Expansion of AR Gaiters

 In 2004, I started sewing my own gaiters for trail running and adventure racing. I made a few pairs here and there for friends on request. In 2008, I did the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for the first time and learned how regular mini gaiters are no defense against the desert sand that finds its way into your shoes through the mesh in the front. In 2009 I was back with version 1 of my Desert Gaiters. I refined versions 2 and 3 at the Namib Desert Challenge, Fish River Canyon ultra and another year of Abu Dhabi. 

By this stage my mom was helping me by sewing the AR Mini Gaiters and then the AR Desert Gaiters. It must have been by 2012 that we had the AR Adventure Gaiter, with shin protection, for orienteering and adventure racing. It was around this time that my mom took over handling all the orders and customer interaction too. I didn't have much to do with AR Gaiters for the next 10 years. She brought out the AR Hiking Gaiters by about 2020 after making a number of pairs for her friends with hiking boots.

AR Gaiters has has a slow-and-steady, organic, word-of-mouth growth. The first 10 years were fairly quiet, the next five picked up and the last eight years have been busy. On reaching the point where she was sewing seven days a week, we found cutting and sewing assistance for my mom.

With massive changes in my life, I've jumped back in to AR Gaiters to expand the offering and take over the admin of handling orders and enquiries. I've revamped the website to have an AR Gaiters eShop (www.argaiters.co.za) with our AR Gaiters and complementary products that suit our customers' activities of trail running, hiking, orienteering and adventure racing. The eShop structure also makes it a lot easier for customers to select and order the fabric print for their AR Gaiters.

We've had a few recent enquiries about custom prints and just this past week completed our first custom order with our own design for a customer that was sublimated onto fabric. It came out perfectly. I've got another three projects on the go for custom prints. Very exciting.

I've got a number of plans to roll out over the next few months and look forward to continued growth in our offering of in-house products as well as those from trusted brands and suppliers.

Social paddle group outing

 At the beginning of last year, I started the Kingfisher Social Paddle Group. The focus of this group is to offer monthly paddling outings to people with their own kayaks - primarily recreational paddlers - to explore the waterways between Mossel Bay and Knysna. Each month I schedule a paddle, publishing the location and details on the Group's Facebook page and Whatsapp and Telegram groups.

The outings are usually on the 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month - depending on the weather forecast and my availability. With volunteering at MUT next weekend, I schedule the May paddle for this weekend. Earlier in the week, I saw that the weather forecast looked solid for rain on Sunday (today) so I moved the day to Saturday.

It proved to be a good call. We had spectacular conditions for our small group as we explored the Karatara River, Ruigtevlei and the Hoogekraal River. The reflections of mountains, trees, kayaks and paddlers in the water were beautiful.

Birdlife was good too with sightings of a kingfisher (saw the flash of blue but didn't get a close look), two Knysna turacos, a fish eagle, purple herons, loads of cormorants and other waterbirds. 

These outings are a pleasure to organise. We've got a great group of regulars and others who drop in when available. Logistics are as easy as maybe making a call and then putting out info on where and when. Then people just rock up with their kayaks and we enjoy the outing together.

As we move into the winter months, which are cold and dark early, I'm planning to schedule the outings for Saturday lunchtime so that we can paddle-and-picnic. This will see us nicely through June, July, August and even September until the sun and warmth returns.

Scenery on the Hoogekraal River.

Paddling across Ruigtevlei

Louis (left), Joan (centre), Stan (right).

Emerging from the Karatara River into Ruigetvlei

An easy put-in from a bridge over the Karatara River.

After yesterday's paddle, I headed out with my mom to drive the Robinson Pass, which links Hartenbos with Oudtshoorn. We made a stop at the Eight Bells Inn for scones and tea. This was a belated Mother's Day outing as last weekend it was rainy and my mom was sick-as-a-dog with a bad cough. We had a super drive - with the dogs - and a beautiful afternoon together.

47 Days of Running: Pre-birthday challenge 2023

Yesterday was Day 17 of '47 Days of Running', my annual pre-birthday 'challenge', which I started in the year I turned 35. 

This annual pre-birthday game sees me running (or another activity) every day, in the days leading up to my birthday, for the number of days of the age that I'm turning. Yes, I'm turning 47 this year. 

2020 was the last year that I enjoyed a 'Days of RUNNING' as I struggled with not-my-knee right-knee inflammation and pain for almost two years.

Last year's 'Days of Running' had a yoga focus as I was mostly walking and trotting with some parkruns; too scared to do too much in case my knee flared up again.

What the last year had taught me is that my knee has primarily been a physical manifestation of stress, of which there has been a truck-load the last three years.

In April last year, I went to a chiropractor for the first time and it was my first big leap towards recovery (following months of biokineticist exercises). Earlier this year I did a number of high-intensity track sessions, in preparation for a biathlon. Interestingly, this was another big leap forward. I'm now running more - further, harder and faster - and benefitting from every step I take. I'm not doing any big distances (mostly trail up to about 12km); it will take me some time yet to find my footing and confidence psychologically to know that I can run hard and not be laid up for two weeks dealing with inflammation of my knee, which has no problem.

While I've designated this year's challenge as a Days of Running, a majority of the days are running but I've also got my usual walks with dogs (Rusty is getting older now and running at my pace for a few kilometres is now too much for her) plus a number of proper runs each week. Achieving some kind of balance with the weekly GTR Social Run on Mondays (8km), the Thursday timetrial (5.5km), some parkruns and runnings of the FKT-route of the month (10-12km). 

For the April/May FKT route, I took seven minutes off my time over three runnings of the route, I'm doing really well on climbs and I'm definitely running fitter and easier. Steady and consistent is my mantra.

This coming weekend is the MUT (Mountain Ultra Trail) event, a feather in my hometown's cap. I'll be volunteering again as a marshal at The Cross and looking forward to seeing 1000-odd runners through my checkpoint, especially those on the 100km and 160km routes. I know a lot of the trails around here and I can just say that this is no easy run - even the 10km and 25km routes pack a punch.

Family visit from uncle and aunt

I haven't seen my uncle and aunt in person for over 18 months, so it was a treat to have them visiting for a couple of days. They have been living in Margate, moved from JHB, since the beginning of 2022. 

I booked a surprise trip for us on the Outeniqua Powervan. I've been on it twice before; for my mom's birthday in 2021 and then when my friend Karen visited in October last year. We had perfect weather and enjoyed a beautiful trip with a breakfast picnic stop. I kept the trip a secret until we drove up to the Transport Museum.

With my aunt Brenda, uncle Gus (mom's brother) and my mom Liz.

View for miles

Picnic munchies

This little mouse came to see what we were eating.

We also did a nice outing over the mountains to have breakfast in Herold.

A real win was two nights of playing Bananagrams. My uncle and aunt had never played before. They loved it so much that they bought a set to take home to play with their friends. I am the undisputed Bananagrams champion. I had some really winners. Yeee-ha!

I've always loved Scrabble but I think I like Bananagrams more because you are responsible for your own grid, no-one can take your place, speed counts and you don't need to count letter scores.