The 1st Durbanville Scouts achieved third place at this year’s Kon-Tiki, one of the Western Cape’s largest scouting competitions.
Kon-Tiki 2026, held at Zandvlei from 17 to 19 April, featured the theme “Heroes of Mythology”.
The competition is based on the exploits of Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian anthropologist who sailed a balsa raft from South America to the Polynesian Islands to demonstrate that Polynesians could have descended from ancient South American inhabitants.
Maya mythology theme
The 1st Durbanville groups brought Maya mythology to life during the annual parade that opened the competition. Their raft, depicting various scenes from Maya mythology, housed the raft team for 24 hours.
“Kon-Tiki was an old name for the sun god, and Heyerdahl named his raft after this deity,” explained Ursula Wilbraham of 1st Durbanville Scouts.
Competition requirements
“The troops outdid themselves in both costumes and craft decorations,” she said.
The Kon-Tiki competition requires scouts to construct a raft following strict guidelines to test pioneering skills. A team of six scouts spends 24 hours on the raft while fringe teams participate in various land and water-based scouting activities.
“Our fringe and raft teams performed well across many sub-categories,” said Wilbraham.
“Besides securing third place overall, we won the raft construction and raft decoration categories. Our senior fringe A team was placed fourth overall.”
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