The Birth to the Newest Nation on the Planet: A Journey to Embrace All Africa

Last year after a lifetime of travel, well know Land Rover adventurers, Kingsley Holgate together with his family and Malaria Prevention Volunteers completed an “All Afrika” odyssey to embrace every country on the continent – but as Kingsley explains ‘Africa is not that easy and it delights in throwing the occasional curved ball – so here we are back home after an incredible journey only to find that after 30 years of war, Southern Sudan is about to succeed from the North.



The Independence Day event to celebrate the birth of the world’s newest country is on the 09th July.

We’re calling the expedition “A Journey to Juba”. As part of the expedition departure on the 21st June, there will be a United Against Malaria Cultural Festival at Lesedi Cultural Village from where the Land Rover party will carry a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill in Support of Malaria Prevention to their base camp at Nile River Explorers at Bujagali Falls where the largest and most historic river in the world leaves Lake Victoria in Uganda.

From there the party will split, some taking a 600km Nile journey by inflatable boat to meet the Land Rover team in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan in time for the Independence day celebrations and an expedition United Against Malaria football day for children where backed by Global Fund, the team will provide thousands of life saving mosquito nets to pregnant mothers and children in war torn Sudan. True to the humanitarian spirit of all of Kingsley’s adventures, the Journey to Juba Expedition will also continue with its Rite to Sight campaign to distribute spectacles to poor sighted people in remote areas so keeping alive their motto of “Using Adventure to Improve and Save Lives” Sadly in Sudan, things are hotting up again with the border town of Abyei having just been taken by troops loyal to President Al Bashir of the Islamic North.  Some predict that the war in the South could start again. As Kingsley would say “we’ll keep you posted”.

“As on every journey the expedition will fill the symbolic calabash at the beginning and empty it at the end. As Always, they’ll carry a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill in Support of Malaria Prevention”

‘Nogorongoro’ is an attractive Maasai word said to have come from the sounds made by traditional wooden cow bells. One dusty expedition Landy behind the other, we’ve once again climbed out from the heat of the Rift Valley floor, this time to stand on the 200 metre high rim of the largest and most perfect volcanic caldera in the world, formed during the fracturing process that created the Great African Rift Valley 15 to 20 million years ago, the Ngorongoro crater is now world famous as a wildlife sanctuary and is often referred to as the 8th Wonder of the World.

It’s close to the start of the rainy season and we have the floor of the crater virtually to ourselves. Our Nikon expedition cameras capture it all. Lion, elephant, black rhino, spotted hyena, bushbuck, eland, wildebeest, zebra, cheetah, gazelle and buffalo, not to mention the vultures, tawny eagles, secretary birds and the world’s heaviest flying bird, the kori bustard.

It’s a veritable Garden of Eden made even more special by being hosted that night by the delightful managers Innes and Danel Pruissen at &Beyond’s Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, surely one of the most unique safari lodges in Africa (www.andbeyond.com). For us it’s a welcome break from our normal smelly bed rolls, small tents and Rift Valley expedition stew. The &Beyond Foundation partners our expedition’s humanitarian work and with them we visit the local hospital where every mum in the maternity ward receives a life saving mosquito net. Through the Foundation we also distribute malaria prevention educational material, LifeStraws and Rite to Sight spectacles for the poor sighted – doing what we came to do, it makes our expedition all the more worthwhile. Will keep you posted.

"Baby steps will get you to the lim of the clater" says Gabriel our cheerful guide who transposes his 'l's and 'r's. The slog of climbing to the crater rim of Mount Longonot is well worth it. Stretching between the walls of the east and west escarpments is an endless view over this part of Kenya's Great Rift Valley. Below us giraffe and zebra make their way across the plains that run down to Lake Naivasha.

We gaze south towards Lakes Magadi, Natron and Manyara. The Rift Valley seems endless, so many challenges ahead.

Loaded up with more life saving mosquito nets and LifeStraws from Vestergaard-Frandsen we bid kwaheri to the Fernandes family, our delightful hosts in Nairobi. Everywhere in Africa the support form our fellow countrymen is heart warming. It makes us proud to be South African. One Landy behind the other we drop down over the Ngong Hills back into the Great African Rift.

The track takes us through choking red dust and Masaai manyattas. Our challenge is to climb to the crater rim on Mount Longonot. Will keep you posted.

The little fellow is up for it again. Ross’s son, 11 year old Tristan Holgate has been chosen to join up for Chapter 3 of the expedition. It is important that we keep it in the family, says granddad Kingsley, the ‘Greybeard of Adventure’ known to Tristan as Pops.

The young adventurer has already sailed Africa’s East Coast in a traditional Swahili dhow and regularly served as ‘expedition mascot’ on the recent Holgate odyssey to track the outline of Africa.

Tristan’s first Rift Valley challenge will be to climb to the crater rim of Longonot – we’ll get him to scribble a ‘blog’.  

Sometimes the planning and research is as exciting as being on expedition itself. The next Land Rover supported Rift Valley leg will take us from the volcanic rim of Longonot, then through Hells Gate to follow the shorelines of Lakes Mgadi and Natron, then a climb up the active volcano of Ol Doinya Lengai, the Masaai ‘Mountain of God’ that towers above the East African Rift Valley in Northern Tanzania. Following the Rift it’s on to the elephants and tree climbing lions of Lake Manyara, down into the World Heritage Site of Ngorongoro, a Garden of Eden of wildlife within the largest intact caldera in the world.  This Chapter will end at Lake Eyasi, home to the Wahadzabe tribe of hunter-gatherers.

On this leg we are joined by big Eric Vorster from Land Rover Menlyn. Eric has travelled with us before and understands the challenges of expedition life. Sergio Fernandes from Sabco is assisting with the Kenyan leg and Seven Summiter Mike Nixon is mountain biking this fascinating chapter. Lumbaye Lenguru is the Masaai interpreter and Brad Hanson will be assisting us in Tanzania.  
Throughout, the team will be continuing with the humanitarian work attached to the expedition. We’ve had great support from Land Rover in Nairobi and the expedition Landies are serviced and ready to go. Lots to look forward to – Will keep you posted.

It’s a relief, nobody hurt or killed, no Land Rover breakdowns – just too many AK’s and cattle wars and the sad situation where a group of adventurers like ourselves had been killed and others kidnapped up in Ethiopia’s Danakil on the Horn of Africa where we had recently been – now closed to all travellers. Adventure it seems is all about windows of opportunity.
Behind us now is Djibouti, the Red Sea’s Gulf of Tadjora, the blinding salt flats of Lake Assal, lowest land point in Africa, ‘Deset’, the lowest island on earth, the lava spewing active volcano of Erta Ale, the Danakil Desert, and Dallol in the Danakil Depression, considered the hottest place on earth.

Also behind us is the ancient walled city of Harar and the beautiful Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes that brought us South, like jewels in a necklace, to Lakes Chew Bahir, the Ocean of Salt, and Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake. To add to the symbolic Rift Valley calabash we are carrying from the Horn of Africa to Gorongosa in Mozambique, we have now added sipfills of water from the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes of Baringa, Bogoria, Nakuru, Elmentata and Naivasha – and with your support we’ve continued to use this great adventure to improve lives. Our much abused Landies are now South of the equator, in Nairobi where they are being serviced and where we will re-supply and plan for Chapter 3 of the Land Rover supported Rift Valley humanitarian and geographic journey – We’ll keep you posted.

Blood spurts from a deep gash, one of the many that crisscross her naked back. She grunts in wide-eyed pain and then dances forward, tossing her head, spraying him with butter fat and ochre from her thick plaited hair that hangs in a fringe above her face, taunting him to whip her again. Down cracks the whipping stick – more blood.
Metal bracelets, armbands and anklets jingle as she dances forward again, her leather skirt decorated with beads and cowrie shells swings from side to side, revealing her strong shapely thighs. I wince as he raises the long thin whipping stick…crack! even harder this time, and another deep slash is added to the others. Adi tells me, that as proof of her Hamer tribal culture, she will proudly wear her horrific scars for life.

