SPIRIT OF PLACE

Friday, 10 July 2026

RAINFORESTS & CHIMPANZEES IN THE LOWVELD

This amazing week starting the 6th of July 2026 saw us climb into our little Jimny on Tuesday and drive down to the Nelspruit Botanical Gardens to take advantage of Pensioners free day and have a look around.

Kirstenbosch needs to take quite a big step backwards ... this place is very special. With its waterfalls and one of the finest manufactured African Rain Forests anywhere in the world it managed to elicit feelings at every turn that can only be described with one word: WOW!

RAINFORESTS & WATERFALLS (See more images below)

As we walked through this incredible park we could simply not believe the remarkable range of trees and plants that we came across. The atmosphere grabbed us every inch of the way - we will definitely be back, and more than just once I am quite certain.

Then on Wednesday we took a run down to the Jane Goodall Chimp sanctuary, 26 odd kms out of Nelspruit on the Barberton road that we had driven the week before, following the quite remarkable road up the mountain towards Piggs Peak and the Lesotho border - a drive that rattled my sense of vertigo virtually to the limit.

RESIDENTS OF 'CHIMP EDEN' (See more images below)

The Chimp Sanctuary, known as Chimp Eden houses roughly 35 abused chimps from all over the world, and learning about how they arrived here was both interesting and somewhat disturbing - their various characters and displays obviously resulting from a whole range of maltreatment suffered in captivity.

One very sad case hurls rocks at blonde women! Why? because during his captivity in Paris he was kept in a small cage except for when he had to perform in modern day clothes, which kept him upright - if he didn't perform his blonde handler would hit him over the head with a baseball bat - he recognised his mishandler as blonde and endeavours to hit her back with rocks hurled at blonde visitors each day.

Another trades toys found in the enclosure for food from the guide - a very definite activity bred from a need to survive in captivity.

Chimp Eden was a Jane Goodall initiative, and she visited it on her 90th birthday a little while before she died in 2025. Chimp Eden relies almost entirely on the entry fees paid by visitors to survive, so when in the area please make a point of visiting.

Thursday, 9 July 2026

HIATUS, HIATUS, HIATUS.

So - after a three and a half year hiatus spent resolving where to go with our lives after hanging up my construction overalls (so to say), I am back!

With no income and the spectre of possible migration to join Caradoc and Chavane and their families in Ireland, we were faced with some unpleasant and stressful decisions.

Primarily the beautiful house and garden that we had developed over seven years in Bathurst had to be sold to provide an income bearing investment, as also all of the furniture and possessions that we had accumulated over 57 years of marriage. This was the really stressful part of the exercise, but we worked through it all, and barely two weeks after vacating the house and moving into temporary accommodation at Greenfountain just outside Port Alfred, we felt as if a huge load had been lifted from our shoulders.

It is not until one leaves the daily visible and sensory contact with all the many friends, acquaintances and surroundings that a village like Bathurst offers, that you realise how cloistered a life you live in such an environment. I recall during my very first week there, just having introduced myself to Gavin Came at the Pig and Whistle, he went about warning me that in Bathurst everyone in the village knows what your plans for tomorrow are before you do!

Anticipating a lengthy wait for my Irish Citizenship application to be dealt with we decided upon the sale of the house at the end of September 2025 to purchase an old motorhome and a used Suzuki Jimny runabout to serve as our accommodation for the foreseeable future, and to use the waiting period to revisit some of the places around South Africa that we had so enjoyed in the past.

OUR FIRST SETUP AT GREENFOUNTAIN

A THREE NIGHT STAY AT MORGAN BAY

OUR RIG THE DAY WE LEFT

Immediately we took possession of the Motorhome it went in to have a 3Kw inverter installed along with a new battery and LED lights, a gas water heater, fridge/freezer, and one or two other improvements. Sadly the company that did the installation overlooked one or two details in the new electrical installation, and two days before we were due to leave on the 1st November for Tsitsikamma there was a short that caused the entire interior of the vehicle to be completely destroyed by fire. After some haranguing they eventually came to the party and agreed to do all of the repairs and re-fitting of the interior at their own cost, which in many ways was a blessing as we now had what looked like a brand new motorhome internally - but we did only get it back just two days before Christmas.

