New Land Rover Defender completes transcontinental expedition

Nine months and nearly 40,000km after setting out from Cape Agulhas on the southern tip of Africa, Land Rover ambassador Kingsley Holgate and his humanitarian expedition team reached the birthplace of Land Rover on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales. 

Two years in the making, the Defender Transcontinental Expedition was the first to travel the length of Africa and Europe in recent years. This was the 40th geographic and humanitarian odyssey for the explorer and his team.

They brought the epic journey to a ceremonial finish by driving their three expedition-kitted Land Rover Defenders onto the beaches of Red Wharf Bay, the place where the first Land Rover design was sketched in the sand by engineer Maurice Wilks in 1947.  

To mark the occasion, a fleet of classic Land Rovers joined the three well-travelled New Defenders for the final stretch into Anglesey. Land Rover executives, friends of the brand and Holgate supporters were waiting to welcome the expedition team.

Sea water collected from Africa’s southern tip where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, was symbolically emptied on the beach from the team’s iconic Zulu calabash which goes with the Holgates on every trip.

As with all Holgate expeditions, this Defender Transcontinental Expedition was a journey of purpose. The six-member team conducted humanitarian work that aided about 300,000 people along the route through Africa where the mission focused on malaria prevention, working with Goodbye Malaria in Mozambique and helping thousands of pregnant women and mothers with children under the age of five in other countries where malaria is rife.

Humanitarian efforts included eye tests and reading glasses for old people in remote communities, upgrading early childhood development centres and deliveries of clean drinking water to drought-stricken regions of northern KwaZulu-Natal.

The expedition was also one of the first carbon-neutral expeditions. Before leaving SA, the Holgate team joined forces with conservation groups in the Eastern Cape to plant 6,000 indigenous Albany Thicket trees to offset the expedition’s carbon footprint, as part of a large-scale wilderness restoration project. They also helped launch a one-million tree planting programme adjacent to Tanzania’s Serengeti.

“When we started from Cape Agulhas, cross-border travel was extremely difficult because of Covid-19 restrictions,” explained expedition leader and logistics expert Ross Holgate, Kingsley’s son.

“Add to that, 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 in doing so we inadvertently became the first expedition in 30 years to cross Africa from south to north through the two Sudans.”

Reaching Europe, the expedition traversed Greece, north Macedonia and the western Balkan countries of Kosovo and Serbia, including 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 traversed the length of Finland before crossing into Norway and reaching the geographic waypoint of the most northern border point in Europe. Working south, the team drove through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands before crossing the Channel to the UK.

“We’re a team who delight in achieving geographic goals,” said Ross. “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.”

“What has been an overwhelming experience of this journey is 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.

“The expedition’s Scroll of Peace and Goodwill is full of hundreds of heart-warming messages. That’s one of the best things about expanding your horizons through travel and adventure; it gives one hope for the future,” said Kingsley.

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