Extreme East Expedition

Ballito Jaguar and Land Rover have the pleasure of doing the service and maintenance on the vehicles for Kingsley Holgate's expeditions, the DEFENDER 130 that is the pack horse and trail breaker for these expeditions as well as the two new DISCOVERYs and the one Discovery 4 that is not being used on this particular trip. We've had some interesting experience on repairing unusual damage to these vehicles that can only occur when they are exposed to extreme conditions such as they have experienced in Africa.

We were asked to assist the team at the start of this latest trip in providing a vehicle and driver to transport some of the TV crews and journalists who were covering the launch of the extreme east expedition. The expedition would travel up to the most eastern point of South Africa and fill the famous calabash with water, which will then be carried all the way up to the most easterly point of Africa and the water spilled back into the ocean.

So I set off with our all new Discovery HSE and collected journalists at Richards Bay airport early on Tuesday morning and headed on to Hluhluwe for our first stop. Breakfast was served and Kingsley explained to all present the route of the expedition and then proceeded to demonstrate and explain all the community projects that have developed over the years under the Kingsley Holgate Foundation. We then moved on to a rural community hall and assisted them with the handing over of reading glasses to elderly people who have never had the opportunity to get such a simple thing and yet it makes such a sudden difference to their lives.

We then moved on to a school for special needs children and five wheel chairs were given to the children, they sang to express their appreciation for these life changing gifts, there was hardly a dry eye among all of us by the time this was over. This school is sponsored by Phinda game reserve and really is an outstanding example of a well-run establishment.

Then we moved on right up to the entrance gate to Tembi Elephant Park just below the Mozambique border and opposite the gate is a small rural school, set up next to the soccer field was a tent full of elderly people waiting expectantly for reading glasses, there was a serious soccer match on the go and some of us were sent off to one of the classrooms to judge pictures for the Rhino and Elephant foundation that had been left at the school a few weeks earlier so they could be worked on. When all was done we had a prize giving for the soccer players and the winners of the colouring project, great excitement for all involved. Then the important task of giving out the glasses and mosquito nets was handled and then everything had to be packed away, it started to rain !!!!!!

Some of the organising team went straight through to Kosi Bay Lodge where we were to spend the night and the rest of us crossed the road into Tembi Elephant park, so we were a convoy of Kingsley in a new Discovery, then a Discovery 4 then me in a new Discovery followed by another Discovery 4, then a Range Rover Sport (not ideal for thick sand conditions) as we were about to find out and finally another Discovery 4. We went right through the park, which has only sand tracks and ended up at the northern gate against the Mozambique border fence, we then followed the fence East towards Kosi Bay. It was dark by now and a thunder storm had set in but we were all in high spirits, this is what adventures are made of. Kingsley showed us the old border markers that had been put up to define Portuguese East Africa back in the day, the most interesting part of this story is that this is the same guy that Doiche M beer was named after. When we stopped again later to check if everyone was OK we found that the last two vehicles were missing in action, we waited for a while but no lights appeared so I was sent back to look for them. We found them about five kilos back stuck solid in the sand, the Sport had bottomed out and the discovery, in attempting to get around him, had bogged down as well. With a bit of digging and the amazing "snatch" rope I managed to get them both out and back on the trail with the All New Discovery. We had no more problems from there and eventually got to the Kosi Bay Lodge just after nine PM, the rest of the crew were so worried about us that they had settled into the pub and were seriously drinking to our demise.

We had a very tasty supper then some light entertainment with local musicians and finally bed.

We started out early, travelling through the dunes ending up at the Kosi Bay mouth, we had to walk the last few kilos down onto the beach where we met Ross Holgate and his fit team who had run up to the point and filled the calabash. There was a table and banners set up on the beach where we all had to write and sign the journal and then all the TV interviews and press photos were done. Then we carried everything back to the vehicles, packed up and set off up to the main road where we watched Kingsley, his team and three vehicles head north for the Mozambique border post just up the road and we all, very reluctantly, headed south back to our various bases.