Dear Oom Jan, André Nel farms in the heart of Bushmanland. He ploughed the shape of a heart on a small pan on his farm – you can see it on Google Earth! But here in the present that heart is under water. How amazing is that? André and I can’t stop taking photos.
One August afternoon in 2021, I sat on my haunches at Oom Jan van Niekerk’s grave. He was interred in the red sand below me. Beneath the skin of Bushmanland, the only piece of earth he really knew and truly loved. On top of the sand was one of Poortjie’s ironstone rocks.
Oom Jan and Poortjie were one. People always connected his name with that of the farm; he was known as Jan Poortjie.
The proteas on
