Fly tying.

When you tie flies you start to collect fly tying materials. You never seem to have what a particular fly pattern needs to be tied properly, so you go and look for the material you need, visiting all the tackle shops you know of. Soon you have drawers bulging with feathers, fur, dubbing, threads and other fly tying paraphernalia.

A fly tiers greatest fear is that moths or mites might turn his collection into very expensive dust, so your house smells like moth balls.

About 10 days ago I paid a visit to my nearest fly fishing tackle shop, about 50km from here, and bought some more materials that now need to find a space in the already over full drawers of my fly tying desk.

Above is a photo of my new found treasures. Three packets of Veniards parachute antron, in florescent pink, chartreuse and white. One packet of loose small olive hen hackles, one packet of Veniards blue dun short cock hackles, two spools of Danville 70 denier (6/0)  thread, and most exciting of all for me two patches of Klipspringer hair.

Above the two patches of Klipspringer hair, very scarce and very expensive.

Klipspringer hair is very buoyant and can be spun like deer hair. Shown in this picture are three DDD's a South African dry fly pattern on size 14 hooks.

Klispringer (Oreotragus oretrgus), literally translated as rock jumper, lives on rocky outcrops and mountianous area of Southern Africa. Occurs up East Africa as far as the mountains of Ethiopia. Klipsrpringers are a protected species in South Africa and hair patches are a rare find. The patches I bought come from a reputable source so I'm pretty sure they were legally obtained. The klipspringer is one of Africa's very small antelopes, only 22 inches high at it's tallest.

The hair of the klipspringer is very thick and ranges from yellow in colour to dark almost olive, grisly colouring.

Klipspringers stand on the tips of their hooves, and can stand with all four hooves on a spot not much bigger than a Canadian one dollar coin. They are extremely sure-footed and make prodigious leaps from rock to rock.