21 THINGS I LEARNED ROAD-TRIPPING WITH ROLF

21 THINGS I LEARNED ROAD-TRIPPING WITH ROLF

The films of Rolf Nylinder appeal not only from a cinematic point of view, but they look like the kind of jol you’d want to be a part of too. Our art director Brendan Body had the pleasure of joining one late last year. He tells us about the 21 things he learned road-tripping across Southern Africa with Rolf, Markus and Håvard.

1. Feather foot

I had one job for the Lemmel tour from Cape Town to Lesotho to Johannesburg – chaperone our Scandinavian visitors, filmmaker Rolf Nylinder, Arctic businessman Markus Lemke and jazz musician Håvard Stubø safely across the country. Other than trying to figure out how to get on the right road out of Cape Town at 4 in the morning, after a very late boozy showing of Rolf’s new movie…. A Not So Steady Flow Of Mayflies – there was no real pressure on the trip for me.

2. Hometown hero

Håvard lives in the town of Narvik, a small town in northern Norway, source of the iron ore once needed for Hitler’s war machine. Through two months of vicious winter warfare, Hitler was dealt his first defeat of WW2. Håvard and I had some cool discussions about his home town while driving somewhere in the middle of the Karoo, which is about as far away you can get both geographically and mentally from Narvik.

Håvard Stubø with a Clanwilliam yellowfish
Håvard Stubø with a Clanwilliam yellowfish

3. Sharing is caring

In the South African scene and probably for most places globally, everyone likes to have their own gear and it’s understandable. Who doesn’t like nice kit? But the Lemmel guys are different. It’s not really about each guy’s individual tackle set up. Between the three of them they normally take two or sometimes even one rod and just share their kit while fishing and filming. Håvard’s rod seems to do most of the work. I gave it a go and it felt like an old 5/6-weight broomstick, matched with an old noisy bullet proof Orvis. It made light work of the yellows, no fuss here! 

Sharing gear and taking turns to fish is the name of the game.
Sharing gear and taking turns to fish is the name of the game.

4. The expedition leader

A recurring theme in their films is the ‘tension’ between Håvard and Markus over who is the expedition leader. For me, there is no contest as Markus is the one who gets them organised. He’s the Arctic businessman behind Lemmel after all, so if this trip happened, it was thanks to him pulling the strings on the Swedish side. Håvard can lay claim to being the strongest angler, while Rolf is well…Rolf, the savant who makes the films we all love.

5. Old habits

Rolf and I spent a lot of time talking about skateboarding on our way to Lesotho as we both have long backgrounds in the sport. Whenever we stopped or drove through towns we would spot stuff that would be good to skate or film –  like a handrail or bank to ledge or set of stairs (as if we could actually still do those tricks easily!). Some of those off the beaten track small towns have the best spots.

6. Snus or loose

Marcus, Rolf and Håvard have a strong Snus game, Markus the strongest for sure. Being a smoker, I tried it a few times cowboy style. Popping a fat chunk of sticky nicotine stuck under my top lip while throwing dry flies was some added value and packed a real buzz!

“We are all weirdos in the end, we fly fish.”

7. Common thread

I have been on many road trips with my old skateboarding mag, Session, in the past, shooting articles and videos. This trip felt very similar because the guys are also skaters, snowboarders, and fly fisherman so we all had a lot in common growing up. It’s like being in a world wide brotherhood, all the ‘getting to know one another stuff’ is wiped away, because you are all already bros by sharing the same passions growing up. We are all weirdos in the end, we fly fish.

8. Care packages

I once had a Swedish girlfriend who was awesome, caring and very generous. I’m not saying these guys were my prison ‘wyfies’, but it was the same with them. They were incredibly considerate, constantly checking if things are ok. “Are you good?” “Do you need anything?” “Should we stop for a lunch and coffee break?” “Have this sweater or cap!” It must be a Nordic thing, but it’s rad. The guys also left a ton of gear to be handed out to the local Lesotho guides.

