Afrika Odyssey - update on the Kingsley Holgate Expedition

Legendary South Africa-based explorer Kingsley Holgate and his team are two-thirds of the way through their 41st humanitarian and geographic expedition which began in June 2023, and are now gearing up to reach some of the wildest and most isolated regions in central, north and west Africa.

Utilising new Defender 130s, the Afrika Odyssey expedition that began in June 2023, has already surpassed 40,000 kilometres along some of the most treacherous routes in Africa, withstanding torrential rains, excessive heat, and record floods in the past eight months.

This expedition is delving into the wild heart of 12 diverse African countries and has a strong conservation, culture, and community focus. The aim is to reach 22 unique wildlife reserves, managed by the conservation NGO African Parks in partnership with the government of each country.

“Over the past 30 years of adventuring in every country on the continent, we’ve come to realise that Africa’s iconic biodiversity and wildlife is under immense threat,” said Kingsley. “For a long time, we’ve been asking the question: is there hope for Africa’s wild spaces as well as the people who depend on it, in the face of burgeoning global demand for natural resources?”

“That’s what spawned the idea for this expedition and there’s good news. We’ve been privileged to see first-hand the incredible work being done to protect and restore vast tracts of wilderness and the frontline fight against criminal networks that profit from illegal trade in wildlife, logging, and mining.  We’ve heard gut-wrenching, personal stories of loss from rangers on the front line, alongside uplifting stories of hope that bear witness to the revival happening in many countries thanks to proactive governments, and the positive impact it is having on both wildlife and neighbouring communities.”

The expedition has now reached 15 of the 22 wildlife regions on their list. Starting in the northern tip of the Namib desert at Iona National Park in south-western Angola, it has journeyed through nine national parks in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi; reached the furthest and highest source of the White Nile in the mountainous rainforests of Nyungwe in Rwanda; tackled a difficult route to two remote wildlife parks in South Sudan; and nearly lost the expedition Defenders to the worst floods in 20 years at Garamba national park in the remote north-eastern corner of the DRC. 

The Afrika Odyssey expedition is also providing humanitarian support to communities living alongside these wildlife regions. “Unusually high rainfall in the East and Central African regions have escalated malaria cases, especially in young children and babies,” said expedition leader Ross Holgate. “The whole team also contracted malaria whilst in East Africa and we know from personal experience how deadly malaria can be. So, we’ve distributed over 7,600 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets to date on this journey. With one mosquito net protecting on average a mum and two children, that’s nearly 23,000 people safe from malaria.”

“We’ve also provided 1,800 reading glasses to poor-sighted, mostly elderly people in these isolated areas. Additionally, conservation education forms an integral part of this expedition. Through our Wildlife Art programme, we’ve helped educate thousands of children living alongside African Parks-managed protected areas about the values of caring for their environment. They are the future guardians of these wildlife gems and it’s important to pass on the baton of conservation, to ensure they continue to benefit from Africa’s wildlife resources in the coming years.”

“Ahead lies the most difficult part of the expedition, to reach seven wildlife regions in Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad and Benin,” continued Ross. “We’ll be tackling dense rainforest conditions, difficult river crossings, vast desert and rocky mountain terrain where water and fuel will be hard to come by, as well as potential security threats. The logistical issues for this chapter are extreme.”

Veteran expedition member ‘Shova Mike’ Nixon, one of only three people in the world to have completed all 19 Cape Epic mountain bike races, will attempt to cycle 600 kilometres on a specially-adapted Evo-bike through Chad’s Sahel and Sahara desert to reach the World Heritage Site of Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve near the Libyan border. 

“Ennedi is said to be the most beautiful part of the Sahara but I’m expecting a hard, physical test with powdery soft sand and temperatures above 40’C,” said Mike. “From what I’ve researched, this route hasn’t been attempted before by bicycle; hopefully it becomes another ‘first’ that adds an extra level of adventure and excitement to the expedition.”

The Afrika Odyssey’s Scroll for Conservation – with hundreds of pages already filled with inspiring messages from community leaders and beneficiaries, park rangers, conservation partners and government envoys –  will also complete the journey, as will the well-travelled Zulu calabash that is collecting symbolic water from all 22 African Parks-managed protected areas.

“We trust that the Zen of Travel will continue to ride with us,” concluded Kingsley. “We need to showcase the inspirational potential of Africa’s people and wild places – it is not all doom and gloom. We’re raring to go for chapter three of this incredible journey, continuing the humanitarian work, and meeting more passionate individuals who are dedicating their lives to this beautiful continent’s wild heart and rural communities.

