Kingsley Holgate Foundation - Cape Town To Kathmandu Land Rover Expedition Completes Africa Leg

Africa & Beyond – the next world-first Kingsley Holgate Expedition

CAPE TOWN TO KATHMANDU LAND ROVER EXPEDITION COMPLETES AFRICA LEG

Two months since they departed from Cape Town on World Mandela Day (18 July 2018), the world-first Land Rover Cape Town to Kathmandu team has successfully completed the African leg of the expedition and is now preparing to tackle the next challenging section through the Caucasus and central Asia. 

“It’s been a great adventure so far,” said expedition leader, Ross Holgate.  “Armed with a Madiba100 Scroll of Peace and Goodwill and a symbolic Zulu calabash filled with cold Cape seawater and with loads of positive humanitarian and community conservation work already done in Africa, it’s now time to plot the Asian leg of the expedition.  Despite there still being eight countries and around 12,000 kilometres to go, our sights are firmly set on reaching Kathmandu in Nepal before Christmas.”

Kingsley Holgate, considered the most travelled man in Africa, explained that the journey is also part of celebrating Land Rover’s 70th anniversary and that at the pre-launch of the expedition, 70 Land Rovers dating back to 1948 had formed the shape of a giant, numeric ‘70’ to mark this important milestone in Land Rover’s history.  “We also linked the expedition’s send-off to humanitarian work, in the form of ‘Rite to Sight’ provision of reading glasses to mostly elderly, poor-sighted people, provision of wheelchairs for the disabled, distribution of early childhood development teaching materials to poorly resourced preschools, and malaria prevention work with pregnant women and mothers with young children in high-risk malaria areas.”

“The Asian leg of this odyssey will be all new for us and it has great symbolism, such as linking Cape Town’s 600million-year-old Table Mountain to the ancient Himalayas and Mt Everest,” he added.  “No other new Land Rover Discovery team has tackled this route before and there’s much to look forward to: exotic places such as Istanbul (the old Constantinople), Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, the ancient ruins of Ephesus in Iran, Pakistan’s historic Khyber Pass and the hair-pin bends of the Karakoram Highway – the highest paved road in the world, not to mention Rajasthan – the jewel in India’s crown – and then finally, enchanting Kathmandu in the Mountain Kingdom of Nepal.”

“I’m excited about the rhino youth education work we’re doing,” said Sheelagh Antrobus, who heads up the community conservation aspect of the expedition.  We’re carrying hundreds of messages of solidarity against rhino poaching from South African children. These Rhino Art messages, which include both the South African and Nepalese flags, are safely stored in the Land Rovers and we’re looking forward to handing them over to conservation officials and children living near Chitwan National Park in Nepal, which is home to 600 of the remaining greater one-horned rhinoceros of Asia.  Yet, whilst they are under equal threat of extinction, Chitwan hasn’t lost a rhino to poaching in three years.  We’ll be bringing reciprocal messages from Nepalese children back to South Africa – this is the first time that the youth of both countries are joining forces in calling for a global end to rhino poaching.” 

“But the expedition is not going to be without its challenges though,” cautioned Ross.  “Apart from this journey being a trans-continental test for the three Land Rovers, there are also loads of visa applications and red tape. The war still rages in Syria.  To cross Iran in our own vehicles requires special permission and loads of paperwork.  Pakistan’s Baluchistan region near the border with Afghanistan needs a military escort and there’s a fair bit of tension in the northern Kashmir region – not to mention in Afghanistan.  As always, there’s that nervous feeling of anticipation in the pit of one’s stomach, all part of the ‘Zen of Travel’ that I hope will remain on our side during this new adventure.”

To follow the team on their expedition go to the Kingsley Holgate Foundation Page on Facebook. For more info www.kingsleyholgate.com.

ENDS

Photos - all pics (except 05) by Brett Leslie / Ross Holgate 

Photo 05 - photo by Harry Lock

For further info contact: 

Shelagh Antrobus

sheelagh@kingsleyholgatefoundation.org / cell 082 4327 466 (what’s app)

Issued on behalf of the Kingsley Holgate Foundation by:

Sharlene Versfeld

Versfeld & Associates

Public Relations and Communications

Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za

Kingsley Holgate Foundation - Youth Messages of Hope - World Rhino Day - 22 September

Africa & Beyond – the next world-first Kingsley Holgate Expedition

YOUTH MESSAGES OF HOPE HEADING FOR NEPAL THIS WORLD RHINO DAY (22 September 2018)

Well known explorer Kingsley Holgate’s latest expedition ‘Cape Town to Kathmandu’ has a special rhino conservation focus and is carrying messages of solidarity against rhino poaching from South African youth to Chitwan National Park in Nepal. 

In a first-ever youth-focussed rhino conservation activation between the two countries, the expedition team will return to South Africa with reciprocal messages of support from Nepalese children.

Like Africa, Asia’s rhino populations have also been decimated by poaching, driven mainly by demand for rhino horn from China and Vietnam.  Today, less than 2,000 greater one-horned rhinos remain in the wild, with only two populations containing more than 100 rhinos: Kaziranga National Park in India and Chitwan National Park in Nepal.

