How friendly is wheelchair-friendly?

He has been in a wheelchair for 35 years - and has been camping in all that time. We asked Jurie Venter from Groblersdal about what works and what doesn't when it comes to wheelchair-friendly campsites.

- Leon Botha

In 1988, at the young age of 29, Jurie Venter was shot in his back during an armed robbery. This left him paralysed from the navel down. Ever since, he's been using a wheelchair to get around.

Before his injury, Jurie wasn't into camping and usually stayed in holiday accommodation, but he decided in the year of the shooting to buy his first caravan and start camping. Jurie tows his own caravan and has firsthand experience where resorts fall short when it comes to wheelchair-friendly facilities.

Over to Jurie:

A man with a plan

"I wanted to prove that someone in a wheelchair can still enjoy life and go camping - with certain adjustments, of course. I bought my first caravan, a Sprite Musketeer, from a dealership in Pretoria. They widened the door for me to make it wheelchair accessible and fitted a ramp. I was happy with the conversion, but on the way home to what was then Pietersburg, the Musketeer's one wheel came off, on the same side where they modified the door. Unfortunately, damage was extensive, and the caravan was written off before I could even go camping! Not a good start.

That's when I decided against modifications to any future caravan. I then bought a Sprite Major but replaced it in 1992 with a Wilk Emerald. This was, of course, when I was still young and more agile in my wheelchair. Back then I was able to get myself in and out of a caravan without difficulty.

As my wife and I grew older, we also became less flexible and had to look at other options to continue camping. At the time, the Wilk was the most spacious and I built myself a custom wheelchair. It worked with a winch that pulled me up a ramp and into the caravan. It made our lives a lot easier... for about seven years.

But you keep on getting older, and to complicate matters further, my wife had to undergo shoulder surgery.