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GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - On Thursday 15 September, participants in the 2022 Sasol Solar Challenge stopped over in Knysna for a day after the town was revealed to them the night before as a secret location along the route.
The Sasol Solar Challenge is a biennial South African competition for talented engineering teams from around the world that design solar vehicles.
The teams' challenge is to cover as much distance as possible, travelling on public roads from Johannesburg to Cape Town.
The eight-day event traditionally spans more than 2 500km, with local and international teams putting newly developed technology to the test as they pass through SA towns.
NWU's 'Naledi' car was unique in its design.
Route
The 2022 route from Johannesburg to Cape Town went through five provinces and 18 towns. New towns include Brakpan, Trompsburg, Willowmore, Kirkwood, Jeffreys Bay, Riversdale and Caledon.
PHOTO GALLERY: Solar cars in Knysna
The event is also attracted new local and international teams. Along the route there were also various secret locations that the teams had to visit, with Knysna revealed as one last week.
Brunel's Nuna11S driver disembarks his vehicle in the technical area.
Time in Knysna
The teams departed Jeffreys Bay the morning of the penultimate day of the competition, making their way to Knysna. Here they had to choose between two loops that they had to complete repeatedly in order to rack up as many kilometres as possible. The first route was a short one to Margaret's Viewpoint and back, while the second - to Buffalo Bay and back -
was much longer. Teams had to make a pit stop when they arrived in Knysna, and another one at the end of every loop they completed. The teams had to have left Knysna by 15:00 in order to make it to Riversdale – which was the finish line for the day – before the 17:00 cut-off time.
The final day
Riversdale would be the starting point for the final day on Friday, with teams making their way to Cape Town. It was a tense and nervy finish too, as Dutch team Brunel and Belgian team Agoria battled it out for top honours.
Ultimately the Dutch just edged the Belgians, as Brunel completed a total of 4 228,2km. Agoria finished second with 4 189,9km, and Tshwane University of Technology finished third and as the best SA team with 2 682,4km.
Miss Earth SA finalist Angelique Fourie (right) learns more about the schools programme.
Schools programme
The challenge also includes a schools programme, which is a supporting initiative of the Sasol Solar Challenge.
It aims to engage with school children from all around the town and kids were bused in to the venue, the Knysna High School grounds, from numerous Knysna schools.
It aims to create awareness, excitement and unique opportunities for school learners with a specific focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Stem).
With this programme, the Sasol Solar Challenge is directly investing in the engineers, scientists and thought leaders of tomorrow.
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