|
Back to Index
Crossing the Makgadikgadi Pans in a home-made wooden go-kart
Ben
Freeth
September 07, 2012
Download
this document
- MS
Word version (240KB)
- Acrobat
PDF version (365KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader
on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here
Like all the
best expedition concepts, this was an easy one! My young sons, Joshua
(12) and Stephen (10) decided to make a go-kart that would sail
and could be used on an expedition to raise
funds for the Mike Campbell Foundation. So, with some cheap
Zimbabwe pine, a few tools and some bicycle wheels, we made the
vessel. On a windy Sunday, we found an empty car park in Harare
and sailed it up and down the tar using a pre-1980 Optimist dinghy
sail that had proved its worth in innumerable regattas. The vessel
went at great speed and it was rather fun - but we all felt that
the expedition had to be over more than a car park!
We looked at a map and
discussed the possibility of the Makgadikgadi salt pans located
in northeastern Botswana, southeast of the world renowned Okavango
Delta. Surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, the Makgadikgadi is technically
not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between. They
didn't look too big on our little map, but we were unsure
how our rather holey "made in Rhodesia" sail would stand
up to a howling August wind in that unforgiving wasteland southwest
of Zimbabwe.
It was then that we hit
on the idea of powering the go-kart with a kite. It would obviate
the inevitable sore heads from the low swinging boom that scythed
across the deck - and it would give a lot more room for the three
of us to perch on our little craft.
We made a few successful
wheel modifications using extra bicycle wheels and car inner tubes
that would allow our weight to be displaced over the thin salt crust
of the pans. Then, after some rather hairy self-taught kite flying
trials at home and on the beaches of Mozambique, during which we
became prone to levitating at considerable heights, we felt we were
ready.
The Meteorological
Department in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, was very efficient
and gave us all the historical wind records - showing the direction
and wind speed in August. We set off, confident that we would storm
across the pans with the galloping fury of being harnessed to a
span of the area's famed wildebeest and zebra that range across
the area in Africa's second largest wildlife migration.
Unfortunately
our back-up team was not up to full strength. I discovered that
my little daughter Anna's passport had expired and we could
not get a new one in time. So my wife, Laura, opted to stay behind
with Anna while "Granny Claire", my mother, who was out
on holiday from England, would do the honours of sending us off
and - hopefully! - receiving us at our intended destination.
Download
full document
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
