Close your eyes and walk 10 steps. Now put a correctly designed white cane in your hand and use it to navigate the same 10 steps.
It is a world of difference – and that the difference adventurer and activist Chris Venter was making as he visited schools and centres for visually impaired children across the Eastern Cape last week. Talk of the Town found him at Summerhill Inn in Bathurst, who were hosting him, along with friend and driver Michael Burton-Durham and star of the show, guide dog Sam.
Lions Clubs International, You Cane Give Initiative, Kirstenhof Car and Bakkie Hire, Amazon.com and ‘Big Mike’ Burton-Durham, whose day job is being a motorbike tour operator, are Venter’s sponsors as he criss-crosses the country to distribute white canes – mostly to kids. The canes are donated by US organisation, You Cane Give. Below, Mike explains what a cane is and why it’s important.
It was hard to believe that in the past two days, two men, a dog, a large consignment of canes and some travelling necessities had made their way through valleys and up mountains from Port St Johns and Bizana in the former Transkei to Hogsback. In a tiny low-profile-tyred hatchback that most of us would be hard-pressed to just fit our daily shopping into.
Venter, who is a sought-after motivational speaker for corporate events and team-building, spoke about his attitudes to adventure, adversity and ordinary everyday life.
Being an adventurer was always going to happen.
“I couldn’t help it, really,” said Venter. “I grew up going to boy scouts and reading Tintin: as kids, we knew we wanted to see new places and have different experiences.”
In 2013 that took the form of a journey through 21 countries on a 150cc Vespa scooter to raise funds for a local children’s hospital. He contracted a viral illness while riding in Africa that resulted in his losing his sight.
In coming to terms with the fact that his life had changed forever, Venter told Talk of the Town, he did encounter some difficult moments. But, he said, “I walked over to the pool of depression, had a look, peed in it and walked away.”
Since then, as his bio recounts, Venter has de has driven everything from a Porsche to a horse and 4x4s. He has sailed a yacht, flown a gyrocopter, pedalled and paddled all over South Africa. He has climbed Mount Etna, Europes tallest active volcano, on the island of Sicily, during a snow storm, while it was erupting.
He has kayaked the Tiranean sea, gone around Killarney international raceway using 22 different means of mobility including a land rover, an ambulance, a forklift, tractor, ice cream bicycle and even on a custom built kayak on wheels.
What was his toughest moment?
“When I was building a house and I had to fire everybody and pick up the pieces myself.”
His content creation most recently saw him starring in the lead role of DSTV’s show, Building Blind, where he constructed a family home.
The best moment?
“It’s always good when you achieve a goal – the top of a mountain, the successful end of a project,” he said. “But unfortunately with an addiction like mine, when you’re mearing the end, you start thinking about what’s next – which is not great when you have a wife and child at home!”
Climbing Mount Etna was great, “because I got to do it with my wife,” Venter said. “We were travelling in the footsteps of a famous 19th century explorer who climbed Mount Vesuvius.
“When we climbed Mount Etna, which is bigger, it was snowing and it was erupting. We reached the top and moments later, the siren went off to tell everyone to evacuate.
“It was such an amazing feeling to have reached that point.
“And selling the first 10 000 books.”
You can follow the famous adventurer on his journey on facebook at BlindAdventurerChristopherVenter and christopherventer.com. To book him as a speaker, email christopherventer@gmail.com or call +27 79 866 9960
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, February 20, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
