Mission accomplished for Holgate expedition
The epic journey came to an end when the team drove their three Land Rover Defenders onto the beaches at Red Wharf Bay in Wales where the first Land Rover design was sketched in the sand by engineer Maurice Wilks in 1947.
Nine months after setting out from Cape Agulhas and close to 40 000km later, Land Rover ambassador and North Coast adventurer Kingsley Holgate has successfully completed the journey of reaching the birthplace of Land Rover on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales on August 18.
Accompanied by his humanitarian expedition team, Holgate set out on the Defender Transcontinental Expedition which was in the making for two years.
The expedition was the first of its kind in that the entire length of Africa and Europe was travelled. This was also the 40th geographic and humanitarian odyssey undertaken by the explorer and his team.
Like all of Holgate’s expeditions, the purpose of the excursion for the six-member team was to conduct humanitarian work. Along the route through Africa about 300 000 people were reached, with malaria prevention the main focus.
The team also helped with upgrading under-resourced early childhood development centres.
Holgate’s son, Ross, said when they began the epic journey from Cape Agulhas, cross-border travel proved extremely difficult owing to Covid-19 travel restrictions.
“Add to that, political uprisings across the breadth of north Africa meant that for the first time in decades Africa was pretty much off-limits to overland travellers. We had to reroute to avoid certain areas and by doing so, inadvertently became the first expedition in 30 years to cross Africa from south to north through the two Sudans.”
Arriving in Europe, the team traversed Greece, North Macedonia and the western Balkan countries of Kosovo and Serbia, with a reroute through Montenegro to reach Hungary and Slovakia.
Avoiding the war in Ukraine, the team took roads less travelled through eastern Poland close to the border with Belarus and into the Balkan states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
From there they crossed the Baltic Sea and crossed the length of Finland before entering Norway and reaching the geographic waypoint of the most northern border point in Europe. Working south, they then drove through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands before crossing the Channel into the UK.
“The challenges of these past nine months were all the more worthwhile when our three Defenders finally reached the historic landmark at Red Wharf Bay.
“An overwhelming experience of this journey was how ordinary people in every country we’ve journeyed through, no matter their age, nationality, culture, race or religion, just want to live in peace,” concluded Kingsley.
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