Die Emmerlys: A story of lockdown love, a Jimny and an unbelievable dream

Worldwide recently discovered “Die Emmerlys” on Instagram – a couple who packed their whole life into a Jimny and decided to travel through South Africa. We asked Jaco and Clarice Visser to tell us more about their exciting journey.

This is their letter to us:

Hello Worldwide friends

We are Jaco and Clarice Visser and we have decided to pack up our lives, store our belongings and hit the road with Die Emmerlys (The Bucketlist) in our Jimny … Sounds exciting, hey?

Love during lockdown

I am a city girl from Pretoria and Jaco is from Hartswater in the Northern Cape. How do two lives converge that are so far apart? Well, I was living my life and a common friend told Jaco about me (back in 2016). Unaware of that, I accepted his friend request when he invited me on Facebook in 2019. I had a look and saw that we had some mutual friends … and decided I would allow him in my Facebook world … Little did I know it would turn out to be the most beautiful adventure of my life!

Jaco and I met each other in February 2020 at a Bethel Conference after Jaco gave me tickets. It was literally a quick five-minute hello after we bumped into each other in a crowd of 3 500 people without planning it. I didn’t spend much time thinking about it afterwards, since I had known from our short Facebook conversations that he farmed in America and would head back there in March of that year … (Every detail about our love story is on my Instagram, so if you want the detail, visit my profile: @claricevisser.) Jaco headed back to America and our country went into lockdown in the middle of March, as did the rest of the world.

For eight months we got to know each other only through Facetime and WhatsApp and by end November, Jaco returned from America. The very next day he moved into a flat just about 600 m around the block from mine in Pretoria, and we both just knew something good was coming. We got engaged in February 2021 and on 17 April my dad walked me down the aisle in Hartenbos, where Jesus tied me and Jaco to each other.

After our honeymoon we returned to Pretoria where Jaco and I moved into my small one-bedroom flat. It felt as if the walls were crushing us, and we wondered where to next … we started looking and found a beautiful place in Hartenbos. We signed a lease until end November 2021, with a lot of uncertainty about the next step. In the beginning of November, we received the new lease contract and we had to decide whether we were going to renew for 2022 … We prayed about it, because we really wanted to be where our lives would make an impact and a difference!

One afternoon in November, Jaco and I went for a walk on Hartenbos’s train track towards the beach. I remember the way the sun danced through the grass on the side of the tracks and how we talked about what our next step would be … Every time we saw a Jimny, Jaco would say: “Imagine if we got a Jimny and just toured around.” During the conversation, we passed Diniki Campsite and I imagined sitting with an old man who might be in pain, and just loving him. We started dreaming about something bigger!

So, how did it happen?

Jaco and I are both self-employed, based from home. Jaco has an agency called Eaglehour Farmwork. He simplifies the process for people with good experience to go farming in America. I also have a business with Young Living essential oils, and “Clarice en die Reenboogkidz” (children’s gospel music – a musician with a passion for worship).

We thought about what we would need in order to work, and the only requirements were basically good internet, our phones, and computers. We did the math and compared our monthly expenses on the road with what it would cost to rent a place. We concluded that an unplanned, planned adventure before we start a family, would be possible. The father of some friends of ours recently came for a visit to the coast. He had saved his whole life to do what was on his bucket list, but got diagnosed with dementia and is currently in a wheelchair. It is so sad, and that, coupled with a few other situations, prompted us to start Die Emmerlys, yes … our Afrikaans word for bucket list.

How did you put things in motion?

Well, we had to give notice to end our lease contract at the end of November, and we had to buy everything we would need for this new season. We sold my car in faith and bought a small two-door Jimny 4×4, because we wanted to see places where others are not able to go, so we could share it with the world. Our belongings were put into storage at the end of November … the adventure had started.

We hit the road on 10 January with our Jimny and our camping gear. Today is 31 January and I am writing this from our ‘fresh from the bag’ tent, which we have assembled for the first time today after so many people blessed us with accommodation until now!

We realise that all we have is NOW, and we trust that our adventure will truly awaken hope and life in people and that every one of you will enjoy our love for South Africa through our stories, and that you will share the journey with us! There are so many things we are dreaming of and our bucket list is LONG, but we want to challenge the Worldwide friends to start dreaming again about the things on your bucket list – those dreams that need to be dusted off … Come have a good time and tour with us around our wonderful country. We are going to laugh together, we are going to cry together and dream together, we are going to be real and start LIVING again!

We dream of kicking off the Golden Bucket List (Die Goue Emmerlys) soon, where we want to take hands with the older generations on bucket list adventures they’ve always wanted to experience, and also to visit places that you would like to see from abroad – where we can take you virtually. You are welcome to contact us for more information on how something like this will work.

We are looking forward to being your hands, feet, hearts, and eyes in South Africa!

Here’s to you – here’s to us making everyone’s bucket list dreams come true!

See you on our social media platforms.

All our bucket list love

Jaco & Clarice Visser