ADU travels, expeditions and events

Porter's Auto supplies bakkie for research on Robben Island

Les Underhill

Through the diligent services of Mr Colin Schmidt, Porter's Auto in Cape Town has provided a second hand bakkie at cost price for the ADU's research projects on Robben Island. It is a Ford Bantam bakkie with canopy. The vehicle will be shared with Marine and Coastal Management (MCM). The bakkie was financed by the "South African Penguins" project of the Earthwatch Institute. An important role for the bakkie will be to transport Earthwatch volunteers around Robben Island.

Colin Schmidt of Porter's Auto presents PhD student Kathy Calf with the keys for the bakkie on Robben Island. On the left is Professor Les Underhill, Director of the Avian Demography Unit, and on the right is Professor Daya Reddy, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dean of the Faculty of Science

Robben Island is bigger than most people imagine. It is a good 30 minute hike from the village to the penguin colony which is the key focus area of much of our research. The bakkie will save all fieldworkers on the island huge amounts of travel time, and enable us to be more effective and efficient in the field. In our review of the 2001 Earthwatch project, we reckoned that our volunteers were losing up to two hours per day in walking to and from the penguin colony – out in the morning, home for lunch, out in the afternoon and back for supper!

One person who has already benefited from having the bakkie on the island is ADU PhD student Kathy Calf. She uses the bakkie as a hide, which greatly increases her ability to find the plover and oystercatcher chicks which are essential to her research project. Blacksmith Plovers in particular ignore vehicles but react at over a hundred metres to an observer on foot, especially when they have chicks. The island has a maze of roadways, and many of these have recently been upgraded, and most of the key study areas are visible from the road.

The bakkie travelled out to Robben Island on the Blouberg, the Robben Island Museum's transport ship. We are grateful to Robben Island Museum for allowing us to bring yet another vehicle onto the island, and to Johan van Reenen, the harbourmaster, and Ashley Forbers, head of transport on the island, for making all the necessary arrangements.

The vehicle on Robben Island

Oystercatcher's view of the bakkie from the intertidal zone on Robben Island. There is no doubt that these birds are already recognising the vehicle as the one that transports the researchers