Taking his exploration of South Africa seriously, William Burchell relied on two custom built wagons for his journey through Africa. The basic design of the ox wagon, known in Afrikaans as kakebeenwa, was modified to carry the various scientific instruments necessary for Burchell’s intended work. Burchell, a botanist and naturalist, with secondary talents as an artist, geographer, cartographer, linguist, and ecologist, began his four-year adventure in 1811. The trek took him north from Cape Town to Kuruman then south to Algoa Bay and back to Cape Town. Burchell collected 50,000 specimens of plants and 10,000 specimens of animals. His botanical collection was donated to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and his entomological samples were donated to the University Museum at Oxford. Several species are named in his honor: a zebra, a cuckoo, a sand grouse, a lizard, a wader, a fish, and a species of ant.
