crash at your place, much appreciated !!

Want to end-off by saying, we are super proud of both our kids! Tiaan is doing well on an insanely tough varsity course and Shani stuck it out with difficult subjects at school that required lots of extra hard work, but now it paid off big time in her career choice !!