South African Explorer, Kingsley Holgate, is famous for his humanitarian focused travels across Africa. Traditionally, he and his team have stayed on this continent during their many travels. Aside from a family trip around the world in May 2001 that was documented in a book entitled Capricorn: Following the Invisible Line.
This year, the team felt it was time to explore new territory again and set off from Cape Town to Kathmandu, Nepal in three Land Rovers.
This expedition kicked off two months’s ago on Mandela Day from Cape Town and we were there to wave them off.
To date, the team has successfully completed the African leg and are now preparing to tackle the next challenging section from the Caucasus through to central Asia. Three Land Rovers that have travelled from Cape Town to the port in Dar es Salaam have been loaded into shipping containers and are making their way to Istanbul, Turkey. A comment from a recent ‘bush note’ says, ‘Pray God no pirates as they round the Horn of Africa and then up the Suez Canal’.
Image credit: Kingsely Holgate Foundation
Holgate indicated that there was much to look forward to on the Asian leg of the journey, ‘exotic places such as Istanbul (the old Constantinople), Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea’, as well as ‘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.’
Why Kathmandu?
A recent post on the Kingsley Holgate Foundation’s Facebook page shared some insight into why the Land Rover sponsored team chose Kathmandu for the expedition. Included in the bush note below is a hilarious comment from ‘a bloke in a beanie’.
Ross Holgate, Land Rover Ambassador and Expedition Leader said the trip has been ‘a great adventure so far’ and shared his determination to arrive in Kathmandu, Nepal before Christmas Day, despite there still being ‘eight countries and around 12,000 kilometres to go’.
Rhino Art Messages heading from children in Africa to children living near Chitwan National Park, Nepal
Sheelagh Antrobus, Head of the Community Conservation for the expedition, expressed her delight at the education work being done with children to create awareness about rhino poaching.
“I’m excited about the rhino youth education work we’re doing. We’re carrying hundreds of messages of solidarity against rhino poaching from South African children. These Rhino Art messages (see facebook post below), 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, while 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. Apart from this journey being a trans-continental test for the three Land Rover vehicles, there is also extensive paperwork and special permissions required. 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.”
Source: Land Rover South Africa and Kingsley Holagte Foundation.
