“Suffering a mechanical breakdown in a remote part of the Karoo while travelling off-road is a disaster any adventurer would dread. But if you’re in an oxwagon pioneering a new route through unknown territory and your disselboom, the main haulage shaft of the wagon, breaks while crossing a dry donga, you plainly have a crisis on your hands.
This was one of the many challenging situations faced by the famous explorer and naturalist, William John Burchell, on the return leg of his four-year, 7two centuries ago. Along the way, the idealistic young Englishman collected more than 63 000 specimens of plants, mammals, birds, insects and snakes, describing many of them for the first time for science. By the end of his great trek, he had matured into an early systems thinker and ecologist – long before the term was invented.