The expedition has reached a Hamer village in the South Omo area of the Great African Rift and it’s difficult to understand what’s happening around us. More girls run excitedly into the circle and the ritualistic beatings from the boys they like, continue. Some girls even use a small curved metal horn to rudely blow into the young man’s ear so aggravating him enough to encourage further beatings. Alcohol and the sniffing of strong tobacco helps the girls endure the pain. Later ash will be rubbed into the deep wounds.

It’s all part of a three day Hamer tribe initiation ceremony that culminates with a naked young man having to leap up and ‘streak’ along the backs of a number of bulls and then repeat the performance several times so as to prove his manhood. If he succeeds he can take a wife, if he fails he will have to wait a year until the build up to the big rains and the next bull jumping event.

We leave the ceremony with mixed feelings and that night Adi gets hopelessly lost trying to lead us down to the Omo River – will keep you posted.

The sun dips over the Hamer mountains as the 3 Rift Valley Expedition Landies race across the crust of Chew Bahir, the Ocean of Salt named Lake Stefanie by the early explorer Count Teleki. Up till now Lake Stefanie has been just a name on a map that we’d dreamt about reaching for years. We camp out under the stars on the vast salt crust and celebrate by siphoning some of the ‘Captain’s Best’ from where it lives in the jerry can on the roofrack of the big Land Rover 130 Defender. William Gwebu the expedition cook knocks up a meal of goat stew and maize meal spiced with the last of the Nando’s sauce. Tomorrow we head for the village of Turmi where Adi says he knows of a diesel smuggler who might supply us at a price. We will do Rite to Sight, LifeStraws and United Against Malaria work at small Hamer villages along the way – made possible by your support. 

Greetings from the rich cultural mosaic that forms the ‘badlands’ of Ethiopia’s South Omo region. It’s a wild, untamed, rugged area of Africa’s Rift Valley made up of some 30 distinct ethno-linguistic groupings, several of which number fewer than 1000 people. Inter tribal fighting and cattle wars are common place. ‘You can buy an AK47 for two head of cattle, the guns are smuggled across from South Sudan’, says Adi.

With an armed Hamer tribal policemen as a guide, we’re attempting to follow an overgrown bush track to Lake Chew Bahir (Ocean of Salt), first discovered by the explorer Count Teleki in 1888. As always there’s that delightful feeling of the unknown and the challenge of battling to reach another iconic geographical place on the floor of Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Out here were 100% dependant on the reliability of our Landies. No Discovery 4’s have ever attempted this remote parts before. Together with the big 130 Defender they don’t miss a beat. We’ll keep you posted.

The air is charged with tension you can cut the atmosphere with a knife. The well armed Bana war party that we had seen earlier, are sitting in a circle in the centre of the Mursi village. They are demanding the return of their comrades who have been abducted by the Mursi. With us is an armed ranger I can sense he is jumpy.

I get pulled into the circle, a carved stool is placed in the sand and I'm offered chewy bits of njama from the coals. The young bloods finger their AK47's, the elders mumble amongst themselves. I notice that the expedition team start positioning the Land Rovers for a quick getaway. We’ll keep you posted.

We're alive. The Bana captives are released by the Mursi. We present the elders with a goat for slaughter – it’s a “Peace Accord in the bush”
We open up the Landies and every village mother receives a mozzie net. The Mursi women make a slit beneath her lower lip, over time the gap is progressively stretched forming a lip loop large enough for a small circular clay plate.

As the lip stretches so larger plates are inserted until eventually the loop is large enough to hold a plate 15cm in diameter and the women can ideally pull her distended lip loop over her head. The larger the lip plate the greater her bride price – a real whopper can fetch up to 50 head of cattle. Africa's Rift Valley is full of surprises.

A note from Ross Holgate’s adventure diary: 
Chapter 2 of the Land Rover supported expedition and it’s great to be on the move again, the three expedition Landies – two Discovery 4’s and the big Landy Defender 130 mothership. Driving on the right hand side of the road, dodging trucks, pedestrians and livestock – the Landies loaded up with life saving mosquito nets for distribution to mums with children under the age of five, Rite to Sight spectacles for the poor sighted and LifeStraws for safe drinking water. We drop down the escarpment into Africa’s Great Rift Valley – that great tear in the earth’s crust that extends from the Danakil Plains of Ethiopia on the Red Sea to below Gorongosa in Mozambique. We’ve got two new expedition volunteers: cheerful KZN boy Brad Hansen who runs his own safari company in Tanzania has flown in to assist with the humanitarian work, and American photo-journalist Mark Lakin who’s going to document Chapter 2 of our Rift Valley odyssey.

Our first destination is Lake Ziway. It has five islands which include Debre Sina, Galila, Bird Island and Tullu Gudo, home to a monastery said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant around the ninth century. Ziway, known for its birds and hippos, is one of the eight Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes that stretch like a necklace of jewels from below Addis Ababa to the border with Kenya. As is the tradition on this expedition, we will continue to add iconic sipfills of Rift Valley water to the symbolic calabash.
As always there’s that wonderful feeling, the excitement of the unknown. This Southern part of Ethiopia leading down into the Omo Valley and Lake Turkana can be wild and unpredictable – We’ll keep you posted…

No sex, no drinking, no smoking or chewing chat (Narcotic Leaf) reads the sign on the island of Mt Zion on Lake Ziway. At the sight of us Rift Valley explorers, the Coptic monastery priests hide in the bush. They fear temptation of anything western, explains Ali our guide.

An old lady offers us traditional bread and in return we give her a life saving net. A boat reconnects us with the Landies and we head for Shashemene, best known for its Rastafarian community, appropriately called Jamaica. Ethiopia..... full of surprises. We’ll keep u posted.

Greetings from Shashamene. Interpreter Adi explains that when Emperor Haile Selassie once visited Jamaica the heavens opened and he was seen to have broken the worst drought they have ever had. Rastafarians revere him as a saint and that's why the Rasta area here is called Jamaica. "Let's get out of here" calls Ross over the radio,

"Too many hustlers, one little shit is even trying to pull the Rift Valley stickers off my Landy"
We continue to zigzag our journey south.  Ethiopia has its challenges.

As we travel the Great Rift Valley we continue to distribute lifesaving mosquito nets, LifeStraws and Rite to Sight spectacles, we also add sipfulls of water to the symbolic calabash.
The south Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes of Ziwia, Langano, Abiata, Shala, Chitu and Awasa are now behind us and we are making great progress.

We set up camp on shores of Lake Chamo, hippo, crocs, striped Hyena in camp at night and the constant cry of Fish Eagle, it's the Rift Valley at its best. Thanks for the support.

In thick bush near the Mago River we surprise a group of Bana tribesman armed to the teeth with AK47's I don't know who gets the biggest fright them or us. Adi our interpreter ascertains that they are on the war path searching for two of their fellow tribesmen who have been captured by the warlike Mursi tribe who we are on our way to visit.

Around the camp fire Adi fuels our fear with stories of the barbaric Mursi. He is concerned for our safety. We bath in the river, sleep little, harassed by baboons in the trees. We’ll keep you posted.

Still in Addis Ababa, before the expedition heads off again for the Rift Valley, we meet up with Nando’s founder Robbie Brozin and a support team of adventurers who have just got back from the ancient Timket ceremony in Lalibela. Their scribe Paul Appleton adds these interesting scribbles to the expedition log…

Wede Ethiopia enquwan dehna metachiu! (that’s welcome to Ethiopia in Amharic).

As we landed in Gondar, the early morning mist was slowly losing its grasp on the land – there was a chill in the air and huge excitement in our group – and we weren’t quite sure what to expect.

