Willem Kempen RIP

Bob, sad news indeed, had a lot of respect for Willem, RIP.

RIP old fella. You'll be sorely missed by many of us. Condolences to Jude.

Regards

We met Willem just once, maybe 15 years ago. He invited us to spend the night camped in our OKA in his back yard. We chatted about remote travel. The wall map of his travels was something to behold.
RIP Willem.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

RIP Willem - the world has lost another great human who’s adventurous spirit not only inspired others but epitomised true human nature… that of exploration and story telling.

I loved one of his magazine articles years ago about his trip into the headwaters of the Fitzmaurice River around Palm Creek as I had been into the Fitzmaurice on trips way back while working at Pine Creek Gold Mine,NT.

RIP Willem.

I'm so sorry to hear of the passing of my good mate Willem. He had a fall last week; he hit his head, had a stroke and was hospitalised, passing away on 3 March.

Who was he?
He was a great mate, he readily shared track information and Australian bush history with anyone.
Willem fought bladder cancer for many years and was free of it when he fell and subsequently died.

To read of Willem’s adventures go to Willems website

On behalf of Australia’s 4Wdrive fraternity, I thank you, Willem. May you rest in peace.

Willem was an inspiration. RIP

.
Thanks for that advice Bob.

Willem stood tall in the Aussie 4WD fraternity.
His presence on this forum was refreshing to say the least and it was a sad day when he moved away.
Even more sad that he has now departed altogether. He will be remembered and missed by many.

R.I.P. Willem, and my sincere condolences to Judy.

G'day Bob

Sad news about Willem, I had the pleasure of talking with Judith and Willem, mostly about their adventures but also about the Western Desert region east of Newman way back in the early 2000's.

Lovely couple who just happened to take the time to say G'day and share a slice of their incredibly adventurous life.

Deepest respect for a nice bloke and thanks for being important to me.

Sincere condolences ~ Judith

Safe travels : Joe

RIP WIllem and condolences to the family.

I always enjoyed Willem's threads, there were many, many great contributions.

Mark

RIP Willem.

Spent a few hour shopping around a campfire enthralled with his knowledge and laughing til it hurt with his jokes and yarns.

No punctures or bogs where you are now my friend

John T

Very sad, I had many visits from Willem and visited him a few times.
We had many yarns, unfortunately I never had the pleasure of having a yarn with him around a camp fire.
Farewell my friend, you will be missed.

Sorry to hear of Willem's passing, a great adventurer and even in bad health over 5 or 6 years, he still was sleeping under the stars on trips, although not too remote these days. I think he was in his early 80s.

My condolences to the family.
He was a real character.

Farewell Willem,, no more punctures and good corrugations from now on. Condolences to you Judith

I remember Willem from many years ago.
He was a frequent user of this forum.
Never afraid to voice his opinion on many subjects.
Quite controversial at times but I always enjoyed reading his comments.
We need more people like Willem.
My sincere condolences to his family.

Willies funeral will be 11.30am Friday 11th March next week in Peterborough at the cemetery.

Afterwards will be at the Peterborough arts centre .

RIP old mate.

I never met Willem, but remember him from the Forum. I had contact with him re a VERY special place in the NT that we had both visited. A cave, we weren't sure if we were talking about the same place until Willem pulled out a GPS co-ordinate and Google earth image. Yes, it was the same place.

Sorry to hear of his passing.

Thanks to the person putting up the link to his page, I didn't know it existed. I look forward to many hours exploring it.

Lyndon

I remember and took notice of any comments that Willem made. It's quite a tribute all the positive things being said about him, but also makes me wonder about the direction our society is headed when a fondly remembered person can get banned from a social site while all manner of other disreputable know nothing types bombard us daily on mainstream media and get paid for it.

Another member that will be missed

RIP Willem. You'll be missed