Post 26: NORTHBOUND. Alpha Charlie from Johannesburg to Augrabies Falls, Northern Cape. And grapes from the Falls to Tescos.





Victoria: "OK guys. Just take off and turn left."Men!!

 Sunday, March 13

Up at the crack of dawn to start the long trip north from Johannesburg up the west coast of Africa back to Cranfield in the UK.  (We are rejoining the group at Swakopmund, on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia in two days.) And to take-off with my new co-pilot, Jo Gemin, fully-loaded from a “ hot and high” airfield. Rand airport is at 5843 feet above sea level.  Add to that a ground temperature of 22 degrees celcius on the apron by 08:00 local you have a “ density altitude” ( a real altitude as far as the aircraft is concerned) of over 7000 feet. The air is thinner, the engine will have to work harder which means less lift and less power. Alpha Charlie is going to have to do some heavy lifting today. 

Alpha Charlie’s MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight) is 2550lbs. It doesn’t matter how you massage the numbers, or tell yourself that ferry pilots cross the Pond to deliver them to Europe from the US with a 10% dispensation above that, that’s the bottom line. So if you’re taking off, fully loaded, from a “hot and high” airport you need to make sure that you’ve done your Weight and Balance and Performance calculations and you have a long enough runway ahead to get enough lift. And even then...

Gilly and my wife, Victoria, drive us to the airfield early. Victoria is going back to the UK commercial tonight. It’s been a real boost (understatement of the millenium) spending 10 days with her after the gruelling trip south. I’m looking forward to the trip north. But I’m looking forward even more to getting home and seeing her again. I give my cousin Gilly- the bedrock of the rescue operation in southern Africa after I got stuck in Mozambique- a big hug.

We are cleared to take off from runway 35. We line up, full power, one stage of flap and we roll. I ease back gently at about 62 knots and she lifts (just), helped by ground effect. This is a new experience for me. After take-off the stall warner beeps occasionally and I have to keep reminding myself ( with Jo's crisp guidance) to keep her nose down or she'll stall. We are over the runway threshold, there are small, suburban houses below and we seem to be barely climbing. After what seems an age, but is in fact barely a few minutes, we have a proper, postive rate of climb, lower the flap, bank gently and head west towards Upington airport in the Northern Cape. Upington has one of the longest runways in the world- over 17,000 feet ( that's over 3 miles)  It was built when South Africa was isolated during the Apartheid era, before Mandela came to power. The country was desperate for big runways to fly supplies in with 747s. Strategically-located Upington is also one of a tiny handful of runways around the world which serves as a back-up for the American Space Shuttle in case it can’t make it back home to the Arizona desert. 

The Bush in the Northern Cape

We land at Vryburg on the way to Upington to, erm refuel. It’s empty. Everyone is at home having a braai ( BBQ). It's Sunday stupid. Yes, I know, we should called ahead. We move on to Upington FAUP (PLEASE can we land on runway 17/35 ..NOPE). Then fly the short hop to the private strip at Augrabies Falls. The skies are mercifully free of thundersorms. We fly over real bush country. Augrabies is one of the five biggest waterfalls in the world. The Orange river falls 191 metres here to create a thundering cascade. Jo lands her on runway 36 of the short gravel strip by the Orange river with deceptive ease.

“ I like her. Very much.” He says. Everybody does.



Augrabies Falls: The Place of Noises



Vines in the desert. This is the first good 
year for rain they had in five

We stay at the Dundi Lodge. Very nice. Not flashy. Comfortable. Just right. It’s owned by an outfit called Southern Farm Investments. Their main business is growing grapes mostly for export.  They sell over 5million kgs of grapes a year, a lot to Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose in the UK. Small world or what? Their emerald-green vineyards sit in between the Orange River and the copper-coloured mountain between here and Upington. Southern Farms  also own shares in two Pilatus PC12s, in my humble opinion the sexiest STOL ( Short Take off and Land) aircraft in the cosmos with the possible exception of the Pitts and the Aviat Husky. They sometimes use these to ferry buyers from said UK supermarkets to view the perfectly-formed vitaceae. A coupleof sublime Windhoek lagers by the pool and the poor blighters don't stand a chance do they?


Tomorrow Namibia

The power of water is something which you cannot understand unless
you hear it. Or, God forbid, are caught up in it.