Ethiopia is a deeply spiritual land.  A country where people of many faiths live peacefully, side-by-side, and home of important holy sites in Islam, Judaism and Christianity.  We could feel this spiritual energy at almost every point in our journey – especially as our time in the country coincided with the main annual Ethiopian Orthodox Christian celebration, Timket (Epiphany).

To read more about their fascinating journey go to the Great African Rift Valley ‘Adventure Diary’ in www.kingsleyholgate.net

On the eve of us departing Addis Ababa for the second chapter of the Great African Rift Valley Expedition we receive this shocking news.

Ethiopia

5 Adventure travelers (like ourselves) have been gunned down in Northern Ethiopia’s remote Afar region of the Great African Rift Valley. 2 Foreigners and 2 Ethiopians were kidnapped in the same attack and may have been abducted across the border.

Ethiopia blames it’s bitter enemy Eritrea for the attack… saying it had trained and armed the gunmen… Eritrea rejected the accusation. Ethiopia has threatened ‘whatever action is necessary’ against its neighbour over the killings…

And to think that this all happened close to the Eritrean border at a remote village near the active volcano Erta Ale where we had camped (protected by armed militia) just a few weeks ago. May the Zen of Travel continue to ride with us – We’ll keep you posted.

(See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16620783 for more info) 

Preparing for the next chapter of the Ethiopian leg of the Great African Rift Valley Expedition and the expedition members are getting this print out to help them communicate with the locals in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family which includes Arabic, Hebrew and Assyrian. Although other languages are spoken in Ethiopia, Amharic is the most widely used and understood.

An informal ‘hello’ is tadiyass. ‘How are you?’ is dehna neh for a man and dehna nesh for a woman; to answer ‘I am fine’ you say dehna. ‘See you’ is chow, ‘yes’ is awo and O.K. is e’shi.

When it comes to food, breakfast is kurs, lunch is me’sa and dinner is e’rat. It you want bread, ask for dabbo, water is wuhu, tea is shai, and if you’re interested in famous Ethiopian coffee, ask for buna.

If you only remember one word, use e’shi, say it with a smile – it’ll get you through and break the ice – Chow – we’ll keep you posted!

Greetings from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where we are united with our three expedition Landies and kit – everything safe and sound thanks to ex-Kearsney boy, South African Greig Jansen and his team who run the Coca-Cola Sabco operation in East Africa. Like most fellow South Africans we meet in Africa, they are superbly helpful and even assist us with the humanitarian work attached to the expedition.

Addis is a fascinating place where high rise buildings, shiny new vehicles and businessmen in suites with mobile phones clamped to their ears share the city space with a parade of cripples, pick-pocketers, con-artists, amputee war veterans, street children and naked beggars.

The place grows on you, despite the occasional opportunistic con-artist and the occasional rude teenager who gratuitously yells ‘f-off’ at faranji’s (travellers). The vast majority of the Ethiopians we meet are superbly friendly and despite the recent attack on travellers in the Danakil area of the Rift Valley, one feels safer here than downtown Kinshasa or Joburg. Ethiopia is a must on any traveller’s calendar.

LAND ROVER DISPATCH 13 – ALL’S WELL

Good news! Thanks to Messina shipping lines and DP World, the three expedition Landies, the kit and the seven-strong expedition team have all arrived safely at Djibouti Port (thank God no pirates!) We were last here as part of our Outside Edge Expedition to track the outline of Africa. It’s good to be back.

LAND ROVER DISPATCH 14 – THE SALTIEST BODY ON EARTH

The team finds themselves on the banks of Djibouti’s Lake Assal, deepest point on the continent at -155 meter below sea level, for the start of their odyssey to follow the Great African Rift Valley. With an 80 m thick salt crust in about one third of the lake and about 380 grams of salt per litre of water, Lake Assal is the saltiest body of water on the planet. Ethiopia’s Danakil, here we come.

LAND ROVER DISPATCH 15 – ON EXPEDITION AND THINKING OF DURBAN.

And so as the world’s ‘glitterati’ descend on Durban’s ‘COP’ 17 Summit on how to slow climate change and reach their agreed goal “to limit the average global temperature rise to 2°C…”, we find ourselves in Ethiopia’s Danakil, hottest place on earth!; close to drought stricken famine rid Somalia on the Horn of Africa. Let’s hope for peace and a green revolution!   

LAND ROVER DISPATCH 16 – MALARIA IS RIFE

Ethiopian greetings from remote Afar villages where the Awash River ends its journey. Malaria is bad here and we continue with our United Against Malaria, Rite To Sight and LifeStraw campaigns. Tough going, we travel with armed militia. – we’ll keep you posted.

RISKING LIVES TO SAVE LIVES

Back at the Mechem camp I go down with malaria and the next 24 hours passes in a blur of delirium and fever. It’s ironic isn’t it when you think of all the United against Malaria work we do, but I guess you sometimes have to risk lives to save lives. Imagine what it is like for those without the availability of modern drugs or even a mosquito net………..

Will keep you posted.


JOURNEY TO JUBA – FINAL DISPATCH

SPLA soldiers are amazed to see a group of crazies emptying a Zulu calabash of water into the Nile. We explained that in an act of symbolism we’d carried this water all the way from South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind.

The expedition Landies cross the old metal bridge over the Nile and then swing south toward Uganda and home. The Journey to Juba expedition has been an incredible adventure, the Landies are lighter now, not just because the Captain Morgan’s been drunk  the supplies eaten and I’ve shed a kg or 2 but mainly owing to the fact that we’ve left the big Gemini inflatable, nicknamed Lady Baker and the 2 Yamaha outboards behind in Juba. We’ll be back; there is still a stretch of Nile to complete between Juba and Khartoum. But that’s another adventure and for now there is a deep sense of satisfaction in having completed our Journey to Juba Expedition so allowing us to further embrace Mama Afrika. To all of you that have made these humanitarian expeditions possible we say – Siyabonga, Asante Sana and thanks – Till the next one.

SOUTH AFRICANS TO THE RESCUE

The South African Consul General and his team welcome us to Juba and arrange our paperwork. The celebrations are about to begin. The city is bursting at the seams but Vrystaat booitjie, Cheeta supporter Jaco Crotz, the affable, red headed Project Manager of the Mechem de-mining unit moves in to help and soon our Landies and tents are in a line next to UN marked Caspirs, the SA built de-mining vehicles that Mechem use across South Sudan.

Jaco tells us that Mechem was the first de-mining unit to cross the old metal bridge into Juba in 2005. Since then using dogs and the latest of technology they have opened up over 10 000 km  of road. This tough and dedicated unit embrace our humble Journey to Juba Expedition not only by assisting us with United against Malaria work but also by welcoming us with an oxtail potjie and grand South African braai. What great characters!!! Ingemar Anderka, the ops manger, presents us with beaded bangles; Jaco presents the expedition with the new flag of the Republic of South Sudan. It’s a night to remember and makes us truly proud to be South African.

Will keep you posted.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

We join the thousands that have gathered at the Dr John Garang Mausoleum. Foreign dignitaries include some 30 heads of state including President Jacob Zuma who gives us a wave as I shout a greeting in Zulu and Mashozi ululates. The atmosphere is electric. Hundreds of young South Sudanese lead the singing of the new National anthem. Groups of banner waving drum beating traditional dancers representing some of the 200 ethnic groups chant and leap in wild excitement as the flag of Sudan is lowered and the flag of South Sudan is raised. President, H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit takes the Oath of Office as the first President of the Republic of South Sudan. The crowd surge forward, the heat is as oppressive as the years of war and marginalization in which more then 2 million people died. The crowed roars “South Sudan oh yeh, a free South Sudan oh yeh, Independence oh yeh”. The expedition feels proud to witness the final Liberation of the world’s newest nation!

Will keep you posted.

