South Africa
Lost a ring or earring in South Africa?
Winelands weddings, Paternoster's fishing boats and the lawns of Zoo Lake.
Yes, an earring that dropped among the vines or on the lawn at a Winelands wedding can be searched for, as can a ring lost on a West Coast beach or beside a Johannesburg lake. It depends mostly on how tightly you can pin down the ground: which part of the grounds, beach or park you were in, and at roughly what time.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that works with experienced local metal detectorists to search for a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone lost in South Africa. Tell us what happened and where. We choose an experienced detectorist who knows the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Four area pages deal with the coast from Cape Town to Durban, by way of the Garden Route and the Eastern Cape, and the cards lower down link to each. This page takes in the West Coast villages, the Winelands, Johannesburg and Pretoria.
West Coast villages, wine estates and Highveld water
The West Coast is known for rugged ground and rustic seaside villages, and at Paternoster the Atlantic waves come crashing in. The Winelands around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek are different ground altogether: many wedding venues there are on working wine farms, so what you describe to us is a lawn, a garden path or a row of vines rather than sand.
Around Johannesburg the water is a lake or a dam. Zoo Lake in Parkview is a park laid out around an artificial lake, Emmarentia Dam borders the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, and Hartbeespoort Dam, set among the Magaliesberg mountains, is a place for water sports.
How the arrangement works
Whichever page you started on
Whether you found us through the Durban page or this one, your messages reach the same person, who stays with your case until it closes.
A brief drawn from your messages
The detectorist reads the whole exchange and sees the place through your photos before going out, so the lawn, path or stretch of beach you described is the one they head for.
Unlikely cases, flagged early
If something in your account points to a poor chance, we tell you early, with the reason, before anything has been booked.
The cost, before any yes
We explain the costs before any search is booked. You decide from there, with no pressure either way.
Our Ring Finder Service Locations in South Africa
Four coastal pages, then the West Coast, the Winelands and the cities inland
The first four cards are signposts to the coastal area pages. The cards after them cover places with no page of their own.
From the Cape coast to the Highveld
Cape Town and the Western Cape
Camps Bay, Clifton, Sea Point, Muizenberg, St James, Llandudno, Bloubergstrand, the Simon's Town and Cape Point beaches and the beaches of Hermanus each have a card on the Cape Town and Western Cape page.
Garden Route
Mossel Bay, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Robberg, out to Nature's Valley and Storms River Mouth, with the beaches in between.
Eastern Cape
Gqeberha with Cape Recife and Sardinia Bay, Jeffreys Bay, then St Francis Bay, Port Alfred and East London.
Durban, Umhlanga and Ballito
The Durban beachfront, Umhlanga Rocks, Ballito and Salt Rock, the south coast from Scottburgh down to Margate and Ramsgate, and St Lucia and Sodwana Bay in the far north. All of them are on the Durban, Umhlanga and Ballito page.
Paternoster
Paternoster is a West Coast fishing village of whitewashed cottages, where fishermen head out in colourful wooden boats. Visitors buy fish straight off the boats as they come in to shore, and some of the restaurants are right on the beach. People take long walks on Langstrand, the long white beach. The Cape Columbine lighthouse stands in the reserve of the same name, which runs along the rocky coast to Tietiesbaai, a favourite summer camping spot by the water.
Langebaan and Saldanha
Langebaan is a modern town on a turquoise lagoon whose safe water and reliable winds draw kitesurfers, windsurfers and kayakers, with beach restaurants and horse riding on the beach. Saldanha sits on a big bay where people sail and water ski all summer, and its seafood restaurants are at the water's edge.
Stellenbosch and Franschhoek
Wine estates around both towns hold weddings, some with a small chapel in the grounds, others with the ceremony among the vines or in manicured gardens, and in the colder months a reception in a wine cellar is popular. A single wedding may use more than one of these, and each part of the grounds is a separate place to describe.
Johannesburg
Zoo Lake, in Parkview, is at its most popular at weekends and on public holidays, with people out on its rolling lawns, and small rowing boats are hired from the water's edge. At Emmarentia Dam, next to the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, people picnic, jog, cycle and walk dogs.
Pretoria and Hartbeespoort
Magnolia Dell, in Pretoria, holds arts and crafts markets and suits a picnic, and Venning Park is a formal rose park with water features. At Hartbeespoort people waterski, jetski and sail on the dam.
