Friday, 13 August 2010 00:00
Last Updated on Friday, 25 November 2011 12:43
Written by Billy van Graan
Name: Makgadikgadi Pans
Type: Walking
Distance: 160-180km
Countries: Botswana
Date: 16 August 2010
Team: Solo (A friend Lance will drop me off)
Update (2011-11-25):
Want to build your own human trailer for long walks? A good friend of mine built a model in AutoCad with all the measurements. You will need the AutoCad file and then a program called DWG TruView to open the file and view the model. Below are the links to both:
Human Trailer Model
DWG TruView
Update (2010-08-25):
Want to try this route yourself? I put some information about the route on two of my favourite sites for sharing trips and GPS data. You can download the GPS files from these two sites. If you want the MapSource file for the trip just get in contact with me and I will help you out. Below are the two links you can follow to get the GPS files and more info.
WikiLoc.com
EveryTrail.com
August this year (2010) I will head to the Makgadikgadi Pans in northern Botswana for a micro adventure. I’m planning to walk across both pans which makes up the Makgadikgadi Pans salt complex – a distance of roughly 160-180km - unsupported. To my knowledge and through research on the internet I believe I would be the first person to walk across the pans without any help.
Makgadikgadi Pans from Space
The Makgadikgadi Pans which are the largest salt pan complex in the world is a barren place with very little life, water or food. Please note that it is NOT the largest single salt pan in the world. The largest salt pan in the world is in Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. You can read more about the Makgadikgadi pans on Wikipedia here. For me to walk 160km without any help I need to be able to carry all my gear, food and water with me for the entire time I plan to spend on the pans. I plan to walk between 25km-30km a day which mean I need to take enough water and food for 6 nights and 7 days on the pans.
Route on Google Earth
Route on Garmin Mapsource
The pans are a very dry and extremely hot place. Walking during the cooler hours and keeping hydrated will be of utmost importance. I want to be safe and take more than enough water with me since this is the first time I’ll be doing something like this. I plan on taking 8 liters of water for every day. That is 56 liters of water if this proves to be more than enough I can always dump some after a day or two. I also then need to take food for 7 days and all my camping and cooking gear. How will I carry all of this? I had a human trailer / human sulky built that can carry a load of more than 70kg which I will pull. I got the idea for the design from two Germans which made the first unsupported crossing of the Chang Tang in Tibet by foot back in the 90’s. Then I got in contact with Ian Cristol of Chairman Industries (a company that builds wheelchairs) in Johannesburg who helped me change the design a bit and make the trailer for me.
Human Trailer
Tags
Botswana
Walking
Expeditions / Trips 
Well, Billy is almost done now, he was more or less on the Ma_5 point of the maps above last night. So if all goes well, he will be back soon..