The folk at Greenfountain were most helpful and secured a campsite for us after allowing us to stay on in the cottage we had rented until the 10th December - for the intervening period we were fortunate enough to have Peter Davidson offer his house in Port Alfred to us while he was away in Pretoria ......... so while it was all a bit stressful, it all worked out in the end.

SEAN & PAT HAVING A BRAAI WITH US AT TSITSIKAMMA SUNRISE

Following January at the Greenfountain campsite we moved up to a cottage at the McCreath's Tiger Spring farm for two months before driving down to Tsitsikamma Sunrise campsite in Nature's Valley for April, where, being so close to Plett we were able to spend a couple of great days with cousin Sean and Pat. A few days before the end of the month we left on the longhaul to Wagondrift situated some 60kms NE of Pretoria, stopping over at De Rust, Beaufort West, Colesburg and three nights with cousin Gary Lance and Louisa at his beautiful Heron Banks golf course on the Vaal outside Sasolburg.

GARY LOOKING OUT OVER THE GOLF COURSE AT HERON BANKS

Fortuitously, we somehow managed to stay just 48 hours ahead of all of the storm destruction in the Cape, the flooding of Meiringspoort, snow in Beaufort West and bitter cold in Colesburg.

Wagondrift was a beautiful campsite with amazing facilities, all at our disposal, and with loads of game all around us. It gave us the opportunity to spend a few nights in Pretoria with Pat's sister Maureen, and to hook up with the rest of her family for some quality time.

OUR CAMPSITE AT WAGONDRIFT (MAY 2026)

Our next stop was Busa House Campsite in White River, where we are now. The decision to come here was to get away from the cold, and again, fortune has favoured us no-end. For the six weeks we have been here to date we have had nothing but blue skies, lovely warm days, and very mild - entirely tolerable - evenings, persuading us to stay on here until the end of September to be sure that winter elsewhere in SA is over.

OUR CURRENT CAMPSITE AT BUSA HOUSE IN WHITE RIVER (JUNE - SEPTEMBER 2026)

Having travelled the Eastern Transvaal extensively in our trusty little Fiat 850 over the 18 months before we were married in December 1968, we had visited all of the towns and high-spots, but the intervening 58 years has taken its toll, and what was then our playground has become developed in every respect, with everything we enjoyed alone and for free now a never-ending series of tourist traps that have to be paid for.

We then used to drive down to the banks of the Blyde River Dam and camp there happily for a couple of nights with no-one even aware of our existence - similarly at Bourke's Potholes, spending our days climbing and walking, entirely alone and free - also at God's Window, Pilgrim's Rest, Graskop and all of the various waterfalls. No more! Now you pay to get in everywhere, and can only experience the Potholes and waterfalls from a controlled distance. Weren't we fortunate to have done it all when we did, and to have all those memories still with us?

Thursday, 29 December 2022

CATCHING UP & MOVING FORWARD

I am somewhat embarrassed by the degree to which I have neglected this blog over the past 7 months ......... months that have been somewhat of a watershed period for me, and I apologize to any of you out there who may have become accustomed to receiving updates.

I have been struggling for the past four and a half years to come to terms with the stress of dealing with people on a daily basis here in the Eastern Cape, who (not all - but for the most part - be they sub-contractors, bricklayers, plasterers, tilers, plumbers, electricians or basic labour), take no pride whatsoever in the work that they do, and who seem to have no work ethic at all ........... no sense of commitment .......... no sense of responsibility ........... and perhaps worst of all, no sense of guilt or embarrassment when they let you down.

Anyway - I decided that whatever the consequences, for my own peace of mind, I had to stop building / project managing, as it was becoming ever more difficult to deliver the quality of work that I had become accustomed to delivering to my clients over the years, and took the decision a few months back to change direction completely.