Many coffee breaks were had with the Lemmel crew (coffee being their business). rolf nylinder
Many coffee breaks were had with the Lemmel crew (coffee being their business).

9. The vibe

They all know how to fish really, really well, but they’re not overly one-track about it. They also know how to enjoy themselves really really well while on a fishing trip. It’s a rad mindset that’s infectious to be around and just made the trip that much better.

10. Ophidiophobia (looks very snakey)

Being from Sweden and Norway, it made sense that the guys are all really scared of snakes. They would often ask, “Brendan, it looks really really snakey, do you think there are snakes here?” 

11. Loskop

Rolf always loses or leaves things on the side of the river. Often after we would get back to camp he would have to mission back to the river because he’d forgotten his lens cap or sunglasses on the bank. Among the group it’s almost expected and funny. But he just turns around and missions all the way back and then reappears 40 minutes later in the dark laughing and saying something like, “Yeah, it was on that big rock on that third pool above the corner where Markus got that big yellow.”

12. Homie don’t play dat shit!

Something I did not anticipate is the lack of music while roadtripping. Don’t make a huge playlist for the car when traveling with Rolf, because he films all the time so music is rarely allowed.

No music, just kakpraat and singing in the car with rolf nylinder
No music, just kakpraat and singing in the car

13. Micdrop

That aside – the guys all love to sing and makeup songs. We made up a few good songs along the way, including their smash hit Pothole song that features in Rolf’s film of the trip, Marbatho. Fuck I laughed. It makes more sense now than the radio, plus it makes for a much better film. 

14. Bulletproof

If you ever get the chance to fish with the Lemmel crew, you better have a strong drinking game because you are going to need it! We had to keep re-ordering cases of quarts from the village because the stock we brought before arriving was gone almost immediately.

rolf nylinder

15. Roomie

Markus is a great person to share a room with, neat, tidy and despite being a chunky monkey he doesn’t snore louder than I do.  

16. Boys

As expected, there is lot of talk and joking about cocks, masturbation and having a “big cock aura” (see the Riley Meyer reference in the film). It’s childish as hell and hilarious.

Guide Riley Meyer and his famed, “storkukslugn” (the calm of having a large dick).
Guide Riley Meyer and his famed, “storkukslugn” (the calm of having a large dick).

17. Marathon man

If you have to drive to Lesotho from Cape Town, I’d suggest doing it in two days rather. We left at 4am and got to Ficksburg on the border of Lesotho at 9pm broken. To calm our nerves we then proceeded to drink the special bottle of Scotch given to us by The Mission’s editor Tudor, which was meant for a night in camp, bless him.

18. Gold

We were all blown away on how amazing the African Waters camp and fishing was, crystal clear runs teaming with yellows and the odd trout. I had waited my whole life to fish a place like this. I also felt pretty dumb at the same time, being a South African doing this for the first time? African Waters and the community of Makhangoa have created something truly amazing for fly fishing up there.

rolf nylinder with a Bokong River smallmouth yellowfish

Rolf Nylinder with a Bokong River smallmouth yellowfish

19. Baboons 

From start to finish, Rolf Nylinder was on the hunt for baboons to film – “Do you think there are baboons here?”, “Where are all the baboons?” “Is that a baboon!!?” “Do you think there are baboons up in those mountains?” The guy is fascinated by baboons. I suppose if I was wondering around the Swedish wilds, I’d be fascinated by a moose.

20. Witchcraft

On one of the nights at camp we got properly stuck into the beers which ended up with Markus casting “the Eagle spell” on me. It felt like some kind of religious ceremony was taking place, but the high priest was a tattooed Swedish demi-god wearing only his boxer shorts while trying to breath the Holy Spirit of good fishing juju into me. I swear I woke up with no hangover for the first time in about two decades!

21. Homies 

I made three good friends on this trip. That’s one of the best thing about fly fishing, the people you meet along the way and the friendships you make even if you do live on opposite ends of the planet.

Check out Marbatho, the film Rolf Nylinder made about touring across South Africa and Lesotho below.

For the Rolf Nylinder story, get stuck in to The Mission Issue 46 here.

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