A MESSAGE FROM JUBA

Herewith a typical scribbled Kingsley note from Juba in Southern Sudan.
Congratulations on being part of the expedition and for using adventure to save and improve lives.

The team sends best regards – for the Holgates, this is the culmination of 30 years of travel to embrace every country in Mama Afrika.
As Kingsley would say “LIFES A GREAT ADVENTURE ISN’T IT”

The United Against Malaria work and the Rite to Sight Campaign have brought health and joy to many – Thanks friends for making a difference.

DAWN OF A NEW NATION

It’s the dawn of a new nation – South Sudan’s hard won Independence has finally arrived – Today we do UAM work and tomorrow on the 9th of July we celebrate the victory of Nationhood. Security is tight all major roads in and out of the city are closed. We made it just in time!!

Will keep you posted!!



CELEBRATING THE NEWEST NATION ON THE PLANET – SOUTHERN SUDAN

South Sudan will never be the same again. All the people of South Sudan are celebrating the victory of Nationhood after a long and bitter struggle. They are jubilating that they are free at last and that ‘Uhuru’ has finally come to their cherished land. The atmosphere is one of quite triumph most people we talk to are sick and tired of war – Let us hope for lasting piece.

Will keep you posted!!

MOSQUITO NETS AWAIT THE EXPEDITION TEAM IN JUBA

Today we get the good news a message from Louise Dann of The Global Fund, 2000 long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets are waiting for us in Juba. With the assistance of The Government of South Sudan’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), The Global Fund and grant recipient Populations Services International (PSI) we will be having a pre-Independence UAM football game and net distribution event at Gudele basic school. Now all we have to do is get there.

EVOSAT KEEPS THE FAMILY CONNECTED

Under a mango tree on the banks of the river Nile Ross receives this image via Evosat of his little daughter Miabella sucking on her first piece of biltong. We have long finished our supply and are all missing home – But Juba here we come!!

OUR WORST NIGHTMARE AND A RACE AGAINST TIME

Now in Southern Sudan the Nile is wide and beautiful but shallow rapids play havoc. Some of them we row to save further damage to the Yamaha outboard already suffering from dinged props and a  chunk out of the cavitation plate and then our worst nightmare, that horrible clunking grating sound as the gearbox collides with an underwater rock and oil oozes from a couple of fractures. Now not only is it a race against time to get to Juba but also to our Land Rover rendezvous point before the gearbox runs dry and seizes. If we don’t make it we will have to row for it.

52 YEARS OF STRUGGLE – INDEPENDENCE IS NEAR

From a three day old New Vision Ugandan newspaper we learn that the Security Council on Monday ordered a 4200 strong Ethiopian peacekeepers force to the disputed Sudanaese territory of Abyei in a bid to douse tensions ahead of southern Sudan’s split from the north.
After a struggle that cost more than two million lives since 1959, the newest country in the world will officially be independent on July 9, 2011.

Our challenge is to get down the Nile; it’s a race against time.

CHAOS EN-ROUTE TO SOUTH SUDAN

Received this radio call from Eugene in the Landies...

"Big problem!.... Broken down lorry stuck on low level bridge, only way past is to bloody swim. Chaos! Road to South Sudan blocked. Hundreds of trucks gridlocked...Carrying anything from goats to fuel and produce all needed in Juba for Independence Day celebration. Can't move...Will radio you 08h00. Over and out"

This is bad news for the river party waiting on the Nile with no support.

CHAOS EN-ROUTE TO SOUTH SUDAN

Received this radio call from Eugene in the Landies...

"Big problem!.... Broken down lorry stuck on low level bridge, only way past is to bloody swim. Chaos! Road to South Sudan blocked. Hundreds of trucks gridlocked...Carrying anything from goats to fuel and produce all needed in Juba for Independence Day celebration. Can't move...Will radio you 08h00. Over and out"

This is bad news for the river party waiting on the Nile with no support.

JOURNEY TO JUBA UNITED AGAINST MALARIA EXPEDITION REACHES UGANDA BASE CAMP

Greetings from our Nile River explorers Base Camp at Bujagali Falls. Not far from the place where Speke first saw the Victoria source of the Nile where it tumbles from Africa’s largest lake. It’s beautiful here with great views over the longest and most historic river in the world.

We sit with old friend Jon Dahl, the founder of Nile River Explorers. Jon was the medic on our 1993 Afrika Odyssey in open boats from Cape Point to Cairo and Alexandria. Tomorrow we leave for Murchison Falls.
Juba here we come. Will keep you posted.

For more info on Nile River Explorers go to www.raftafrica.com

JUBA – SOUTHERN SUDAN – HERE WE COME

Greetings - As we get closer to the border with Sudan, people in the villages are fascinated by the Journey to Juba signage on the bonnets of the expedition Land Rovers. There is a lot of empathy for what we are doing, the United Against Malaria and Rite to Sight work. People point and discuss the expedition logo which consists of a map of Africa showing the flag colours and outline of South Africa and the about to be born Southern Sudan joined by the United Against Malaria circle of beads. All is well – Juba here we come – the excitement grows.

CROCODILES AND RIVER BUGS

I ask Mr Kirunda our interpreter about the danger of crocodiles. “Ah!” he says, “last time they went away with Matheus Adia’s leg, just here where the people from the village fetch water”. We launch the large UAM branded inflatable boat back into the Nile. From the river bank mothers’ wave farewell, their blue coloured mosquito nets held above their heads. A group of poor sighted elderly have each received a Rite to Sight spectacle; we are doing what we came to do.

Last night millions of river bugs chased us into our tents, and then came an equatorial downpour. Cesar Ongwen, our village host tells us that only yesterday eighteen school children died instantly and thirty six others were injured when lightning struck a school.

Juba here we come.

“No adventure is complete without them”

Sure! The French have their Eiffel Tower and champagne, the Dutch their tulips and cheese, the Irish their Guinness the Cubans their cigars, the Spanish their bull fighting and the British their tea. But, hey! We in Africa have the “Pothole” and no adventure is complete without the persistent hiss of escaping air from a slit tyre or worse still a burst tyre rifle shot-like explosion that if it happens in a war torn area has the passengers all ducking for bloody cover! – For us in Africa potholes are part of life.

Whole families of them

Have you noticed how African potholes like living in families, much like villages that after miles of absolutely no habitation and only when you desperately need to pull over at a private place to urgently ablute after too much dodgy goat stew do a dozen excited kids suddenly pop up, screeching ‘Mzungu Mzungu’ whilst you squat embarrassingly behind an ant heap with your rods around your knees, the wind tugging at the flapping toilet paper roll that fly’s like a pennant from the spade handle.

African Potholes are like that! You can be purring along in top gear, not a roadblock or pothole in sight, listening to Johnny Clegg – tailwind behind you, dreaming about the joys of tonight’s campfire and Rhenoster koffie – picking up speed on a long downhill into the dip, when without warning, hidden in the shade of a great Acacia Robusta and too late for the shout of “Watch out! Potholes!” from a wide eyed passenger – you suddenly run into an entire pothole family – you swing hard to the left and then dangerously right, nearly rolling the overloaded landy to avoid the baby potholes before a mother of a pothole with a hard edge catches your left back tyre with a sickening sharp bone jarring thud, The camp kettle flying forward like a missile comes at you as you stand on the brakes locking all four wheels to avoid writing off your bloody suspension as you slide into Big Daddy whose stretched himself right across the road, cleverly hidden by his late afternoon shade tree. Now in first gear and acting all nonchalant like nothing unusual happened, your start slowly accelerating as you go through the gears, zigzagging this way and that to avoid the pothole grandparents, uncles, cousins and aunties – and that’s always when you get that embarrassing two way radio call from the expedition landy behind you. They’ve had the advantage of slowing down as they saw your Defenders brake lights glow red as you nearly rolled – “Jeez! Pops – that was close” comes your sons’ voice over the air – “didn’t you see them?” – So at the thought of all the pothole relatives ahead you answer – “Won’t you drive in front – your eyes are sharper than mine”. And so their landy of grinning faces comes shooting past leaving you to wobble foolishly along behind, your hand shaking on the steering wheel a sure sign of the wheel balance having been knocked out by a dented rim!

