First Durbanville Takes Second Place at Kon-Tiki
First Durbanville made magic at this year’s Kon-Tiki when they took second place in what is one of the biggest scouting competitions in the Western Cape. Kon-Tiki 2023, held at Sandvlei from 17 to 19 March, was themed “Comics” and the troops outdid themselves in both costumes and raft decorations.
1st Durbanville’s scouts brought the magic of the ‘Asterix’ comic stories to life when our fringe teams donned costumes and participated in the annual Kon-Tiki parade which kicks off the competition. Our raft, which depicted various scenes from ‘Asterix’, was home to the raft team for 24 hours.
Our fringe and raft teams did well in many of the sub-categories of the competition. Apart from coming second overall, our senior fringe team came third in the Fringe Team category. Our cubs took first place in the Kon-Tiki Cub competition. We took the following places in various competition categories: Fastest Paddling – second, Best Construction – third, Scout Spirit – first, Volleyball – second,
Fringe Spare Time Activities – first.
Kon-Tiki is a competition based on the exploits of Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian anthropologist who sailed a balsa raft from South America to the Polynesian Islands to prove that the Polynesians could have descended from the ancient inhabitants of South America. Kon-Tiki was an old name for the sun god and Heyerdahl named the raft after this entity.
The Kon-tiki competition requires scouts to construct a raft along strict guidelines in order to test their pioneering skills. A team of six scouts spends 24 hours on the raft while fringe teams participate in a variety of land and water based scouting activities.
