72 SA Flyer MagazineBloukrans Pass to Williston via Calvinia.
Back at the Burn, they decided to fly
north, staying low in the cool, calm air of
the valley and, in that way, sneak around
the Roggeveld. However, by the time they
took off again, the day had warmed up
significantly, and so had the land. The wind
had come down from aloft and was creating
havoc with the dust on the arid ground
below. It was quite clear that the futurelooked quite dim. In fact, Helga was finding
it difficult to see the Calvinia road at all,
and believed that the only reason that John
could still see it was because he had his
magnifying glass on his wrist. They decided
that it would be best to land right then,
before the gusts, rotors and thermals gave
the term ‘final approach’ a more sinister
meaning.
They landed in what was once a sheep
pasture but had become a dust bowl. John
strode purposefully over to the farmhouse
to use their land line – but there was no
land line – just a farm labourer whose job it
was to look after the dust bowl.
The dust-bowl attendant took John
for a drive around the district in a bakkie
with no brakes to look for a farmhouse
with a land line, but none could be found.
John offered him money to go to Calvinia
but it was obviously not enough because
the attendant said that the Calvinia cops
would catch him for no brakes, no lights, no
licence, no nothing. So John and Helga just
mos sat on their trikes in the howling dust
storm which enveloped them for the rest of
the day.
Around late afternoon, the dust-bowl
attendant returned and was verily surprised
to find them still there. He then nonchalantly
took out a radio from under the dashboard
and radioed his boss, a Mr Van Wyk, to ask
for advice. John considered smothering the
attendant to death with his seat cushion, but
in his weakened and dehydrated state he
was barely able to get off his trike. Instead
he requisitioned the radio and asked Van
Wyk to please kindly call the crew and
to update them with their location on the
surface of the planet.
Meantime, the ground crew had
suffered yet another blowout on their way
up the Bloukrans Pass. At the garage in
Calvinia, they finally received the SMS to
the effect that the aviators had returned
to Afrikaburn. With much muttering and
gritting of teeth they headed back down
the dreaded pass for the 110-km trip
back – unbeknownst to them at the time,
passing within just a few kilometres of
the stranded pilots. Of course, they got
another puncture and, of course, once
back at Afrikaburn, no one knew anything
about any microlighters. More gritting of
teeth as they switched back to plan A and
went back up the tyre chewing pass to
Calvinia and then on to Williston whereThere will no doubt be more trike
adventures for Helga and John.
Adventure flying