Places we cover in South Africa
- Cape Town
- Camps Bay
- Clifton
- Muizenberg
- Bloubergstrand
- Hermanus
- Mossel Bay
- Wilderness
- Knysna
- Plettenberg Bay
- Jeffreys Bay
- Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)
- Durban
- Umhlanga Rocks
- Ballito
- Paternoster
- Cape Columbine and Tietiesbaai
- Langebaan and the lagoon
- Saldanha
- Stellenbosch
- Franschhoek
- Zoo Lake, Johannesburg
- Emmarentia Dam, Johannesburg
- Magnolia Dell and Venning Park, Pretoria
- Hartbeespoort Dam
- Sun City
Lost at a wedding, on a beach or by a lake
Worn for the occasion
- Wedding bands
- Engagement rings
- Drop and stud earrings
- Cufflinks
- Bangles and bracelets
- Pendants on fine chains
Brought along to the beach or the braai
- An Oura ring
- Smartwatches and sports watches
- Phones
- Car keys and house keys
- Sunglasses with metal frames
Last seen at the vines, the boats or the dam
- Photos among the vines at a Franschhoek wedding
- A winter reception in a Stellenbosch wine cellar
- Buying fish off the boats at Paternoster
- A long walk on Langstrand
- Dinner at the water's edge in Saldanha
- A weekend picnic on the Zoo Lake lawns
- Walking the dog at Emmarentia Dam
- Waterskiing on Hartbeespoort Dam
Between your message and the day of the search
The steps do not change with the province.
Town first, then the exact ground
Tell us what is missing and the town, then narrow it to the beach, park, dam or wine estate. For a wedding, add which part of the grounds you were in and at what hour.
Pin, then pictures
Drop a pin where you think it most likely went, then add a photo taken from that spot and any picture in which you are wearing the item, even one from the wedding album.
A detectorist for that ground
Next, we approach metal detectorists who can travel to that beach, garden or dam, and the one who takes it on reads everything you sent before going out.
A date on your say-so
A date is set only once you agree. When the detectorist is done, you get their own account: the ground they worked, the time it took and each find.
Questions about South Africa
The wedding photos were taken among the vines near Franschhoek, and one of my earrings is missing.
A wine estate wedding can move between a chapel, the vines and the gardens, so list each place you stood, in order, with a pin and the rough time you were there. Ask the venue whether staff have handed anything in, and tell us if it was a drop or a stud, and from which ear.
I was buying fish off the boats at Paternoster, and afterwards my phone was not in my pocket.
Start from where you were standing. The fish is sold straight off the boats as they come in to shore, so say whether you stayed up on the dry sand or went down to the water's edge to meet them, and at roughly what time. A photo of that stretch with the boats or the whitewashed cottages behind helps fix the place.
My bracelet went somewhere on Langstrand. Is 8 km of beach too long to search?
Its length is the reason the details of your walk count. Which end you joined the beach from, the point where you turned for home, and every stop to sit or swim each become a pin, and the search begins on the part of the walk that came after the last time you are sure it was on.
Somewhere between our table at the water's edge in Saldanha and the car park, my watch went.
Phone the restaurant first, as staff may have found it under the table. If it has not turned up, give us the restaurant's name and your route back to where you parked, and mention any moment you went down to the water. A pin at the table and one where you parked mark the two ends of the ground.
Our picnic spot at Zoo Lake in Parkview is the last place I remember wearing my Oura ring.
Pin where your blanket was, then list what else you did: the outdoor gym, the tennis or basketball courts, a turn in a rowing boat. Say where you parked, off Jan Smuts Avenue, Westwold Way or Lower Park Drive, because the walk back to the car counts too.
I was throwing a ball for the dog at Emmarentia when I felt my wedding band fly off.
Then the place you threw from is the centre. Were you in the off-leash area in the northern section of the gardens, or on the way round the dam? Tell us that and which way you threw. A picture from the throwing spot lets the detectorist line up the throw.
Is there any hope for a watch that came off in a waterskiing fall on Hartbeespoort Dam?
Losing it in open water after a fall is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first. If you only noticed later and cannot be sure it went in the fall, pin the spot where you got ready and the spot where you came out of the water, with a time for each.
We went from a craft market at Magnolia Dell to the roses at Venning Park, and my bracelet is gone.
Pin both parks and give a time for each. Magnolia Dell is a park for picnics and craft markets, and Venning Park is a formal rose park with water features, so the ground differs: tell us, for each, if you were on grass, on a path between the beds or by the water.
South Africa
The ground decides the questions
Your first WhatsApp message only has to say what you lost and carry a map pin on the wine estate, beach, park or dam where you think it went.