SA Explorer Kingsley Holgate Reaches Halfway Point on Transcontinental Land Rover Expedition from SA to Wales

• Famed explorer Kingsley Holgate and his team are on a marathon journey from the Cape Agulhas to the northern-most point of Europe, and then to Anglesey in Wales
• Driving in three new Land Rover Defenders the team travelled across Africa from south to north and even went through Sudan
• Holgate's mission is to provide food parcels and administer thousands of eye tests across the African continent which was achieved
• The expedition arrived in Greece on 14 June and will now travel across Scandinavia and Western Europe, cross the Channel into the UK and end on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales

Famed explorer and humanitarian Kingsley Holgate and his five-member expedition put the arduous Africa leg of their monumental transcontinental journey behind them.

Travelling in three Land Rover Defenders the expedition began in Cape Agulhas seven months ago at the continent's southernmost tip and aim to reach the northern-most point of Europe at Nordkapp in Norway’s Arctic Circle. The final destination is Anglesey in Wales, MotorPress reports.

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Holgate is joined by his partner Sheelagh, his son Ross Holgate who's also the expedition leader and his wife Ann, Mike and Fiona Nixon. Along the route, the group met and was assisted by African expedition members in each country who help with local knowledge and language, Africa.com reports.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for the group as four members of the core team contracted malaria in East Africa and suffered severely. The risk of contracting malaria was heightened as the group experienced heavy rains when travelling through Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

The team has had a few other speed bumps along the way including high fuel prices as well as Covid-19 restrictions and PCR tests at every border crossing. Despite all the hardship, Holgate's expedition has provided humanitarian support to 300 000 people in Africa. Included are eye tests for people in remote villages food parcels and teaching materials for 130 rural creches.

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The final destination in Angelsey is where the first Land Rover design was sketched in the sands of Red Wharf Bay by engineer Maurice Wilks 75 years ago.

This is the 76-year-old Holgate's 40th expedition and the mission remains the same as the first one: a humanitarian journey of purpose.

Mzansi’s favourites Lira and Bryan Habana join explorer Kingsley Holgate to deliver 2 million meals across SA

What started as an objective to deliver 200 000 meals to impoverished South African communities during the national lockdown in 2020, has become one of the Kingsley Holgate Foundation’s biggest ever humanitarian successes with the total tally now reaching more than 2 million meals over the past two years, Briefly News reports.

Global Land Rover ambassador Kingsley Holgate recently called on well-known musician Lira and rugby legend Bryan Habana – also Land Rover ambassadors – to lend a hand with the delivery of food parcels to an early childhood development centre in Thembisa, Johannesburg.

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The mission was captured in a short film under the banner of #TeamDefender which is an initiative to build a community of like-minded people, who aspire to go above and beyond to make more of their world.

Source: Briefly News