Kon-Tiki (Scouting)

Kon-Tiki refers to one of the three annual raft-building competitions, held in South Africa (Cape Town and Gauteng by Scouts South Africa) and Australia (by Scouts Australia).

Named after Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, teams compete to build and live on a raft for a weekend. Support crew or "Land-Crew" teams compete in other, ground-based competitions. The first KonTiki was held in 1985 at Murray Park in Springs

The Cape Town competition is held at the Sea Scout Base on the banks of Zandvlei. The weekend starts on the Friday afternoon with teams arriving and starting construction of the raft. The building criteria are very strict and judging takes place continuously until the raft launch on the Saturday at 2 pm. Much of the judging is related to the aspect of safety to ensure that the Scouts and Guides (ages 11 to 17) have a safe adventure.

The Gauteng competition is held at Arrowe Park in Benoni, Gauteng (previous events held at Murray Park, Springs). The competition is run in a very similar fashion to the Cape Town one, with the exception that the rafts launch at 11h00 on the Saturday morning. There are also numerous other activities and competitions for the support crew to partake in, such as the Beaver Challenge, Spare Time Activities, Dress-up competition and others. The 2015 theme was "Here be Dragons".

In 2012, Scouts Australia (SA Branch) ran the first Kon-tiki Raft Challenge outside South Africa. The competition is based on that of the South Africans.

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