KNYSNA NEWS - Adventurer extraordinaire Christopher Venter lives by the motto "in an accessible world, a blind man can do anything that a sighted person is able to".

Venter, also a philanthropist, writer, entrepreneur, and a well-known public speaker, both in South Africa and abroad, visited the Knysna Lions, whose main focus is assisting people who have sight-related problems, on Wednesday 5 February to give a talk to their members.

Scooter odyssey

Ahead of his talk he told how he had lost his sight, at the age of 37, after contracting a virus while travelling across Africa.

Before that journey he had been "a development and training chef who set up kitchens in remote places", including on Saint Helena and the Cayman Islands, and had nurtured an ambition to write a book.

"I got tired of sweating behind a grill and in 2013 I decided to create a story of adventure, so I rode a Vespa scooter from Cape Town to Dublin - 30 000 kilometres and 20 countries, no support vehicles.

"It was a fundraiser for the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (in Cape Town).

NY Times best seller

"I got to Ireland, came home very ill, and they couldn't diagnose the problem until my sight disappeared.

"So my story of adventure turned to one of adventure and sight loss, and I wrote the first book, How I Became the Blind Scooter Guy, which was a New York Times best seller, selling over 100 000 copies.

'Crazy challenges'

"It was the first of four books. Then I reinvented myself as a blind adventurer, and I've been undertaking all these crazy challenges ever since.

"I climbed Mount Etna (active volcano in Sicily) while it was erupting and snow was falling."

Venter, who lives near Hermanus with his wife and six-year-old son, writes for a motorcycle magazine, and "many other mags, but the core of my income comes from motivational speaking to corporates - all over South Africa and the world".

"I also own an events-booking company, that books bands, musicians and DJs through an app.

'Building Blind'

"My most recent project is I've just finished building my family a new home, for a production called Building Blind on DStv."

Venter stopped over in Knysna with his guide dog, Sam, and his driver, "Big Mike", while on a journey to Gqeberha, and then to Worcester, where he was to hand over high-quality fold-up mobility canes to learners at schools for the blind.

Canes, Bibles

He distributes the refurbished canes on behalf of a US-based charity, You Cane Give. They each cost "over $100 and are inaccessible to kids in SA".

In addition he distributes solar-powered audio-player Bibles to blind learners, "loaded with the language of those who receive them, such as isiXhosa".

After participating in an official cheque handover ceremony - the Knysna Lions donated R100 000 to the Cape Town branch of SA Guide-Dogs, for the training of a guide dog - Venter addressed the members of the club.

He told them, to much laughter, that the difference between him and other speakers was that if they found him "boring, you can get up and walk out of the room and I wouldn't know it".

'Pretty broken'

After doctors had told him he was blind permanently, "I was pretty broken at that time. It took me almost a year to put myself back together, to learn how to walk again, how to stand in the shower without falling over".

"I learnt I could still live, and I learnt how to write, using accessible technology - a computer that when I type each letter, it tells me what the letter is, and when I hit the space, it tells me what the word is; and I wrote my first book.

'The littlest thing'

"What does it mean to be blind and to be living in a world that is so designed for the sighted? The littlest thing (and) the stupidest little instructions, if they're given wrongly - they can throw you.

"For me, if I leave the salt shaker in one place, and it's not there, there's no salt in my food, and it's bland."

He said in 2021-2022 he gave 400 sponsored mobility canes to a school for the blind in Cape Town, and "almost immediately afterwards people started emailing me and sending WhatsApps, saying, 'What about us?' It's the rural schools, the more outlying ones, that are most forgotten".

The principal of a rural school for the blind had told him "we've had access to canes (one-piece fibreglass canes) through a government programme... but we haven't received any for four-and-a-half years".

Plight of children

Children needed to replace their canes as they grew taller, and learnt how to walk faster. He had come across blind children in rural areas using car antennas and taped-together broomstick handles, due to an absence of mobility canes.

"These children have every ability to do everything. Without a cane, it's very, very difficult, because that (cane) gives you access to your school, it gives you access to your family and friends, a social life."

To inspire others, and for self-motivation, "I live my life by the mantra, 'in an accessible world, a blind man can do anything that a sighted person is able to'. I try to prove that every day of my life".

On Thursday 6 February Venter gave a talk at Knysna Primary School. "We were honoured to have him share his story with our learners," the school posted on its Facebook page.

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