GONDWANALAND Expedition
The Expedition
Objective of the Gondwanaland Expedition are :
Gondwanaland
Throughout most of geologic time therewere only 2 primorial continents: Laurasia in the north & Gondwanaland in the South, separatd by Sea of Tethys. Gondwanaland consisted of Africa, peninsular India, Australia, South America, Antarctica, & Eurasian regions south of Alpine-Himalayan chain. About 265 million years ago, this continental togetherness began to split.About 265 million years ago, this continental togetherness began to split. For 200 million years, India, Arabia, & Apulia (consisting of parts of Italy, the Balkan states, Greece & Turkey) drifted across the ocean and finally collided with the rest of Eurasia 65 million years ago.
The Organisers
Bharti Yuva Shakti was the main Organiser of this Expedition. Vehicles were sponsored by Mahindra & Mahindra.The expedition team comprises of scientists nominated by the Government of India.
Akhil Bakshi Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society was leading the expedition.
The Route
The expedition being undertaken in three Mahindra & Mahindra Scorpios started from the Himalayas at Shimla on 24 March 2006, and move through the central Indian region of Gondwana from which Gondwanaland drives its name.From the port city of Mumbai, the vehicles sailed to Bandar Abbas in Iran and continue driving through the historic cities of Shiraz, Persepolis, Isfahan, Tehran, and Tabriz into Turkey Crossing the Anatolia Plateau and the Taurus Mountains into the Syrian Desert, the expedition visited the ancient ruins at Crac des Chevaliers on the Mediterranean coast, Continuing south, through Jordan and the Dead Sea, it crossed the Gaza strip entering Egypt.
Following the Nile Valley, south through the Eastern Desert the expedition drove on the fringe of the Sudanese Nubian desert into Khartoum, the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, Crossing the Ethiopian Highlands, it went east into the Danakil Desert and then south to the Great Rift Valley. It followed both arms of the Great Rift Valley, visiting lakes & Volcanoes that lie along the fault lines : Lake Victoria in Kenya and Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania; Lake Nyasa in Malawi; Victoria Falls in Zambia & Zimbabwe.
Cutting across into Mozambique, it drove south via Swaziland to South Africa, following the Drakensberg Range, uplifted when Gondwanaland fragmented, ending the expedition at Cape Agulhas the southernmost tip of Africa on 26th June 2006. Expedition travelled about 25000 kms.
