Verneukpan

Verneukpan is a dry clay pan of roughly 400 square kilometres in the Northern Cape, flat enough to be visible from space and empty enough that the horizon curves. The name means cheat pan, from mirages that make distance unreadable - and the name proved apt in 1929 when Malcolm Campbell brought his Blue Bird here to attack the land speed record. The surface, which looked ideal on paper, turned out to be studded with small stones and softer than expected; he managed some class records but not the outright one, and the attempt is remembered as a famous failure. Attempts have been made since, and a marked measured course has been laid out on the pan at times. Otherwise there is nothing: no fuel, no water, no signal, no shade. In rare wet years the pan holds a skim of water and flamingos arrive, then it dries and cracks again.

History

Verneuk is Afrikaans for to trick or swindle. In 1929 Malcolm Campbell brought his Napier-Campbell Blue Bird here to attack the land speed record: he lost a briefcase of important papers, survived a plane crash into a tree near Calvinia, saw the run postponed again and again, and was beaten by the coarse surface, which damaged his tyres; he eventually beat the record he had come for, but six weeks after it had been raised elsewhere. On 25 January 1929 he set records for 5 kilometres, at 211 mph, and for 5 miles, at 212 mph, and the track he compacted on the pan is still visible. In 1952 Vic Proctor crashed here at about 99 mph trying for the world motorcycle record, in 2006 Johan Jacobs died when his jet car Edge flipped during a practice run, and in 2008 Andy Green assessed the pan for Bloodhound SSC but found its surface covered with stones (Wikipedia, Verneukpan).

What's there

• The flatness - about 400 square kilometres of clay pan with a curving horizon.
• The 1929 attempt - where Campbell's land speed record bid was defeated by the surface.
• The mirages - the shimmer that gives the pan its name, cheat pan.
• The rare flooding - a skim of water and flamingos in wet years, then cracked clay.

When to go

April to September. A day. Never drive onto the pan when it is wet - vehicles sink through the crust.

Things to know

It is private land: get permission before driving out. There is nothing there - no water, fuel, shade or signal, and heat is extreme in summer. Driving on a damp pan breaks the surface and traps vehicles. Navigation is by GPS; there are no landmarks.

Nearby

Brandvlei is the nearest village; Calvinia is south-west.

Key facts