HANG OUT WITH

Kobus & Annelize Venter Nthakeni Bush & River Camp

- TOAST COETZER

Open your map book and run your finger up the N1, past Polokwane, over the Soutpansberg and through the Baobab toll gate. Then, at a place called Bokmakierie, turn right onto the R525. Readers who have soaked their feet at Tshipise will know this road, but you’re not going there today. Continue past the hot springs, in the direction of the Kruger Park’s Pafuri gate.

But you’re not going to the Kruger either – you’re going to heaven. A few kilometres before the Pafuri gate, you’ll see the sign for Nthakeni Bush & River Camp. It’s in the bush and next to the Mutale River.

This is where you’ll meet Annelize and Kobus Venter. They don’t have a TV or a living room because at night they sit outside in camping chairs and look at the stars. They braai goat chops because “mutton chops are too expensive in Limpopo”. Annelize teaches needlework and crochet classes. Kobus is always working with his hands and has made almost everything you see at Nthakeni himself. They like to play with their dogs. They talk to each other, their faces lined with laughter.

How did they end up here? And why are they so happy? In June 2016, Annelize and Kobus, originally from Delmas,

toured in the area. They stayed at Pafuri River Camp and went for a ride on their bicycles one morning.

“We rode over the bridge across the Mutale,” says Kobus. “There was a bend in the road and then, on the left, a field with about seven mielies. We pulled over and talked to the friendly man in the field.”

This man’s name was Noel Khoza and when Kobus and Annelize rode past the field again a little while later, Noel presented them with a gift: mielies from his sparse field.

“When I saw the goodness of this man’s heart, I was hooked,” says Kobus.