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Kingsley Holgate unpacks his “African” book

Holgate reading his book
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Humanitarian adventurer Kingsley Holgate has stopped over in his home province, KwaZulu-Natal to promote his new book, ‘Africa – A love affair with the Continent’.

Holgate and his expedition team are currently on a voyage from Cape Town to Kathmandu.

Holgate says, “I’ll read you an early bush note while scribbling these seemingly endless pages it got me thinking about the possible uses for this book. It could be used as an old Land Rover handbrake , a pigmy bed , a cure for insomnia, a bulletproof vest, a ballast for a down, a chopping block  but if you’re really brave enough you could try reading it.”

The book is dedicated to his late wife, Gill nicknamed maShozi. It also covers 30 years of his adventures through Africa. It tells of the expedition team’s achievements.

The team was the first ever to reach the seven extreme geographic points of the continent. One chapter emphasises on the unique discovery of the geographic centre-point of Africa.

Holgate says it was a tough journey through rain forests armed with thousands of GPS coordinates, to the heart of Africa in the Republic of Congo.

“The last 700 meters crawling on our stomachs, mud and ooze safari ants in the corners of our eyes, vines ripping you apart covering our flesh with wild banana leaves and the joy of finding the centre point of Africa. Putting this beacon screwing it into a root of an old tree and, of course on that beacons were the coordinates. There was SA flag and the flag of the republic of Congo we didn’t want to think that it was our heart it was their heart,” says Holgate.

The book also documents the team’s humanitarian work.

Mosquito nets are distributed to malaria-stricken areas, early childhood development materials are donated to poor communities. And there are heart-warming tales of the “Rite to sight” campaign.

Team Member, Anna Holgate says ,”We distribute readers and do simple eye test just to determine the strength,  more or less what they need and off they go it’s really instant gratification.”

The team’s conservation education project has reached more than 400 000 children.

Team Member, Sheelagh Antrobus says, “Five years ago we started a project called rhino art let the voices be heard. It is a community conservation educational programme because with the rise in rhino poaching in 2013 there was an enormous lack of information on how well communities could be brought in to help fight rhino poaching in South Africa.”

Logistics Expert and Team Member Ross Holgate says, “It’s a lot of paperwork, a lot of logistics, a lot of police clearance, a lot of Interpol and drama behind just putting a vehicle on a container. Thereafter from a visa perspective we don’t actually have representation for a lot of the Stan countries when I mention Stan it is countries like Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turjekistan and Turkmenistan.”

The team says travelling in Africa has taught them patience which should stand them in good stead as they venture into unknown parts of the world.

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