“Chitwan National Park, despite being on the border with China, is a rhino conservation success story,” said Kingsley.  “Tens of thousands of greater one-horned rhinoceros once roamed throughout South East Asia, but the population was reduced by poaching and human population explosion to only a few surviving pockets.

“Nepal’s population reached a low of just 100 rhino in the 1960s but today, Chitwan is home to a growing population of 600 greater one-horned rhino, thanks to political will, support from the King of Nepal and commitment from neighbouring communities.”

Holgate is a keen conservationist and founder of the award-winning Rhino Art youth education campaign, which in partnership with Project Rhino, has now reached over 500,000 school children throughout South Africa and abroad in the past five years.  Its premise is simple yet effective: using art as the medium, children living in communities bordering game reserves receive a fun-filled, rhino conservation lesson and are encouraged to create their own Rhino Art messages.  The programme also assists game reserves to build good relations with their neighbouring communities and generates awareness of the real threat rhino poaching poses to tourism and rural job creation.

Using a specially-designed Rhino Art template that contains both the South African and Nepalese flags and images of both African and Asian rhino species, the Cape Town to Kathmandu expedition visited schools in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, conducting educational Rhino Art events and soccer matches. 

“We were amazed at the response,” said well-known conservationist Sheelagh Antrobus, who heads up the expedition’s community conservation work.  “The children not only created amazing rhino-themed art pieces but also wrote heartfelt messages of solidarity to their counterparts in Nepal.”

Hundreds of Rhino Art messages from South African children are now stored in the expedition’s three Land Rovers and are en route to Nepal.  These will be handed over to Nepalese conservation officials and children living in communities bordering Chitwan National Park, before Kingsley and the team head to Kathmandu for the expedition’s finale in mid-December. 

ENDS

For further details contact:

Sheelagh Antrobus email sheelagh@kingsleyholgatefoundation.org

New book from Kingsley Holgate: Africa – a Love Affair with a Continent.

Media Release

New book from Kingsley Holgate 

Africa - A LOVE AFFAIR WITH A CONTINENT

KINGSLEY HOLGATE the well-known humanitarian adventurer, TV personality, Land Rover Ambassador, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, renowned speaker and a legend known as  ‘the most travelled man in Africa’ has launched his new book Africa – a Love Affair with a Continent.

Holgate is the author of four previous best-selling books on travel and adventure:  ‘Cape to Cairo’, ‘Capricorn – following the invisible line’, Africa – in the footsteps of the Great Explorers’ and ‘Afrika – Despatches from the Outside Edge’.  

This widely-anticipated 5th book, Africa – a Love Affair with a Continent has been five years in the making and spans 30 years of adventure and exploration in every country in Africa, including all of her island states.  

Armed with a Zulu calabash and Scrolls of peace and goodwill, by Land Rover, inflatable boat, Swahili dhow and on foot, Kingsley and his adventurous team have traversed the continent on world-first expeditions, touching over a million lives through their humanitarian and conservation efforts.

Packed with stories taken from Kingsley’s pile of dog-eared expedition journals and laced with his legendary humour, each chapter is a stand-alone chronicle of a life of adventure; the excitement, escapades and characters met along the way, with beautifully detailed descriptions of Africa’s wildlife, wild places and fascinating tribes – and the downright scary moments when things go wrong, from a croc chomping the inflatable boat and attack by pirates, to child soldiers high on cocaine. 

With dramatic, full-colour images taken on each expedition, it’s a must-have for all adventurous souls and is arguably the most comprehensive African adventure book ever written.

Africa – a Love Affair with a Continent was launched in Cape Town on Madiba Day, 18 July 2018 as part of Kingsley’s next world-first Land Rover expedition (Cape Town to Kathmandu) and will be available by direct order from the Kingsley Holgate Foundation in August.

For more information go to http://www.kingsleyholgate.com/books/

EARLY REVIEWS OF ‘AFRICA – A LOVE AFFAIR WITH A CONTINENT’

‘No-one I know has done more African miles in a Land Rover than Kingsley Holgate, which is why he has been able to unearth these incredible true tales from the beautiful continent.  This book will teach you more about Africa than Google or the Lonely Planet.’  Patrick Cruywagen, Land Rover Monthly UK

‘Life has lots of simple pleasures — the warm sun on your back or a cool sea breeze in your hair – or the fact that there are still larger-than-life characters around such as Kingsley Holgate.  To call him an explorer or humanitarian doesn’t do true justice to the man.  Kingsley is an absolute force of nature; he brings exuberance, energy, enthusiasm and undiluted vivacity to everything he does.

This new book is a collection of his expeditions and adventures that are unique to Africa. You will not find such wonderful tales of, and insights into, this magical land anywhere else.  You will be transported to a fireside under the megawatt stars of an African night with a maestro storyteller entrancing you with words so vivid that they are forever etched on your brain.  The extraordinary characters, the gripping anecdotes, the edge-of-seat adventures and the superb humanitarian work each expedition brings is a magnificent testimony to a richly-lived life, where being bored is an alien and unforgivable concept.’  Graham Spence, co-author of the best-seller The Elephant Whisperer

-end