Follow the expedition on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KingsleyHolgateFoundation

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Going Wild With Hope – Kingsley Holgate Sets Off On Legendary 41st Expedition.

Africa’s renowned explorer Kingsley Holgate and his expedition team set off on a challenging new humanitarian and geographic odyssey on Wednesday 21 June, this time to reach some of the wildest and most isolated regions on the African continent.

Less than a year after completing the gruelling 35,000-kilometre, 30-country ‘Hot Cape – Cold Cape’ transcontinental journey from Cape Agulhas on the southern tip of Africa to Nordkapp in Norway’s Arctic Circle, the 77-year-old explorer is stil not ready to hang up his expedition boots. Instead, he and his team are on a quest to highlight the importance of conserving Africa’s iconic wildlife and remaining natural landscapes and draw attention to the needs of local communities living alongside these remote protected areas.

“During 40 expeditions to all 55 countries in Africa over the past 30 years, we’ve grown to deeply appreciate Africa’s unique biodiversity and iconic wildlife, which are now under immense threat,” said Kingsley. “The continent-wide decimation of endangered animals such as elephant and rhino and the destruction of vast tracts of pristine forests, wetlands and grasslands that are home to thousands of other wildlife species don’t make the headlines anymore; it’s become too much doom and gloom.”

“For many years, we’ve been asking the question: where can one find hope for Africa’s critically needed wild spaces and irreplaceable fauna and flora, as well as the communities that depend on them? Thankfully, there are powerful and positive stories emerging from across the African continent – uplifting narratives that need to be told. Through this new expedition, we hope to draw attention to the incredible work that’s being done.”

In a unique collaboration with the conservation NGO African Parks, Afrika Odyssey – the 41st Kingsley Holgate geographic and humanitarian expedition – is a legacy journey-of-purpose with a ‘conservation, culture and community’ theme. Estimated to take 18 months, the expedition will follow an adventure-filled, chapter-by-chapter route on a challenging journey into the wild heart of 12 diverse African countries.  

Departing from South Africa on 21 June after a vibrant African send-off from the Lesedi Cultural Village in the Cradle of Humankind, the Afrika Odyssey expedition aims to showcase the inspiring revival of 22 national parks under the management of African Parks and encompassing 20million hectares under protected area status, which form the backbone of the continent’s biodiversity and benefits many thousands of people. 

It will also be the first, real-life test on African soil for Land Rover’s new Defender 130. The expedition’s two long-wheel-base expedition Defender 130s will be tackling an estimated 30,000 kilometres over some of the harshest terrain and off-road routes on the African continent. 

“This expedition is going to be one of our most challenging journeys ever attempted,” said Ross Holgate, Kingsley’s son and the expedition’s leader, who has also explored every country in Africa and beyond, including a round-the-world expedition to track the Tropic of Capricorn and a world-first journey from Cape Town to Kathmandu in Nepal across the deserts and high Himalayan mountain ranges of Asia.”

“It’s not just the long distances we’ll be travelling on dirt roads, goat tracks and probably no tracks to reach all of the Parks that are, understandably, in very isolated regions and in difficult-to-reach terrain,” Ross explained. “We’ll also be tackling dense Congo forests, heart-in-mouth, seat-of-your-pants river crossings, vast desert and rocky mountain terrain where water and fuel will be hard to come by, and wetlands that are near-impassable, especially in rainy seasons. The logistical issues of this expedition are extreme, to say the least.”

Starting in the ancient Namib desert of Iona National Park in the south-west corner of Angola, the journey will encompass Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, Rwanda, DRC, the Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, South Sudan and Chad in north Africa, and conclude in Benin, west Africa. 

The Afrika Odyssey expedition will document ancient indigenous cultures, traditions and historic places of interest on its continent-wide journey. And, in the words of often unheard indigenous communities who depend on the survival of Africa’s natural landscapes, the expedition will record authentic and powerful stories of hope to create an enduring archive of positive, grassroots narratives in support of conservation from across Africa.

The expedition team will also provide humanitarian support to communities alongside all 22 African Parks through malaria prevention and education for pregnant women and mothers with young children in high-risk malaria areas; eye-tests and reading glasses for poor-sighted, mostly elderly people; and conservation-focussed education for school children to instill a passion for protecting Africa’s iconic wildlife.

