Day Trip: The flattest place in South Africa, at least for speed hounds

South Africa, Northern Cape, Kalahari. A tree rooted in red sand, in a desert landscape at dusk, purple sky with moon rising. Tranquil atmosphere.

By Malibongwe Tyilo

5 Feb 2021

Possibly the most uneventful and most socially distant destination in the land.

Hakskeen Pan, the dry, flat salt pan in the Kalahari is a mostly quiet place where nothing happens, or at least nothing that might entice tourists and visitors in search of excitement.

It’s located in the Mier region of the Northern Cape, just under 20km from the Namibian border. The road there is as uneventful as the destination itself. It is about 255km from the town of Upington. This trip is a mostly lonely affair, with hardly any roadside shops or petrol stations. Just the driver, passengers if they have any, and the landscape.

But then again, this is not the kind of trip one takes when in search of constant distractions. No. This one is for the extreme social distancers, lovers of long quiet drives, solitude and the desert. And while the emptiness, flatness, and sparseness of Hakskeen Pan and the Mier region is a wonder to behold, it would be something of an anticlimax for the explorer who is all about the destination and cares little for the journey.

That is, except for the speed hounds and petrol heads who have chosen it time and again to test the highest speeds they could reach in an automobile; such as people behind Speed Week South Africa, who picked the Hakskeen Pan as the location for the concerts and speed tests that made up Speedweek, was launched in 2012. Sadly, with the passing of co-founder Jan Els from a heart attack, 2014 was the last speed week held at the salt pan. “I don’t think there’ll ever be another Speedweek,” says co-founder Peter Westcott, “especially now that there’s no Bloodhound either.”

A family cycles on the desert pan during the second annual Kalahari Desert SpeedWeek September 14, 2013 in Upington, South Africa. The event took place over the weekend at Hakskeenpan in the Northern Cape. Photo by Gallo Images / Halden Krog

A biker rides his superbike during the second Kalahari Desert SpeedWeek. Photo by Gallo Images / Halden Krog.

Drivers set up their tents at the Kalahari Desert SpeedWeek 2013. Photo by Gallo Images/ Halden Krog)

He is referring to the UK’s Bloodhound Land Speed Record project, whose team also chose Hakskeen Pan as the ideal flat surface for their automobile, the said Bloodhound, to break the record. Back in November 2019, they flew the car into the country to do a speed test prior to their planned 2020 attempt to break the record, which currently stands at 1,227.985 km/h.

In those initial tests, which aimed to reach a target of 800km/h, the Bloodhound exceeded expectation, reaching a speed of 1,011 km/h. After that, the goal was to take it back to the UK, and raise £8-million (about R163-million) to install something called a “Nammo monopropellant rocket” and bring the car back to the Northern Cape to finally attempt breaking the record. As with many things, Covid threw a spanner into those fundraising plans. Now, the owner of the Bloodhound is searching for new investors to take over the project and possibly attempt the record in 2022.

The Bloodhound during November 2019 speed tests on Hakskeen Pan. Photo via bloodhoundslr.com

If breaking speed records is your thing and your bank balance allows, perhaps this is your chance. But if like this writer, you’re fresh out of about R163-million, but you do enjoy a good drive in a perfectly average car at unremarkable — and legal — speeds, and you find yourself perpetually mesmerised by the diversity of the South African landscape, then the red solitude of the Kalahari desert might be for you.

Wherever in the country you might be driving from, first make your way to the town of Upington. The 255km drive from there towards Mier takes about two-and-a-half hours at polite speeds. Make sure to fill up with enough fuel for the return trip. According to Google Maps, there’s one petrol station along the way. Unfortunately we cannot confirm this as we didn’t spot it. We didn’t spot the promised roadside shop either, so make sure to pack snacks.

South Africa, Northern Cape, Kalahari. A tree rooted in red sand, in a desert landscape at dusk. Photo: Gallo images/Media24

One of the most rewarding parts of the drive through the Kalahari must be watching the soil not only gradually change to fine grains of desert sand, but also change from dark browns to sandy browns and then to a rich shade of ochre. Eventually, alone on the road with very few cars passing by, you’ll be surrounded by striking red sand dunes for tens of kilometers until you reach Mier. Stop along the way, take it all in, snap some pictures.

At about 250km into the trip, and just a few minutes to the pan, both the road signs and your GPS app of choice will guide you towards the R360, which will take you to Hakskeen Pan. There’s no fanfare, no one there to welcome you, and the entrance isn’t exactly obvious; just an open gate on the side of the road. In this case it’s best to trust your GPS and drive in. There’s a rural settlement just next to the pan. In a moment of confusion, we asked the local residents for directions. They couldn’t figure out why on earth we would want to go see “nothing”, but they were kind enough to give us directions. So if you get lost, fret not, ask a local. Once there, allow yourself to be mesmerised by the vast emptiness and flatness, perhaps even indulge in a speed test of your own, you bloodhound you!

Detour

If you have time on your hands and perhaps money to spend the night, just a mere hour from Hakskeen Pan, and further towards the Botswana border, you’ll find the Kgalagadi Transfrontier park. About a quarter of the 38,000km2 park is on the South African side, while the rest lies on the Botswana side. There are numerous safari-style accommodation and wildlife reserves to check out amid the red sand dunes that make up most of the area. As with much else in the Northern Cape, they are sparsely located, socially distant as it were, and a sandy gem for those seeking solitude. DM/ML

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