Different Characters

Like people potholes have their very own characters – The deep mud-filled variety are quite hazardous – on impact they throw a whoosh of thick red-brown watery mud onto your windscreen, instantly obliterating any forward view and leaving you sufficiently blind so that by the time the windscreen wipers have fought to clear the mess you have already collided with an entire pothole family – OUCH! Worst still is if in the old Landy you’ve left the below the windscreen ventilation flaps open, allowing a torrent of the red-brown woosh to flood over the bonnet and into the cab so drowning the …………. Bird Book and binoculars which are conveniently place on her lap so eliciting the sharp tongued reaction from your mud covered wife of “Are you trying to bloody well kill me”, with the obvious response from the driver of “what happened? I thought you were supposed to be POTHOLE WATCHING.”

The ditch type pothole is a real bastard – no room to manoeuvre and all 4 wheels taking it on the chin!

The broken tar sharp edge ‘I’ll smash your suspension” variety are really nasty characters especially the deep ones that swallow the entire tyre. But as an old pothole warrior you’re bound to learn a few tricks, like spotting a spurt of dust or splash of water from the vehicle in front of you as they score a direct hit, also by being able to detect the “tell tale” tracks veering off the road to avoid a ‘Big Daddy” – Seeing a vehicle zigzagging crazily towards you at high speed doesn’t necessarily mean the drivers pissed – he’s just another pothole dodger.

Pothole Warriors

Check out a dusty 4x4 parked outside a remote pub and you’ll soon see if he’s a pothole warrior or not – bodywork scratches, dents and wobbly rear view mirrors generally indicate that he’s shot off the road to avoid the “buggers” and got into a scrape with the surrounding bush. Numerous gooey tubeless repair plugs sticking out from the tyre walls like war medals are sure signs of a true pothole warrior as are dented rims, sidewall bulges, gaiters, goitres and even hernia’s where the tube’s popped out from the tyre wall like a small balloon.

The Pothole Industry

A lot of African villages live off potholes, the local headman has his field of potholes which he controls and it can be quite lucrative. At the sound of approaching vehicles kids race our from the village and in a flurry go through the motion of filling up the potholes for which service you are expected to part with some coins – sometimes these unofficial pothole menders will even resort to a pothole roadblock – Pay and you can proceed, - I was once told a story about the road north of the Rio Save in Mozambique where at one time the potholes, were so deep that one had to drop down to a snails pace – and that was when the pothole bandits would attack you at night – it got so bad that the soldiers set up camps alongside the road to stop the practice.

Be careful!

Potholes can be nomadic – Three years ago you’d marked WATCH OUT! bad potholes on a section of your map now only to find that Chinese road builders have smoothed it all out for you. Down goes the right foot and the mood improves at the thought of still getting to your chosen destination before nightfall – Forget it! Just as you least expect it there they are again ready to greet you with a welcoming screech of brakes and an almighty suspension walloping bang! It tires you out, especially late afternoon, vizor down into the sun pothole dodging.

They grow in size

But when is a pothole not a pothole? Well I suppose when it’s a sinkhole, deep enough to swallow an entire Land Rover or a wash away where the whole road in front of you is gone or where like in the Congo what began as a pothole is now so bloody deep and mud filled that when you get stuck, for fear of drowning, you climb out of your window – onto the roof rack and step out onto dry land.

The Future of potholes

Isn’t it a bloody killer when for day after day you only average around 12 – 16kms per hour speeding up between tow-hitch catching potholes, clutch in clutch out constantly changing gears trying to build up a rhythm, 1st, 2nd, 3rd then back down again into low ratio first, rocking and rolling the tired passengers knocking their bloody heads together whilst a man on a bicycle carrying a colourful, speckled goat and a bunch of green bananas gives you a big toothy grin as he effortlessly overtakes you on his big wheeled made in India bicycle – I suppose the danger in governments not fixing the potholes is they then might not receive donor money for a new road. The Chinese would have nothing to repair, the Juwakali welding stalls in each village would go out of business, as would Africa’s fix anything tyre repair men, the village pothole menders, the slowdown for pothole roadside cold drink and roast mealie vendors, the stop for potholes before a bridge fish traders and, the fowls held up by the legs, wave you down before the pothole, poultry merchants.

Watch out! Slow down. Bad potholes ahead on the left comes a crackly voice over the radio! You hit the brakes and there they are “lying ‘n waiting”... So are potholes part of living in Africa? Will our grandchildren get to know them as well as we’ve done. – Somehow I think so……

PRAY GOD NO PIRATES

Security at Durban harbour is tight, so in hard hats, covered shoes, reflective vests, breathalysed and with flashing lights, our 3 expedition Landies, loaded with lifesaving mosquito nets, LifeStraws and Rite to Sight spectacles, are escorted onto the ‘Jolly Marrone’ for shipping around the dangerous Horn of Africa – pray God no pirates. Thanks Land Rover for the support – we’ll keep you posted…

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UNITED AGAINST MALARIA BRACELETS ALONG THE WAY

We get this dispatch from Eugene le Roux who is the driver of the big Land Rover 130 defender – we call it the United Against Malaria “mother ship” – its task on expedition is to carry bales of life saving mosquito nets – This dispatch is best in Eugene’s words. 

“We’re at a red light in Harare, Zimbabwe – and I hear shouting and hooting from a vehicle alongside. They have recognised the United Against Malaria logo and its circle of beads on our Land Rover. The driver sticks his wrist out of the window and points. He’s proud to be wearing a United Against Malaria beaded bracelet. It made my day!”

DOTTING THE I’S

The expedition logo shows the countries of the Great Rift, the colourful dots that outline Mama Afrika symbolise the All Afrika nature of previous expeditions and the circle of beads around the UAM logo represent the Relate Trust beaded bracelets crafted by mamas in Kayelitsha, the sale of which help fund lifesaving mosquito nets.

CELEBRATING THE SEND OFF TO JUBA

Hi fellow pilgrims of adventure. Our Journey to Juba expedition to celebrate the birth of Africa’s newest country certainly kicked off with a jamboree reminiscent of the great age of African exploration.

Similar I’m sure to the time of Livingstone, Burton and Stanley when porters, guides, translators, hunters and explorers gathered, often months in advance, in places Bagamoyo, assembling material and equipment for the great journeys that lead to the mapping of our fascinating and beautiful continent.

When the great day finally dawned and the huge trains of humans, animals and equipment began snaking their way into the unknown interior the “noise, celebration and excitement must have been deafening - as wives, families, traders, investors, reporters, missionaries, musicians and bureaucrats all shouted, sang or beat out their farewells”

And so in a tribute to the great age of African exploration the expedition to mark the birth of Southern Sudan will departed from Lesedi cultural village with a series of celebratory events harking back to the golden age of African travel. It was great fun. Signatures and messages were added to the Scroll of Peace and Goodwill in support of Malaria Prevention. There was the symbolic handing over of United Against Malaria PermaNets and Rite to Sight spectacles and the filling of the symbolic expedition Zulu calabash with Cradle of Humankind water to be emptied into the Nile in Juba as part of celebrating the birth of the newest country on planet earth.

MESSINA TO THE RESCUE

Lots of excitement! Just five days to go to the shipping date. The Ignazio Messina shipping line invite us to attend the company’s 90th birthday celebration at the Oyster Box Hotel in Durban. Well-wishers endorse the Scroll of Peace and Goodwill and Stefano Messina, grandson of the founder, scribbles: ‘My grandfather Ignazio was a man full of passion… for the sea and for Africa… your expedition will be hard, but the Rift Valley will welcome you.’

