“Currently we are sitting in the Namib - most ancient desert in the world after having had a tough day of sliding overloaded Land Rovers down the slip faces of frightingly high sand dunes. Followin g Garmin helps fight killer disease.

The Cape Peninsula winter rains had come early but the miserable conditions failed to dampen the spirit of hundreds of Land Rover owners who now dressed in an array of bush jackets, balaclavas and gumboots, danced in the mud in a vast paddock at De Grendel wine estate near Milnerton. Adventurers had travelled all the way from Namibia, Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and Durbs. Earlier that week an email had been sent out – it read “Dear friends in adventure, we’re expecting lousy weather but Land Rover owners aren’t whoosies – see you as planned.” Now enamel mugs of the Captain’s rum are raised in a victory salute – it had been an incredible day as bumper to bumper a record breaking 347 Landies of every shape, colour and vintage had braved the weather to join the longest humanitarian Land Rover convoy ever to leave from the Cape of Good Hope. In the week of Africa Malaria Day this has been a massive act of solidarity in the fight against malaria. Nobel Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Madiba himself, together with thousands of well-wishers have endorsed a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill in support of malaria prevention that the expedition is now setting off to carry around the outside edge of Africa.

That morning at the Cape of Good Hope media cameras flashed as Kingsley Holgate, one of Africa’s best known adventurers, with his trousers rolled up to his knees filled a decorated Zulu calabash with cold South Atlantic seawater.

“It’s fitting that we launch our yearlong clockwise circumnavigation of the African continent from this – the most South Westerly point of the continent,” explained the Greybeard of African adventure as he held up the calabash for all to see. Kingsley and his family team are off again on what he calls “their greatest humanitarian adventure ever.” Linked to a Garmin supported One Net One Life campaign in support of malaria prevention this Africa Outside Edge expedition will distribute tens of thousands of life saving mosquito nets to pregnant mothers and children under the age of five. The shocking statistic is that for every minute of every day and night two babies die from the bloodsucking bite of the female anopheles mosquito. It’s a killer disease that affects 3.5 million Africans annually – killing more people than HIV/Aids. “Thanks for helping make a difference and showing that you care for Africa,” shouts Kingsley through a megaphone as he competes with the roar of the waves, shrieking seagulls and distant cracks of thunder and lightning.

Other humanitarian efforts linked to the expedition are a Right to Sight programme in which “readers” are distributed to the poor sighted in remote villages and there’s an innovative Centurus Colleges / Rotary initiative called Teaching on the Edge in which hundreds of mobile libraries will be distributed to needy schools. For a moment the sun peeps through the grey storm clouds as South African National Parks officials Gavin Bell and Christa Stringer hand over to the expedition three symbolic Cape Agulhas stones and a conservation scroll tied with a thin piece of kelp. A stone will be dropped and another picked up at the most Westerly, Northerly and Easterly points of the continent. If the expedition survives, these stones together with the Zulu calabash of seawater will be brought back to the Cape of Good Hope in a year’s time to coincide with Africa Malaria Day, 25th April 2008.

“Sure we’re nervous,” said Kingsley standing next to his Garmin branded Land Rover with the colourful flags of 33 African countries decaled on the side. “Tomorrow we’re on our own – three Landies and two big Gemini inflatable boats ready to circumnavigate Africa. We know it will be tough but there seems to be a window of opportunity for us – peace has come to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It’s now possible to cross Algeria and Libya, but how will we round the Horn of Africa – I know that from Djibouti we can get to Berbera in Somaliland and we will have to suss it out from there. But with all this incredible goodwill behind us and great sponsor partners how could we possibly fail. British Airways and Grindrod, the Durban based shipping and logistics company, are assisting with logistics and funding and after a campfire gathering with the Nedbank vehicle and asset finance team they are putting up the bucks for diesel. We’ve got tough Cooper Tires, Melvill and Moon seat covers to soak up the sweat and the farts and Central African Gold is supporting a massive malaria prevention campaign in Ghana and Mali.

Traditionally we’ve sent home expedition messages from remote mission and trading stations or a note with a friend scribbled on an old piece of soapbox carton, but this time thanks to Evolution communications in Cape Town we are larnies and will be able to communicate with you through state of the art satellite equipment. In Nigeria Protea Hotels and Nando’s are collecting life saving mosquito nets ahead of our arrival. Following the edge won’t be easy and where there are no roads or tracks we will use the ducks and proven Garmin navigational equipment. There are some wonderful challenges ahead – the ancient Namib’s Skeleton Coast, the Congo, Niger, Nile and Zambezi rivers, the equatorial jungles of West Africa, the Sahara – largest dessert of them all, the islands of Sao Tomé, the Dahlak and Lamu archipelagos, the Quirimbas, Zanzibar and Mafia – it all promises to be a wonderfully exciting odyssey, using adventure to improve and save lives – we will keep you posted.

Words: Fraser Mc Henry

Source: Land Rover Owner International magazine

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