Kon Tiki museum

Our next stop was the Kon Tiki exhibition. This started with a film of the trip in 1947 all filmed at the time with a clockwork movie camera. It was a very complete record of the journey. A very young Richard Dimbleby did the opening remarks and made it clear that they were unlikely to survive the voyage.  For those not old enough to remember this adventure, it was made by a young Norwegian  Thor Heyerdahl  and his five man crew in a balsa wood raft using designs from early South American civilisation. He wanted to prove that they could have made this journey across the Pacific from Peru to Polynesia hundreds of years  before the Portugese and Spanish ever sailed to the New World. The journey took them 8000 kms and 101 days using the trade winds and sea currents as there only means of direction and propulsion. They miraculously survived and he made his subsequent trips in Ra 1 and Ra 11, which were reed boats, again using designs from the times of the Pharaohs. Ra 11 crossed from Morocco to Barbados, a trip of 6100 kms in 1970.  The Kon tiki raft and Ra 11 were both on display and it made you wonder how they survived.  This was a very worthwhile visit.