In addition to, and also as part of the above, I had the misfortune of taking my Diahatsu bakkie in to a newly established local workshop in Bathurst for an engine rebuild on the 4th October 2021. Calling themselves Automed/Custom Landys, they quoted me R18000.00, which after a series of turnarounds (which should have had me on my guard), I had already given them over R20000.00 in deposits by the 7th of November 2021. Unfortunately, a friend, Owen Putzier, with the same vehicle as mine which also required an engine rebuild, took his vehicle in to them at the same time on my recommendation and gave them a R27000.00 deposit ........... both of us thinking we were going to get reconditioned engines. This never materialized, and despite endless promises of engineering company guarantees of one year and 100000kms and excuses of every possible kind, and lawyers' letters which I had issued on top of endless communications of one sort or another - now - at the end of 2022, neither of us have our vehicles back and they have skipped town. Unfortunately we are not the only ones who have fallen prey to these charlatans, and we currently have three other people we know of who are in a similar situation, along with my oldest friend, Peter Davidson, who did a deal with them in November 2021 to have them rebuild a Landrover they had on the premises for him - for delivery on February 2022. He gave them a R178000.00 advance along with a further R10000.00 in early February to expedite matters. Here at the end of 2022 he still has neither the vehicle nor the money he advanced them.

All this time I have been paying a monthly lease plus insurance on this vehicle - plus licensing it - while not having the use for which it was intended, and estimate that I have passed on approximately R150000.00 worth of work to other contractors due to the nature of certain jobs which I could not do without the vehicle. During this same period the vehicle has lost at least R20000.00 in value on the open market. My estimate is that these people, John and Lize Harvey, trading as Automed/Custom Landys, have as of today's date cost me R105000.00 for a vehicle that, if it was in proper working order, I could sell for around R65000.00 ............ and I still have 6 months to pay off on the lease, while the vehicle is standing in their abandoned yard, on a jack, unlocked and unattended, waiting to be stripped by any interested passers by. Owen's vehicle on the other hand has already been stripped it would appear, as all his new upholstery and the seats are gone - the engine is missing, and a rusted bell-housing and driveshaft are lying in the back of the bakkie.

Nicolaas McCreath got a judgement against them in the Port Alfred Magistrate's Court on June 28, 2022 and a warrant of execution was issued on July 27, 2022, and on January 20, 2023, the Sheriff will sell in execution whatever moveable assets are on the premises. Furthermore, I was informed by their Landlord on Xmas day that his property where they were living has been emptied of all their possessions and that they have skipped with the rent three months in arrears. Let this then be a warning to all and sundry to be extremely wary of dealing with John and Lize Harvey in whatever capacity they choose to represent themselves. It is wholly evident and provable that they have fraudulently fleeced potential customers of deposits totaling over three hundred thousand Rand (that we are are of), without providing anything in return, including those vehicles for which the deposits were taken.

Enough of that then - please just be very wary if you happen to come across these people.

Going into 2023 I have decided to become considerably more active photographically than I have been in the past and have decided to concentrate on marketing my photographs and my abilities as a photographer - something I have been dabbling with since I was 12 years old ........ which adds up to a good 65 years of experience one way and another.

Aside from restructuring my photographic website, I have also set up a store at https://neville-lance-photography.picfair.com and take this opportunity to ask all those of you who land on this page please to forward the link on to anyone you know who might be able to make use of my images for any purpose whatsoever ..... from a home and office decor point of view through to advertising and business presentations and/or motivation or banner representations.

I have recently also become considerably more active on Instagram, putting myself out there daily as both https://www.instagram.com/nevillelancephotography/ and https://www.instagram.com/uviewnev/ in an effort to bring my work to a much wider audience. I also retain my Facebook page as a reminder to all of my friends and family that I am trying to make it in this business, so https://www.facebook.com/neville.lance is just one more place where I can be found.

As a teaser for what we can look forward to on my photographic website and in the store, I am putting up a couple of pics taken very recently at a friend's home here in Bathurst of an AFRICAN PYGMY-KINGFISHER (Ispidina picta), that had begun nesting in an abandoned mole hole which was exposed in a bank of soil where they had started excavating. Enjoy!

Please click on images to enlarge

Tuesday, 3 May 2022

BATHURST 2022 BOOKSHOW

It has been exactly three years since the last Bathurst Bookshow held in 2019, with 2020 being cancelled literally with just a couple of days to go due to the whole Covid lockdown thing. Similarly the 112th Bathurst Agricultural Show made an amazing comeback (despite the very welcome rain), over the weekend of April 1st - 3rd 2022. Photographs of all the aspects the Agricultural Show can be found at https://www.nevillelance.com/bas, while a few photographs of the equally successful Bookshow can be found here.