FAMOUS SOUTH AFRICAN SINGER YVONNE CHAKA CHAKE

By sunset, more guests, media, and sponsor partners arrive to celebrate the send off of another UAM expedition. Famous singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, David Kyne from UAM and Noel Doyle the CEO of Nandos are chosen to judge the UAM cultural festival. Theirs is a tough task. The traditional dancing is superb. The buttock shaking Pedi Mamas dressed in beautiful costumes take the best girls trophy.

The drumming reaches a crescendo, the competition is fierce, but when Yvonne gets up to announce the best men’s team, you can hear a pin drop and then the occupants of great dance hut erupts with shouts, whistles and ululating as the Tswana team hold the UAM men’s dance team trophy high above their heads. In true expedition style, it all ends up as a late night as the expedition team swap expedition stories with Land Rover MD Kevin Flynn.

FIGHTING AN CIENT DISEASE

It’s a race against time getting the three Landies ready for shipping. Today we prepare the big Land Rover 130 Defender – it’s called the United Against Malaria mother ship. In it we load the first consignment of life saving mosquito nets supplied by PermaNet. There’s also boxes of LifeStraws, spectacles for the poor sighted, food supplies, Nando’s sauce for tough village fowls, tents, medical kit, bedrolls and a jerry can of Captain Morgan.

Apart from the big 130 Defender, we load up the two new Land Rover Discovery 4’s - we’re going to use state of the art technology to fight the ancient disease of malaria – it is even said that the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamen died of malaria as did Alexander the Great and it continues to kill over a million people a year in Africa – we hope to make a difference.

UNITED AGAINST MALARIA SEND OFF - FOOTBALL GAME

It’s a sunny winter afternoon at Lesedi Cultural Village in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, where to the sound of drums, marimbas and vuvuzelas, the UAM invitation side joined by United Against Malaria David Kyne from New York warm up to take on the Lesedi players in the 2011 UAM football challenge.

As part of Land Rover supported United Against Malaria Kingsley Holgate led expeditions across Africa, football matches like these have been played across the continent. “Sometimes there’s not even a field” says Kingsley with a grin. The expedition team clear a piece of bush, there’s a bicycle for the Man of the Match and a UAM trophy for the winning team. There’s always great excitement as we replace the village ball made of old plastic bags tied together with twine, with a brand new football. It’s all about using the wonderful game of football to spread the message about malaria prevention.

Today’s no exception and after 60 minutes of hard play with commentary in English and Zulu from the Land Rover loud speakers, the Lesedi team holds up the UAM floating trophy presented by Nandos founder Robert Brozin.
The Journey to Juba expedition Land Rovers will leave tomorrow morning but first there’s tonight’s UAM Cultural Festival. It’s happening in the giant Ngoma Hut and one can feel the excitement in the air.

GREAT AFRICAN RIFT VALLEY EXPEDITION

It’s time to turn that Land Rover key again and head off on another great humanitarian adventure – this time it’s to follow the entire African Rift Valley from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to the base of Gorongoza Mountain in Mozambique.

It will be an exciting yearlong geographic journey with the humanitarian links of malaria prevention through the distribution of life saving mosquito nets, Rite to Sight spectacles for the poor sighted and LifeStraws for water purification.

At St Alban’s College in Pretoria, hundreds of boys sign the Landy – they have adopted the expedition and one the pupils, Madiba’s grandson, writes a goodwill note to be carried to the Nelson Mandela College in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa – it makes us proud and they get to know Mama Africa better.

Thousands have gathered to wish us well at the Johannesburg International Motor Show and already the expedition Scroll of Peace and Goodwill’s pages are filling up – it’s the expedition send-off. Kevin Flynn, the colourful MD of Land Rover South Africa makes a farewell speech and Zulu dancers from Lesedi Cultural Village leap into the air as they escort the humanitarian convoy through the crowd.

Then we get the good news that Ignazio Messina will sponsor the shipping of the Land Rovers from Durban around the dangerous Horn of Africa to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and then across to Djibouti (start point of the expedition) – the ship leaves in just 10 days. It’s all coming together - we’ll keep you posted…

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COUNTDOWN TO SOUTHERN SUDAN

There’s always a nervous feeling of anticipation as the Land Rover supported team prepare for another United Against Malaria expedition departure.

Tents, supplies, first aid kit, letters of introduction for safe passage, a large inflatable boat and outboard motors, spare parts, extra tires, soccer balls, trophies and mosquito nets, passports health cards, extra fuel and water containers.

Led by Royal Geographic modern day explorer and United Against Malaria ambassador Kingsley Holgate, the expedition to war-torn Southern Sudan is called “A Journey to Juba”. The convoy of Land Rovers will leave from Lesedi Cultural Village on Tuesday, 22nd June. As part of the departure ceremony there will be a United Against Malaria football game between a UAM invitation side and the Lesedi team, and a Cultural Festival. This will be attended by famous South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka who is also the Goodwill ambassador for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

From Lesedi the Land Rover party will carry a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill in Support of Malaria Prevention to their base camp at Nile River Explorers at Bujagali Falls where the largest and most historic river in the world leaves Lake Victoria in Uganda.

From there the party will split, some taking a 600km Nile journey by inflatable boat to meet the Land Rover team in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan in time for the Independence day celebrations and an expedition United Against Malaria football day for children where backed by The Global Fund, the Land Rover team headed up by Eugene le Roux and William Gwebu, will provide thousands of life saving mosquito nets to pregnant mothers and children in war torn Sudan. True to the humanitarian spirit of all of Kingsley’s Land Rover adventures, the Journey to Juba Expedition will also continue with its Rite to Sight campaign to distribute spectacles to poor sighted people in remote areas so keeping alive their motto of “Using Adventure to Improve and Save Lives” Sadly in Sudan, things are hotting up again with the border town of Abyei having just been taken by troops loyal to President Al Bashir of the Islamic North.  Some predict that the war in the South could start again. As Kingsley would say “we’ll keep you posted”.

“As on every journey the expedition will fill the symbolic calabash at the beginning and empty it at the end. As Always, they’ll carry a United Against Malaria Scroll of Peace and Goodwill in Support of Malaria Prevention”.

Route and details:

It is planned that the ALL AFRIKA EXPEDITION media send-off will take place from Ghana’s vibrant capital of Accra, situated on West Africa’s coastline in the Gulf of Guinea.

The expedition will then cross Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad and the Central African Republic and into Cameroon before flying into Equatorial Guinea.

The ALL AFRIKA EXPEDITION is saving one of the best till last. Whilst in Equatorial Guinea, the Holgates plan to visit the capital of Malabo on Bioko Island and mainland Rio Muni, to include the port town of Bata, the Monte Alen National Park, before flying back to South Africa.

Dispatch #1: Nervous anticipation and excitement

The drought has broken and the spring rains rattle the windows of Kingsley and Mashozi’s Afrika House. Edward the Basset watches every move, bags, maps, first aid, passports, bedrolls and tents. George the parrot chatters away in English and Zulu. Watson the Boerboel lies with his broad mastive head on his out stretch paws. In the Greybeard’s own words…

It’s the leaving that is always so damned difficult. This expedition is called ‘All Afrika’ a symbolic United Against Malaria partnered odyssey to embrace and adventure in every country on the African continent. With 47 counties behind us there is still, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, The Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea. Some of it won’t be easy as there have been coups, cross-border raids, rebels, kidnappings and gun-running, BUT the United Against Malaria work will continue – we’ll keep you posted. United Against Malaria, thanks for your support in using adventure to improve and save lives.

Dispatch #2: An historic event

Greetings! The All Africa send-off in Johannesburg was fantastic, brought to life by the Lesedi dancers and the presentation of a USD 250,000 cheque to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria raised through the sale of United Against malaria beaded bracelets and MTN’s World Cup fan parks. The sale of the bracelets also goes towards buying mosquito nets for Africa. Congratulations on the role you have all played in this historic event. Thanks – Kingsley and the team.

