ufo | 4otomo

Not too long ago I was driving back to Cape Town on one of the rural roads between the towns of Bredasdorp and Caledon. If those two names has you scrambling for a dictionary, then you’re probably not South African. But, fear not, nothing our good friends from google earth or google maps can’t solve. Just hack in Bredasdorp South Africa, and voila your google earth cursor is going to zoom you to the bottom of Africa, yep! wayyyyy down South, Bredasdorp is not too far from Cape Agulhas, which happens to be the southernmost point in South Africa, well to be more precise, in the continent of Africa. Yep! the last piece of land before you hit the South pole, a pretty important milestone wouldnt you say.

Anyway back to the trip, I just made a little deviation so you could get an understanding about where in the world this is… So, it was a pretty grey, overcast sort of day, the road was not busy with traffic, or even pedestrians for that matter, so a kind of pretty laid back drive, just watching the kilometers go by. You know where you kind of just become one with the road, working your way through the gears to get to a nice cruising speed, staying just below the speed limit, ok! occasionally drifting over the speed limit, gearing down and gracefully negotiating the bends in the road and once again working your way back up to cruising speed.

It was during this surreal state that I first saw the contraption, from the distance, with the propellor spinning, it looked a bit like a cropspraying plane about to turn around. After all this was farming country, not unlikely that the farmer had a plane fro spraying his crops. As I got a bit closer I noticed that it was not as streamlined as one would imagine a plane would be…..errrrr….the plane was actually a boat, or the boat was a plane, who knows? it was one of those…Suddenly I was awake!! was this my first encounter with an unidentified flying object….I could just see the headlines with all and sundry wanting to intervew me :-):-), fame at last :-)-:) So I approached with caution!! didnt want to encounter my first UFO and get abducted by Aliens all on the same day :-). Imagine my disappointment when I realised that it was not going anywhere, yep, the propellor was turning, but the boat/plane was pretty much positioned on a block that was on the ground. As I got closer I noticed the bicycle on top, perhaps thats how it is powered? if you pedalled hard enough it takes off…… :-). How appropriate in the age of global warming, a completely environmentally friendly boat/plane powered only by a bicycle!. I guess being at the southernmost tip of Africa you have to be prepared to sail if you cant fly :-):-) the journey continues…………………….

So todays images are about this hybrid flying, sailing machine, powered by a simple bicycle, even Q from James Bonds gadget team will be impressed :-)………………. you be the judge………………………..