Carrying a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill for Conservation to all 22 parks in 12 countries, the team will collect messages of support from traditional leaders, local community beneficiaries, park rangers, conservation partners, government envoys, VIPs and other supporters met all along the way. 

“Thriving and dynamic wild spaces have always been the genesis of life-giving water, clean air, food, health and income for humanity. Without them, millions of people are destined to lives of poverty, malnutrition, sickness and inequality,” said Kingsley. “But it doesn’t have to be this way and this expedition aims to showcase the inspirational potential of Africa’s wild places and people.” 

The expedition’s name ‘Afrika Odyssey’ and logo has special significance, as it is a revival of the very first big expedition undertaken by the Kingsley Holgate family in 1993, when they became the first South African expedition team to travel from Cape Agulhas to Alexandria in Egypt along the wild waterways of Africa. 30 years later, they’ve been revived to celebrate this 41st geographic and humanitarian journey for Kingsley Holgate, Africa’s renowned and much-loved modern-day explorer. 

To keep abreast of the expedition’s journey, follow the Kingsley Holgate Foundation Facebook page, as well as updates and stories published by Africa Geographic and African Parks.  

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Holgate Defender Transcontinental Expedition reaches Alexandria, Egypt

Seven months after leaving Cape Agulhas, the Kingsley Holgate Defender Transcontinental Expedition has reached its geographic half-way point in Alexandria, Egypt, becoming the first exploration team in 30 years to cross the African continent from south to north through the disputed, hostile territories of Sudan.

Travelling in three New Defenders, this geographic and humanitarian expedition aims to cover 30 countries on its route from the southern tip of the African continent to the northern-most point of Europe at Nordkapp in Norway’s Arctic Circle, and then through Europe to reach Anglesey in Wales.

The core six-member team is made up of expedition leader Ross Holgate and his wife Anna, Kingsley Holgate and partner Sheelagh, Mike and Fiona Nixon, and assisted by African expedition members in each country who help with local knowledge and language. The team not only had to deal with mountains of paperwork related to overland travel in Africa, sharply rising fuel prices and the high costs and logistical challenges of Covid-19 restrictions and PCR tests at every border crossing, but also survived life-threatening situations and extreme hardships on the journey from South Africa to Egypt.

Four of the core team became extremely ill with malaria in East Africa as the route through Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda coincided with heavy rains and flooding in areas where malaria is rampant. On reaching South Sudan, the expedition needed a military escort to the capital of Juba and government permission to traverse regions further north where armed attacks and inter-tribal uprisings are common, particularly in areas where thousands of South Sudanese have been displaced by extensive flooding and conflict and live in UN-supported IDP camps. One occasion saw Ross and Anna Holgate ambushed by hostile soldiers; another resulted in Mike Nixon, who is cycling large sections of the expedition route, manhandled off his bike by belligerent police personnel.

The disputed, UN-controlled, oil-rich region of Abyei between South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan threw another set of dangerous challenges at the expedition. With the border between the two countries closed, no foreign travellers have attempted this route in 30 years but it was the only option available for the expedition, as the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region blocked the alternative route north into Sudan. Soon after setting out from a large UN military compound, the team drove straight into conflict as the Abyei region erupted in unrest between militia from the Christian south and Moslem north and inter-tribal clashes.

After running a gauntlet of illegal roadblocks, being chased by heavily armed guerrillas demanding a ransom in US dollars, and narrowly missing being caught in an attack on a village market that left over 40 people dead, the expedition was forced off the road by the Republic of Sudan military. The team spent three days under arrest at an army base near the disputed border area before being allowed to continue to Khartoum, where they were delayed for a further seven days awaiting permission from the military coup government to travel on to Egypt.

The expedition’s route through the Bayuda and Nubian Deserts of northern Sudan saw daytime temperatures exceed 50’C and the team rationing water and fuel to reach Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border, before continuing onto Cairo, traversing the Western Desert, and ultimately reaching Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast.

‘This expedition is the first long-distance, real-life test for the new Land Rover Defender and in the dangerous situations we experienced, our lives certainly depended on the three vehicles,’ said Ross Holgate. ‘If the two P400s and diesel-powered D300 had not performed – if any of them had had a single glitch when we were driving hell-for-leather to get away from the militia and their guns – or if they weren’t able to tackle the difficult terrain that the expedition confronted – weeks of torrential rain, flooding rivers and thick mud, rocky mountain passes, hundreds of kilometres of untarred dirt roads churned into bonnet-level-deep trenches by convoys of UN aid trucks, not to mention continuous days of mind-numbing heat, dust and desert sands – we would never have made it to Alexandria, let alone be alive and looking forward to the second half of the expedition.’