Dispatch #3: More support in the fight against malaria

Today we get the good news that Vestergaard-Frandsen, the suppliers of top quality insecticide treated mosquito nets, will sponsor extra bednets in Ghana.

The All Afrika Expedition’s overland leg will start from the Land Rover dealership in the vibrant Ghanaian capital city of Accra , situated on West Africa’s coastline in the Gulf of Guinea. The expedition will then cross Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic and onto Cameroon before flying into Equatorial Guinea.

Dispatch #4: Just a speck over Mama Africa

Finally we are off and the All Afrika Expedition has begun. East to West across Africa, the plane jam packed with Bangladeshi policemen off to monitor the elections in troubled Cote d’Ivoire, a country where we did good malaria work whilst on the Africa Outside Edge Expedition. Africa passes below us. Lake Victoria, the Rwenzori’s Mountains of the Moon, the vast Congo River basin, Cameroon, Nigeria, the tiny voodoo countries of Benin and Togo, and a refuel in Abidjan, over the bulge of Mama Africa to Dakar. Then west into the setting sun in a small propeller plane. Just a speck over the vast Atlantic. Heading for the island of Santiago, one of the ten that poke up out of the eastern Atlantic to form an arrow shape Archipelago called the Cape Verdes – we’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #5: Laughter and smiles – a great island buzz 

Greetings and Bom Dia from Cidade Velha, the 500 year old but still occupied ruined city where the history of Cape Verde began. This is the first documented European city in the tropics, first settled by the Portuguese in 1462. It’s a great start to our All Afrika journey.

We are jammed-packed into a mini-bus ‘publico’, tyres screeching on the twisted cobble stone pass. Cape Verde music blaring. Sexy looking girls in tight jeans and shorts, beautifully woven hairstyles and shy smiles. Feet up on big 20 litre glass bottles of home brewed grog – each village has its own still.

We race passed the ruins of the old cathedral, attacked and virtually destroyed by a French pirate Jacques Cassard. Down in the town square people greet each other in Creole – lots of laughter and smiles. Cabo Verde is in Africa but it feels different – a mixing of the races through the history of the slave trade and Portuguese occupation. There is a buzz here that is somewhere between Brazil And Mozambique – a delightful mixture of European and African. ‘Até logo’ – until later.

Dispatch #6: Rocks appear and life arrives

Rocks Appear And Life Arrives. According to local lore, when God was satisfied with the Creation and brushed his hands together, the crumbs that fell unnoticed from his fingers into the sea formed Cape Verde. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #7: Monsoons, puking passengers and rugged peaks

Reaching iconic places steeped in history is key to the success of this Land Rover supported All Afrika odyssey. But the Southwest monsoon is hammering us bringing flooding to areas that seldom see rain.

After a hairy Atlantic boat ride with puking passengers we make it to the outer Island of Santo Antao, where the rugged peaks and canyons provide one of the worlds great landscape dramas. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #8: Good news – our Land Rover has arrived!

Greetings from Mindelo on the Island of Sao Vicente, discovered in 1462 by the Portuguese. The British established a coaling station here for trans-Atlantic steam ships and much of the architecture reminds one of early Cape Town. There was even a Royal Mail and Telegraph Service and a cricket team. But the real reason for lingering here is music, haunting Creole melodies that are the sole of Cape Verde and the link to the African main land. Today we get the good news that the expedition Land Rover has arrived in Ghana will keep you posted.

Dispatch #9: Saying goodbye to Cape Verde

The humidity is as thick as golden syrup as we prepare to climb on board the small turbo aircraft that will carry us back across the Atlantic to the West African Mainland. The rich history, beautiful people and the sweet melodies and melancholy harmonies of Cabo Verde will remain in our hearts forever as a special peace of Mama Africa.

With great excitement and nervous anticipation, Kingsley Holgate and his team collect their expedition Land Rover 130 in the vibrant city of Accra in Ghana on Africa’s Gold Coast before setting off on their epic overland journey to complete Africa. This African odyssey will take them through the remaining countries of Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea and so in their lifetime connecting with all 47 countries that make up the continent of Mama Africa – Kingsley and his team are making adventure and malaria prevention history. Herewith the latest news from the Greybeard himself…

Dispatch #10: Saluting our friends in Dakar with the Captain’s Best

With the music of Cabo Verde still in our hearts, our small turboprop plane touches down in Dakar, Senegal. A bakkie flying a South African flag races across the runway to meet us – it’s local South African Piet Bosduif, an aircraft mechanic, dressed in full Bafana gear. It’s incredible how there’s always a South African making a plan in Africa.

Through customs and immigration and there’s Gerhard Botha, an old friend in adventure who had helped us get our Landies around the Horn of Africa when we were doing the outside edge of Africa. Now it’s an All Afrika attempt to complete Mama Africa in our lifetime.

A gang of South Africans gathers around the braai. There’s homemade boerewors and the Captain’s best. There’s talk of Saturday’s Curry Cup final. Here’s a gang of South African mates once again supporting our efforts.
 
It’s 3am and Gerhard puts us on a Nigerian plane bound for Accra, Ghana on West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea from where our United Against Malaria Land Rover odyssey to Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea will commence. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #11: With our expedition Land Rover loaded up with bales of mosquito nets, we’re off!

Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra heart of the Legacy Group, with its famous flagship in Johannesburg, the Michelangelo Hotel, sponsors our All Afrika Expedition send-off from Accra which includes the official handing over by PHL Motors of an expedition Land Rover 130 and bales of lifesaving mosquito nets by Vestergaard-Frandsen and AngloGold Ashante, who with Land Rover are partnering our UAM work in Ghana. In a great media send-off, attended by UAM partners and the South African Embassy, Adrian Landry the general manager of Labadi Beach Hotel, wishes us well. It’s our last night in a hotel for a few months. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #12: Winning the fight against Malaria and the Curry Cup
 
Akwaaba! Greetings from The Ashante Gold Kingdom of Ghana where with Dr Toby Bradbury, Senior Vice President of AngloGold Ashante Ghana, and his winning Malaria Control Team, we have a malaria prevention awareness day in which we distribute mosquito nets to pregnant mothers and children. For the men there’s a UAM soccer challenge with the theme of kicking malaria out. The AngloGold Ashante Malaria Control Team are the best and most dedicated we have ever worked with and have reduced malaria incidents by 70% in their community. United Against Malaria can be proud of the association. Then we get the great news… Sharks win Curry Cup rugby final! Burkina Faso, here we come!

Dispatch #13: African country no. 43 out of 47 – it’s hot as hell

Greetings from Bobo'Dioulasso in friendly Burkino Faso. The people are delightful and the market is one of the most colourful in all West Africa. We have a UAM event for pregnant mums in the mud hut outskirts of the city, and then we point the big Land Rover 130 towards the capital of Ouagadougou. Hot as hell – we’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #14: Bonne Arrivée!

Having reached the geographical Heart of West Africa, the All Afrika Expedition team arrives in Burkina Faso’s capital city of Ouagadougou. A large chunk of the Burkinabé (people from Burkina Faso), claims descent from the Mossi warriors, rulers of a very powerful empire in West Africa from the 11th to 19th century. The landlocked country, desert in the north and savanna in the center and south, is home to 63 ethnic groups. Herewith the latest update in Kingsley’s own words`…

Greetings from Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. Hot, flat, dusty and filled with mopeds and friendly Burkinabé who greet you with a friendly Bonne Arrivée (welcome).

It’s a yardstick for our United Against Malaria All Afrika Expedition. Our next destination is Gorom-Gorom in the Sahel's North Eastern corner. It’s Tuareg country up against Niger and Mali, and we are warned not to go for fear of resent kidnappings in the Sahara badlands. We’ll keep you posted.

