18 Aug 2014

Women continue to make inroads in activities that were historically dominated by their male counterparts.

The Makgadikgadi Epic sky diving event hosted at the Nata Sanctuary by the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), Sky Dive Botswana and the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT) was no exception as some women engaged in the adrenalin fuelled parachute jumps, predominantly a male dominated adventure sport.

The women had to overcome the stereotype and fear factor to jump over 3 000 feet above ground. While some did solo jumps, others were paired with experienced parachute jumpers.

One of those who overcame such hurdle was Oabona Tlantlapane, who said in an interview that she had always wanted to do parachute jumping, but kept postponing until she felt that she was ready to take the giant leap.

The Makgadikgadi Epic event provided her with the perfect opportunity to do it for the first time.

“Historically, this has always been the exclusive preserve of men, but our gender roles should not inhibit us from exploring the adventurous side of life,” she noted.

She encouraged women to do sky diving and overcome their fear if they want to conquer the jump.

Taz Calvert from South Africa expressed joy at the Makgadikgadi event and said she enjoyed adrenalin filled adventure sports like sky diving.

Also, she said that the event was well organised and praised local people for being friendly, highlighting that the jump was out of the world.

She added that the Makgadikgadi pans looked like a huge sea of water from the sky and the experience was exhilarating.

“Before coming here, I never expected all this fun in the sanctuary. This has been a fantastic experience for me,” she said.

Sky Dive Botswana public relations officer, Garai Makaya said most jumpers in tandem jumps were women.

Makaya also said there was a possibility that Botswana could become the first country with a lot of women jumpers judging by the interest shown during their awareness jumps that they have been organising.

“In most of these events, 60 per cent of the participants are women and we would like to encourage many of them to do adventure sports,” he said.

The Makgadikgadi Epic event involves sky diving demonstrations, tandem jumps, fun quad biking, game drives into the sanctuary and boat cruises to nestling bird colonies.

The three-day event attracted over 70 licenced sky divers from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand and Australia and had a camp for 200 guests inside the Nata Sanctuary. ENDS