Despite the challenges, the expedition remained true to its geographic objectives. In particular, following the White Nile on its 6,650Km journey from Lake Victoria to Murchison Falls and Lake Albert in Uganda, through South Sudan to the impenetrable Sudd, reaching the confluence of the White and Blue Niles at Omdurman in Sudan, tracking the river’s winding route through the Nubian Desert to explore the ancient pyramids, tombs and temples of the Kushite Kingdom of the Black Pharaohs, and crossing the Aswan Dam in Egypt before finally reaching the Nile Delta at Alexandria.

This expedition is the 40th for renowned explorer Kingsley Holgate and like all his previous expeditions, is also a humanitarian journey of purpose.  ‘Sometimes, it was a case of risking lives to save and improve lives,’ said Kingsley, ‘but we stuck to our aim of providing humanitarian support to 300,000 people en route through Africa. Thanks to the support of Land Rover and other key partners, I’m glad to say we achieved it.’

Before crossing into Mozambique, the expedition reached the milestone of providing two million meals of nutritional support and early childhood development teaching materials to children at 130 rural creches, upgrading 20 of the most dilapidated, and completed projects to supply thousands of community residents with clean drinking water in water-scarce areas of northern KwaZulu-Natal.

In Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan, the expedition worked with long-term partners Goodbye Malaria and in-country hospitals, churches, schools and community clinics on malaria prevention, providing educational material and distributing tens of thousands of Vestergaard high-quality, insecticide-treated malaria nets to pregnant women and mothers with young children who are the most vulnerable.

Throughout the expedition’s seven-month journey from South Africa to Egypt, the team also provided eye-tests and distributed thousands of pairs of reading glasses to mostly elderly, poor-sighted people in remote communities as part of their Mashozi’s Rite to Sight programme. ‘The need for sight is so great in the outlying regions we travel through – we will never forget the joy and instant change a simple pair of spectacles makes to someone’s life,’ said Sheelagh Antrobus, Kingsley’s partner. ‘Whether it was with a church community in Malawi, or working under a mango tree helping senior members of the towering Dinka people and their big-horned cattle in South Sudan, or being allowed into the inner sanctum of a deeply religious, desert-dwelling Moslem community near the Siwa Oasis during Eid celebrations to assist the heavily-veiled women folk – every experience was unforgettable and humbling.’

‘The diversity of cultures and landscapes on this expedition through Africa has been truly astonishing,’ continued Kingsley. ‘From Easter celebrations and church bells to Ramadan calls to prayer and the feast of Eid, from torrential rains to drought, from the vibrancy of southern Africa to the wildlife-rich savannahs of East Africa and the harsh, ancient deserts of Sudan and Egypt – we’ve been truly privileged. Despite the difficulties of crossing the two Sudans, we’ve been met at every turn with kindness, generosity and friendship; the expedition’s Scroll of Peace and Goodwill is already half-full of wonderful messages of hope in every language.’

Ahead lies the shipping of the three now battle-hardened Defenders across the Mediterranean to Greece and the second leg of the expedition through Eastern Europe to Nordkapp in Norway’s Arctic Circle. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown a major challenge at the geographic objectives of the expedition’s European chapter.

‘The ongoing situation in Ukraine is not only deeply upsetting but has forced us to do a complete re-think,’ explained Ross. ‘Our planned route included both countries; we were so looking forward to exploring Ukraine, reaching the Black Sea, and tackling off-the-beaten-tracks to get to Moscow and St Petersburg. Obviously, that’s now out of the question but there are still plenty of fascinating Eastern European countries to experience.

‘The entire expedition team remains focussed on reaching Nordkapp and finishing this, the first ‘Hot Cape to Cold Cape’ journey in recent years. From there, we’ll traverse Scandinavia and Western Europe, cross the Channel into the UK and end on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where 75 years ago, the first Land Rover design was sketched in the sands of Red Wharf Bay by engineer Maurice Wilks in 1947.  It will be a world-first expedition, especially for the new Land Rover Defender.’

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New Transcontinental Expedition for Kingsley Holgate Team

New Transcontinental Expedition for Kingsley Holgate Team

With international travel restrictions easing after 20 months of Covid-19 lockdown, South Africa’s renowned Kingsley Holgate exploration team have revealed the launch date for their new, year-long transcontinental expedition.