Despite warnings of the risk of violence, terrorism and the ongoing Tuareg rebellion in some regions, the All Afrika Expedition team, led by Kingsley Holgate, crosses over into Niger. For them it’s country number 44, so getting closer to their goal of connecting with every country on the continent of Mama Africa.  Enduring temperatures close to 50 degree Celsius and humidity as thick as syrup - Herewith the latest news from the expedition...

People arrive by bush taxi, camel, donkey, bicycle, or on foot, and in the case of intrepid adventurers Kingsley Holgate and his wife Mashozi, by Land Rover. It’s market day at Oursi in the Burkina Faso sahel, the northern zone of hot, scrubby land that borders the Sahara Desert. ("Sahel" means "shore", referring to the "shore of the desert".) Herewith the latest news from the All Afrika Expedition…

Dispatch #15: A living documentary

Despite the warning not to travel, we make it safely to Gorom-Gorom and the Tuareg market in Oursi. It’s a living documentary to Nomadic Sahara lifestyles, and we are welcomed into the community. There has been terrible flooding where the desert dunes meet the bushveld. Many have been affected by malaria and the expedition moves in to help. Tomorrow we head for the Re'publique du Niger where there has been a military coup. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #16: Across the swollen River Niger

Greetings from the Niger River known as the Nile of West Africa. It is now flowing at its highest since 1929,it brings back memories of our earlier journey to Timbuktu. I count 18 big horned sheep tied down onto the roofrack of a taxi, another has a beast tied to the roof. With our expedition Landy, we are part of a 3km long moving market of trucks and cars trying to cross on the ferry that hopefully will get us across the swollen River Niger. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #17: Saving lives through adventure

The staff at the SA Embassy in Niamey, capital of the Re'publique du Niger, now all proudly wear UAM bangles. Throughout the scorching hot city, large billboards sponsored by the Global Fund, give the clear message: to avoid malaria sleep under an insecticide treated mosquito net. The heavy flooding along the Niger River has created a serious malaria problem. Our UAM cheque to the Global Fund from the sale of bangles will help bring more lifesaving nets to the needy, especially to mums with babies. We’ll keep you posted.
 
Dispatch #18: Agadez, the Tuareg capital

Greetings from an ancient terminus on the trans-Saharan Route. Sadly the area is closed off to travellers because of Tuareg rebels and recent kidnapping of foreigners, but Agadez is a must – it’s a yardstick for our All Afrika Odyssey. So finally by way of difficult and expensive permits, and a military convoy, we make it to the Tuareg capital – a fascinating labyrinth of flat topped mud brick houses, a vast camel market, artisans, silversmiths stalls and the grand mosque that dates back to 1515. For security reasons our Landy has been locked up at the police station and we travel “incognito" with Oumar, our French interpreter from Guinea, even resorting to wearing a Tuareg turban. We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #19: The Sultan’s Palace and on to Chad 

Greetings. With more United Against Malaria and Rite to Sight work behind us, we reach Zinder, a city that once thrived on the trans-Saharan trade in ivory, salt, slaves and gold.

We are welcomed at the Sultan’s Palace, where one of the fetishes above the entrance door is a human head. The All Afrika Expedition is working its way East towards Chad, country number 45, two to go. Expecting some tough challenges ahead. Land Rover, thanks for your support.

Still on their quest to experience every country on the African continent, our team of intrepid adventurers makes it to their 3rd last country, Chad – a landlocked country in north-central Africa. Its neighbours are Niger, Libya, the Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Lake Chad, from which the country gets its name, lies on the western border. In the north is a desert that runs into the Sahara. Chad is sometimes referred to as the ‘Dead Heart of Africa’ due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate. We receive this news from Kingsley, the Greybeard of African adventure…

Dispatch #20: A never to be forgotten adventure

Greetings from N’Djamena in Chad. Getting here across South Sahara from Niger is a never to be forgotten Landy adventure and here in the capital, there’s lots of French military on alert in case of further rebel attacks from Sudan. We’ll conduct further United Against Malaria and Rite to Sight work in area of Lake Chad – We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #21: Lake Chad, an iconic point

Greetings from a small village port on a finger of mysterious Lake Chad, fed to historic high levels by the swollen River Chari and unusually high rains. Brightly coloured pirogues smuggle goods across from Cameroon and Nomads bring thousands of wide horned cattle down to drink. It’s an iconic point for this All Afrika Expedition.

Dispatch #22: Bandits and rebels ahead

In N'djamena, capital city of Chad, preparing to journey South to the Central African Republic. Great back-up from Gert du Preez who heads up the South African Embassy here. It’s the wonderful support from fellow South Africans that makes a journey like this possible and proud to be South African.

We are told to take the road South via Moundon and across to Sarh – the undergrowth is not so thick, so less chance of bandits. Concerned about the crossing into the C.A.R. and the 600km Sarh to Bangui. REBELS have taken over a government stronghold in the North East – We’ll keep you posted!

Dispatch #23: An encounter with the rebel commander

We feel lucky to be alive and to have survived a crossing through rebel held territory in Northern Central African Republic. Just us with 30 camo clad soldiers armed with AK’s, rocket-propelled grenades and vehicle-mounted light machine guns.

Then a meeting with the Rebel commander, scarifications on his face and fetishes draped around his neck. A scary ragtag lot armed with everything from shot guns to bows and arrows, pangas, dope and palm wine.

Luck is on our side the rebel commander gives us a letter of safe passage that once the military convoy has left us allows us through rebel check points – a challenging experience that finally brings our All Afrika Expedition Landy and its exhausted occupants through to the safety of a Catholic Mission Station at Kaga-Bandora. – We’ll keep you posted.

Dispatch #24: Meeting the President

The Land Rover supported All Afrika Expedition has reached Bangui in time for the Central African Republic’s 50th anniversary. We have met with the President and did UAM work with the First Lady, supported by a team flown into Bangui in a SAAF C130 and by Vimbazela, a special South African Defence Force unit that is helping to train C.A.R. military defend the county against rebels in the north and north east of the country.

With the support of the Jane Goodall Institute, the expedition was also able to assist with the rescue of a chimp named Claude who flew back to South Africa with the team.

Dispatch #25: A plan comes together

It’s great when a plan comes together as Ross Holgate, French speaker Deon Schürmann and SA4x4 editor  also arrived safely in Bangui. This team had been chosen to do the ‘Return Dash’ through Cameroon where Kingsley and Mashozi will jump off to go into Equatorial Guinea, leaving the ‘Return Dash’ team to bring the Landy back to Accra via Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso. But before leaving the C.A.R. we all need to go in search of forest elephants.

Dispatch #26: A highlight of the expedition

Greetings from Dzangha Sangha Reserve in the safe-to-travel South-western corner of the C.A.R. where the expedition is being hosted by wildlife expert and fellow South African Rod Cassidy who owns the Sangha Lodge.

On foot with local pygmy guides, Rod takes us to a pan in the rain forest for one of the most unforgettable wildlife experiences, as over a hundred forest elephant gather to drink, one of the great highlights of our Land Rover supported All Afrika Expedition that has taken us from the Gulf of Guinea to the heart of the Congo Basin.

Rod Cassidy assists with UAM work ensuring that his dedicated team receive mosquito nets and Rite to Sight glasses for the elders in the village – and of course we leave him with a bottle of Captain Morgan. He is one of Africa’s great characters. To visit Rod, go to www.sanghalodge.com

Dispatch #27: Our expedition hangs in the balance

Please hold thumbs for us. With just one country to go so as to complete the continent, the All Afrika Expedition hangs in the balance – after three months of negotiation, STILL NO PERMISSION to cross over to Malabo in Equatorial Guinea. What now!? Stuck in Yaoundé, Cameroon hoping for a miracle. The South African High Commissions in Cameroon and Malabo are pulling out all the stops. We have come too far to fail now. We will have an answer within the next 24hrs. We’ll keep you posted.