Val de Vie Magazine Autumn 2018

Wild at Heart RAIN, ROARS, TUSKS AT DUSK...

BUSH ENCOUNTERS FOR YOUR SOUL TRAGEDY, TRUE GRIT AND HIDDEN TALENT DRIVES ARTSCAPE’S ‘DIVA’ FLAT EARTH SOCIETY TRIUMPHS AS SHOE FASHION GETS LEVELHEADED AN SA FILMMAKER’S LIFE BRINGS DRAMA TO THE BIG SCREEN

ISSN 2221-4852

ONE SMALL TEST FOR MANKIND, ONE GIANT LEAP IN HEALTH AND WELLNESS

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you as a reader as it was for us to curate it for you. It's been four months in the making.

Ryk and I both headed for the bush late last year and agreed that no matter how many times we've experienced the Big Five , we always come away thankful to have this 'wild' to recharge ourselves and marvel at the privilege of these close encounters. A short flight (and boutique airlines are on the rise) gets you out of a long drive and into the heart of the bush within hours - a boon for foreign tourists.

A FORMER PAGEANT QUEEN

ditches the obvious

career path and steps into the world of science... The head of an organisation that brings drama , colour and excite­ ment to the stage reveals how fine the line can be between personal triumph and what could have been despair...

A woman who worked the fields to learn her skill from scratch makes a man on the other side of the planet smile at his good fortune upon opening a box of her beautiful products ... A filmmaker digs deep into his own childhood

WE BELIEVE THIS IS A POWERFUL ISSUE OF VAL DE VIE M AGAZINE AND WE HOPE IT IS AS STIMULATING FOR YOU AS A READER AS IT WAS FOR US TO CURATE IT FOR YOU.

We chose to theme this issue Wild at Heart, not just because of our bush encounters but broadly, because it touches on what drives the men and women we' ve fea­ tured. Corporate leaders by day dig deep to find the endur­ ance needed to complete the Absa Cape Epic. There has to be a streak of wild in the desire to finish an eight-day, 658-kilometre race that tests friendships and partnerships to the limit. You can' t get any wilder than trying to tame crows to do their civic duty and you must admire the Botte­ ga family for using wild ingredients to make their irresistible chocolate or the blokes behind the botanicals in Six Dogs

experience for a moving on-screen story that's piqued the

Karoo Gin. We chose to turn fashion on its head a bit too.

interest of Hollywood producers ... Then there's the spirit

Our 'Flat Earth Society' feature invites you to come down

that drives a top designer whose imagination and holistic

to earth (off sky-high stilettos) and be grounded yet styl­

approach to design put her into the realm of 'idea alche­

ish. Our polo matches ask guests to stomp divots between

mist' and the man whose fierce energy and drive turned a

matches and we love to encourage them to be part of the

little design soiree with a handful of attendees into a world­

tradition - it's just impossible on 1 0-centimetre spikes.

renowned 'indaba' ... All South Africans. All pioneers and

Wild ideas , wild fantasy, long shots and fat chances - it's

mavericks in their field. We believe this is a powerful issue

quintessentially South African and we celebrate it here.

of Val de Vie magazine and we hope it is as stimulating for

LES AUPIAIS

CLAIRE KEETON is a feature writer at the Sunday Times. She coauthored the adventure travel book Wild Weekends, represented South Africa at the world whitewater rafting championships and spends her free time rock climbing. She has ridden the Tour de Tuli.

She has a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University in the US and studied at UCT.

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Val de Vie

LESLEY STONES is proudly South African, with a silly accent left over from when she used to be English. She started her career by reviewing rock bands for a UK music paper, before a follow-the-sun policy brought her here. She's a freelance journalist specialising in travel, leisure and being opinionated about life in general.

MARI GROENEWALD is a self-confessed barefoot fashion ista.

Mari enjoys considered design, impeccable craftsmanship and all things shiny, though a passion for nature means she finds most of her inspiration when wandering in the wild. She's been applying her treasurehunting skills as a stylist in the fashion industry for the last 15 years.

F'

KATINKA BESTER ESTE KOK is Val de Vie says she's always been Estate's marketing creatively active, manager. The self-procontinuously finding claimed brand profiler mediums to express and travel aficionado herself. For as long as holds honour's degrees she can remember, the in commerce and brand magic of photography has management. Her zeal for local business promoentranced her, especially tion has led to rubbing analogue photography.

Her ride, she says, has shoulders with established been an unbelievable one, brands. When not in the and today, she works as a office, you'll find her runprofessional photographer ning mountain trails or sipin Cape Town and Paris. ping corner cafe flat whites.

THANK YOU to the following photographers for their exceptional eye and breathtakingly beautiful images featured in our story, 'Maven' (page 24): Scott R amsay (Odzala); Andrew Howard (North Island); David Crookes, Mariska van den Brink, and Dook (Arijiju).

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