Botswana, 13 october 2015
Swedish pilot, Johan Wiklund has landed in Botswana, the final country before South Africa on his epic trip flying his 1935 de Havilland Moth 60 from Norway’s North Cape to the Cape of Good Hope.
“Short stop back at site, and then out in the real bush. Very dark and I was treated a very nice barbecue. Add to that two more aviators, the starry sky of the southern hemisphere and stories about flying – I cannot ask for more, can I?”, Johan said in a blog post yesterday.
Johan is flying with minimal navaids, no support aircraft and on his own limited budget
The Swedish adventurer and SAS airline pilot, continues his remarkable journey, flying his antique De Havilland DH60 Moth from the North Cape in Norway to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. But he’s not just in it for the adventure: Cape to Cape will donate all proceeds after costs to the “Make Reading Cool” initiative for schoolchildren in Red Hill, South Africa.
The trip echoes the feat of another dedicated aviator, Gösta Andrée, who started his Cape journey from Barkarby Airfield outside Stockholm in a similar Moth biplane on 12 September 1929. In fact, Wiklund is using similar technology and is even wearing a copy of Andrée’s flying garb – a brown suit jacket and pants.
“Andrée’s flight was unprecedented. He didn’t have GPS or other high-tech equipment,” Wiklund says. “With only maps and a compass to rely on, he flew thousands of miles an open-cockpit biplane, over relatively unknown territory. Andrée overcame challenges, made new friends, learned new things, and seems to have had great fun too. I plan to do the same.”
Wiklund has flown through Europe to Crete, on to Egypt, continuing with stops in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and now Botswana before reaching South Africa. Wiklund plans to land at the Cape of Good Hope on 24 October at 15.10 local time – just like Gösta Andrée.
For the Johannesburg based, Johan plans a stopover at Baragwanath Aerodrome on Saturday 17 October and will be spending the day at that airfield on Sunday 18 October.