#1: [16-May-04]

17-Jun-2005 -- Continued from 27S 20E.

This confluence point was visited during the annual Microlight Bundu Bash and is situated on Mr JJ Bothma's farm "Mara". As I did not receive direct permission from Mr Bothma to traverse his property, I apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience I might have caused.

I was acting as ground support to my brother-in-law, Ian Carter who had flown out from the Azores to participate in the Bundu Bash. We had towed his microlight trike from Durban to Upington where he joined up with another 33 pilots; on Thursday, 16 June the group flew to Koppieskraalpan (26°56.628'S 20°20.086'E) to camp and fly around the pans. As I do not enjoy flying, I had decided to use the opportunity to visit various confluence points if possible.

After having visited 27S 20E in the morning of 17 June I set off in a south-easterly direction on the R31 for ± 20 kilometres, turned N-E on the R360 for ± 16 kilometres, turned off at the town of Askham, and proceeded along a fairly badly corrugated gravel road for about 33 kilometres. I had not organized permission with the farm owner beforehand to visit the farm and unfortunately Mr Bothma was out hunting and Mrs Bothma had left for "town" and would not be back for an hour or two. However two of the farm workers agreed that one of them would accompany me to the point on the road diagonally opposite the confluence point and we would then climb through the fence and walk to the point.

A short 2-kilometre-drive took us to the fence position and after a walk of some 236 meters further north we arrived at 27S 21E. Mr Willem Windstaan kindly agreed to hold the GPS while I photographed the display and views.

A special word of thanks to Mr Frikkie Rupping of Upington for all his assistance in providing me with the names of the farms and farmers in the area and for providing directions based on his aeronautic maps.