Pretoria had a population of 270 000, and only two other chiropractors worked in the area. The clinic founded by Joshua became one of the largest clinics in the entire South Africa. As many as 175 patients could be treated each day. Their customers included one of South Africa’s presidents and several ministers.93,95
The adventurous flying continued after the family moved to Africa. Joshua piloted Winnie the plane on a trip around Africa, and another trip up to Norway and Scotland. Using only a compass to navigate, Joshua made a 30 000 mile [48 000 km] journey up the coast of Africa, across the Asian coast to Australia, around Australia, and back to South Africa. He’s considered to be the only private pilot to have made such a trip in a single-engine aircraft.95 Sometimes when he stopped on the way to refuel the plane, he had to rebuild the engine before he could begin the refueling process. At some airfields he could only fill up Winnie with diesel, and at other airfields, he had to fill up the plane with gasoline.4
Another adventure took place when Joshua and Wyn participated in the 8000 mile [13 000 km] Algiers to Cape Town Rally, now renamed to London to Cape Town World Cup Rally. The rally is considered the most grueling motor race in the world. It didn’t stop the Haldemans and the couple tied first place with their Ford station wagon.88 At first it might seem strange, but they had earlier practiced desert driving when they searched for ancient ruins.
The Great Farini was the stage name of the entertainer William Leonard Hunt, who had realized he wanted to become an acrobat when he sneaked into a circus. One of his acrobatic acts included walking across the Niagara Falls on a rope. Farini moved to London where he became a celebrated acrobat. But he feared that if he continued, he would sooner or later be seriously injured, so he decided to change career. He remained within show business as an inventor with 100 patents, including a now famous apparatus known as the human cannonball.89
One of the most successful shows Farini worked with was African Pygmies, which included six live Bushman from Africa. From their interpreter he learned of a legend that said there’s a lost city in the Kalahari desert with diamonds in abundance. Farini traveled to Africa where he crossed the Kalahari Desert – a remote and inhospitable place in the southern parts of the continent. When he returned, he claimed he had discovered the ruins of an advanced civilization: the Lost City of the Kalahari Desert. In 1885, Farini described the ruins as:73
A half-buried ruin – a huge wreck of stones on a lone and desolate spot; a temple – or a tomb for human bones left by men to decay and rot.
Rude sculptured blocks from the red sand project, and shapeless uncouth stones appear, some great man’s ashes designed to protect, buried many a thousand year.
A relic, may be, of a glorious past, a city once grand and sublime, destroyed by earthquake, defaced by the blast, swept away by the hand of time.
It’s unclear when Joshua found out about the Lost City of the Kalahari Desert, or why he became interested in finding it, but he did everything he could to find it. He and his family made several expeditions through and above the desert.90
The expeditions covered large areas, and Joshua participated in sixteen expeditions. “We flew 8400 miles [13 500 km] altogether in our aerial search, most of it at 200 feet [61 m] and 300 feet, and sometimes down between the peaks of the sand-dunes,” he said. “There are possibly a hundred prominent sand-dunes in the area. We have even seen ostrich eggs on the ground – but on the other hand we had to make three passes before all three of us in the plane could spot a ten-foot animal hole in the side of a sand-dune.”73
They didn’t always fly on the expeditions – they could also use trucks and Willy’s Jeeps from the Second World War. There were no roads through the desert, so they had to use a compass to navigate.90
With them on these expeditions, Joshua and Wyn often brought the children. The smallest children had to sleep in the larger trucks to avoid the risk of being eaten by a wild predator during the night. “We had lions in the camp so close my father could almost touch them,” Scott said. “The camps were often surrounded by hyenas, jackals and leopards that would keep the air full of wild sounds. I carried a pistol on my hip most of the time to protect against animals and would often have to ride on top of the truck with a 375 mm Winchester rifle hoping that the truck would flush a buck and I could get in a shot.”90
A saying in the desert is that there’s no such thing as an intruder. Anyone who shows up is somehow expected. On one occasion, when they had heard a dangerous predator growling, Wyn had to spend the night by guarding the camp armed with a pistol. Wyn shared Joshua’s interest in pistol shooting and became a South African women’s pistol champion. “Scott and I were too sleepy to stay awake, but felt perfectly safe with such a good camp guard,” Joshua said. “She can shoot faster and more accurately than either of us.” When they woke up the next morning, they found traces from leopards close to the camp.90
Each expedition through the desert could take up to one month. To avoid living on canned food during the entire trips, they hunted animals. Joshua shot a buck, and the twin-sisters had to take skin off the animal. They didn’t like the task, so they often cried as they felt sorry for the dead deer. But it didn’t stop them from eating the cooked stew with great appetite.80 They always killed animals to eat – never for pleasure. “Dad never allowed hunting for hunting’s sake although on one occasion we had to help out a village and hunt a lion that was killing the village goats as he was old and could not hunt wild animals,” Scott said.90
These adventures through and above the desert ended in 1974 when Joshua died in an air crash accident in South Africa. Joshua was always convinced the Lost City of the Kalahari Desert existed somewhere out there. “Some who have flown a small fraction of the time and distance we did are positive that the ruins cannot exist because they did not see them,” he said. “We feel that we could quite possibly have missed them in the camouflaged desert terrain, even if they were still visible. But there is the possibility that the ruins are completely covered. As the sand-dunes are not so big, there should still be some evidence of a wall that Farini could follow for a mile or even one-eighth of a mile. His story and his description of the country ring true. Perhaps someone will have to dig, but some day the Lost City of the Kalahari will be found.”73 Farini himself died of influenza in 1929, so Joshua wrote a letter to Farini’s relatives. “We do not feel he made the Lost City up as we have confirmed everything else in the book.”90
Recent research revealed that Farini didn’t find any ruins. The most likely scenario is that he found a rock formation that could resemble the ruins of a city buried in the desert. On the other hand, everyone thought the city of Troy was a myth until Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins in 1873.90 So still in the 21st century, explorers are searching for the Lost City of the Kalahari Desert, both through the air and on land.74
While Joshua flew above the desert, his daughter Maye grew up. She found her South African husband Errol Musk, who had begun to work as an electric and mechanical engineer. He ran his own construction engineering firm where he worked with both government and commercial projects.4,51 Just after graduating, and just after their marriage, Maye was pregnant.83 Named after his great grandfather John Elon Haldeman, Elon [pronounced ee-lon] Reeve Musk was born on a Monday, June 28, 1971.357 The name Elon is Hebrew for oak tree, but the family were not Jews.84,117 Elon had two siblings, Kimbal and Tosca, whom we shall meet again.