Northern Cape
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The BLOODHOUND Team are deeply saddened by the news of Mr Mandela's death. Our thoughts go to his family and to our many friends and colleagues in South Africa.
Mr Mandela said 'education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world'. Our project is testament to that idea. We are proud of our partnership with the country, and look forward to the day in 2015 when the world will see an amazing, inspirational story unfold in the beautiful desert of Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape.
I’ve just had a very odd experience – someone’s sent me a video of myself appearing on Foreign Secretary William Hague’s Facebook page. To try and explain this rather strange event, I’ll start with my recent visit to the BLOODHOUND track in the Northern Cape of South Africa.
300 people clearing Hakskeen Pan
This is a difficult update to write because I can’t really describe in words the scale of what is happening in South Africa.
I’ve just got back from a technical survey of the desert work (and some media interviews, to explain how we are getting on) and I’m still amazed by what I’ve seen. I was with a couple of experienced journalists, who were fairly quiet over dinner after their visit to the Pan, as they tried to grasp the enormity of what they’d just seen.
by Andy Green
This year started with an unusually wet season in the Northern Cape. Hakskeen Pan was still under water in May, and the track preparation team didn’t get back onto the Pan until late June – about 2 months later than we were expecting. Luckily, the start of the new rainy season (normally around November) has been delayed, so work has continued right into December and the team has pretty much caught up.
While Hakskeen Pan offers a fantastic surface for BLOODHOUND SSC to run on, there is a huge amount of preparation work to be done – and it’s already started. Our ‘Track Boss’, Rudi Riek, describes the first test clearance and gives us an idea of the work left to do.
