DRAKENSBERG
KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
Mountain of the Dragons
South
Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of
the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.
Where Adventure beckons..........
DRAKENSBERG WILDERNESS PHOTOS © WILLEM PELSER
“EXPLORATION IS THE FIRST STEP TO WISDOM; IT IS ONLY BY EXPLORING ONE’S EXPECTED LIMITS THAT ONE BEGINS TO DISCOVER ONE’S TRUE ABILITIES.”
STEVE BROOKS
The Explorers
Steve Brooks
It was January 2003. The previous year Brooks and fellow pilot Quentin Smith, universally known a Q in the helicopter world, had flown the Robinson 44 helicopter to the North Pole. Heading south to Alaska, they had then changed crew, with Brook’s wife joining her husband for a 20 000 mile, 20 country trip down to Argentina. Q then rejoined Brooks for the last leg.
Seven hundred feet above a frothing ocean, with 35 foot waves lashing ominously below them, the R44 gave a horrifying shudder and vibration, followed by a sudden loss of power. Ditching was an ordeal even before they touched the water. “I was watching Steve get ready to jump and thinking not yet, not yet, and he jumped,” Q recalls. “I thought, that’s it, he’s killed himself.”
Brooks was not ready to throw in the towel, however unlikely their chances of survival. “I never once allowed myself to think we wouldn’t get out of this alive. I know people have died in warmer water in less time than we spent in the dinghy. The difference can only be in the determination to survive. We just weren’t ready to die.
Eventually, after 10 hours battling acute seasickness, freezing temperatures, high winds, and waves that swamped them repeatedly in their dinghy, they were rescued by a Chilean icebreaker, both men suffering from severe hypothermia.
Many people would have regarded that near-death experience as a gentle indication from the Almighty that perhaps the pole-to-pole adventure was not destined to be. Not Brooks. He had a target in sight. Over Christmas 2004, he and Q rejoined each other for the last leg once again. This time they were successful. They were praised for their determination to achieve this extraordinary record. “Those of us who have more lowly ambitions in our flying lives can only marvel at the achievements of these people,” said George Done. “They have taken general aviation to the farthest corners of the earth, and doing so they raise all our sights.”
Whatever the horrors of ditching in the Drake Passage, Brooks recalls the jaw-dropping grandeur and the camaraderie of his expedition over the white continent. “Flying in Antarctica was the ultimate privilege, to land and walk in majestic beauty where no one had stood before, and to do it time and time again. On trips like this we are relying on the friendliness and help of others, and Antarctica has many people on the edge of our known world, both physically and mentally, who were so supportive.”
Brooks says he explores because “It makes me feel alive. If you are doing something that is outside known parameters you are walking a tightrope with no safety net.” His interest in exploration came from a sort of internal revelation. “One day I had the realization that man can achieve what he ‘believes’ he can achieve, so I decided to test my realization by doing something that has never been done before and discovered decision is the first step to achievement.”
Brooks’ travels have taken him to more than 100 countries. He scaled Speke Glacier in the mountains of Uganda and negotiated the Zambezi white-water rapids in a kayak, none of which represented useful preparation for Ice Challenger, his first significant expedition, in 2002. The challenge was monumental: to design and then pilot a vehicle across the frozen Bering Straits, a feat that had previously eluded the finest minds of Ford, Fiat, and Land Rover. Much of the challenge was technological. Could Brooks, a qualified mechanical engineer, come up with what would essentially be the world’s ultimate all-terrain vehicle, capable of floating on water, motoring through crushed ice, driving on icebergs and climbing up on to them from the water?
“As the floes jostle their way through the narrow straits they crash together, throwing up pressure ridges of sheer ice several metres high which then break apart, leaving sudden drop holes that could sink the whole expedition,” Brooks explained. “Add to this the threat of passing polar bears and weather conditions that can freeze human flesh in seconds and it is easy to understand why developing the right vehicle is paramount.”
After a series of hiccoughs, the answer was yes. Snowbird 6 was, unquestionably, one of the world’s most outlandish vehicles, part combine harvester, part Thunderbird. It also had to be able to operate quickly enough not to be sent off course by the Bering Sea ice pack which moves north at 3 mph. Move too slow and Brooks and co-pilot would simply be swept past the Uelen Peninsula and into the Arctic Ocean.
The route in Alaska, from Nome to Wales, the departure point for the expedition proper, took Brooks and co-pilot Graham Stratford past a series of inauspicious landmarks emphasizing the pitiless desolation of this extreme environment: Lost River, No Hope Pass, and Heartbreak Ridge. Temperatures plummeted as low as minus 42 degrees Celsius. Technical problems abounded. Then, on 7 April 2002, Brooks and Stratford reached the Russian landmass of Big Diomedes, crossing the international dateline and entering the record books. Aside from the moment he proposed to his wife, Brooks says this was the highpoint of his time in the field, “realizing our dream to make the world’s ultimate all-terrain vehicle.”
Failure, he believes, is not failing so much as not getting up again. Challenges are always there to be overcome. “It is happy persistence towards your known goal that is the key to all…..”
He says,
“The difficult takes a long time, the impossible takes a bit longer.”
We as hikers, explorers, and
adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses.
Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!
The End.
Safe Hiking.
References and Acknowledgements
From the book – Faces of Exploration – Joanna Vestey
Photos: ©Willem Pelser
Compiled by: Willem Pelser