Called the Defender Transcontinental Expedition and departing on 27 October from Cape Agulhas, it promises to be one of their most challenging geographic and humanitarian journeys to date: a 30,000-kilometre expedition through 30 countries from the southern tip of the African continent to the most northern point of Europe and then on to the mystical Isle of Anglesey in Wales.

“All adventurers will agree, it’s time to move again,” said well-known explorer and author Kingsley Holgate, who, with his experienced team, has already completed 39 gruelling expeditions to every country on the African continent and beyond, many of them world-firsts.

“This expedition has been almost two years in the making and significantly, it will be our 40th since 1992. In April last year, after months of preparation, we were about to set off on a humanitarian ‘journey of purpose’ from the UK to South Africa as part of the global launch of Land Rover’s new Defender. But then, along came Covid-19 and put all those plans on hold. 

“So, optimistically, we decided to turn things around and add even more adventure to the route. This expedition will be the first Hot Cape to Cold Cape journey in recent years from South Africa’s Cape Agulhas to Norway’s Nordkapp in the Arctic Circle, which is the most northern point of Europe that can be reached by vehicle. It will certainly be a world-first for the new Land Rover Defender. 

“That’s just one goal. All our expeditions have the principle of ‘saving and improving lives through adventure’, so we’re keeping the journey-of-purpose theme and right from the start, will conduct humanitarian work to assist 300,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa. To offset the expedition’s carbon footprint and help combat climate change, the journey will also be linked to the establishment of spekboom thickets and tree planting along the route.”

From Egypt, the expedition will cross the Mediterranean to Greece and tackle demanding terrain on its northerly journey through Eastern Europe, Russia, Finland and Norway to reach Nordkapp. 

The route then turns south through Sweden, Denmark and Western Europe, before finally crossing the Channel into the UK and ending on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where human occupation dates to the time of the Druids, and where the first Land Rover design was sketched in the sands of Red Wharf Bay by engineer Maurice Wilks in 1947.

The core Holgate team will be using two expedition-kitted P400 Defenders for the entire journey, with other crew members joining along the way in their own vehicles. The two Defenders are already well-travelled, having completed the Holgate’s 80-day, 16,000-kilometre Mzansi Edge Expedition last year that tracked the entire outline of South Africa, delivering humanitarian aid to remote communities during the height of South Africa’s lockdown.

“We’re not setting out to break speed records on the Hot Cape to Cold Cape section of the journey, so it’s not going to be a straight-line dash,” explained expedition leader Ross Holgate. “We’re going to seek out demanding driving conditions and tough 4x4 routes to reach iconic geographic points of interest and really put the 21st century technical capabilities of the new Defenders through their paces. 

“There are going to be some extreme challenges. The route through central and east Africa will be at the height of the ‘big rains’, so we’re expecting very wet and muddy conditions for days on end. Crossing the dry and hot Sahel and Nubian Desert through the Sudan and into Egypt will also be very testing for both man and machine. There are also geopolitical issues to face, especially in Ethiopia and the Sudan. And then, there is the route through eastern Europe to Norway; that’s going to be an all new, incredibly diverse and stimulating experience for our Africa-based expedition team, whose last transcontinental journey was from Cape Town to Kathmandu in 2018.

“Yes, it’s not an ideal time to travel across the globe but with the entire expedition team now fully vaccinated, we have to do it to get out from under the Covid-19 cloud. So many people in Africa are in desperate need of humanitarian relief and many others are craving a good, old-fashioned Land Rover adventure story after so many months of travel restrictions.”

African symbolism remains a key focus of this latest Holgate expedition. As always, their well-travelled traditional Zulu calabash has prime spot in the Defenders and will collect seawater from where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet at Cape Agulhas, the expedition’s mid-point at Alexandria in Egypt on the Mediterranean, and the Norwegian and Barents Seas at Nordkapp. It will be symbolically emptied into the Irish Sea at the expedition’s endpoint at Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey, Wales.

Four iconic ‘isivivanes’ (stone cairns) will be built at key points along the expedition route: Cape Agulhas, Alexandria, Nordkapp and Anglesey. 

The expedition will also be carrying a new Scroll of Peace and Goodwill from the southern point of Africa to the northern point of Europe and on to the United Kingdom, which will collect hundreds of messages of support from citizens of 30 countries for a new and more hope-filled post-Covid world.

Follow the expedition on Facebook : KingsleyHolgateFoundation

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