Kingsley Holgate's Blog
December 4, 2011
Dispatches from the Rift – Through the land of the Afar
The Great African Rift Valley Expedition team has reached their start point at Lake Assal and then moved on to the Ethiopian Danakil. We get these dispatches via satellite as they travel through the Afar triangle, a land of jagged mountains and cliffs, treacherous earth faults, active volcanoes and below-sea-level deserts where temperatures rise to a scorching 57°C in the shade...
The saltiest body on the planet
We’ve made it to Djibouti’s Lake Assal, deepest point on the continent at -155 meter below sea level, for the start of our odyssey to follow the Great African Rift Valley. With an 80 m thick salt crust in about one third of the lake and about 380 grams of salt per litre of water, Lake Assal is the saltiest body of water on the planet. Ethiopia’s Danakil, here we come.
On expedition and thinking of Durban
And so as the world’s ‘glitterati’ descend on Durban’s ‘COP’ 17 Summit on how to slow climate change and reach their agreed goal “to limit the average global temperature rise to 2°C…”, we find ourselves in Ethiopia’s Danakil, hottest place on earth!; close to drought stricken famine rid Somalia on the Horn of Africa. Let’s hope for peace and a green revolution!
Malaria is rife
Ethiopian greetings from remote Afar villages where the Awash River ends its journey. Malaria is bad here and we continue with our United Against Malaria, Rite To Sight and LifeStraw campaigns. Tough going, we travel with armed militia.
Sticky situations
Whilst going through a bit of research about our first expedition chapter, we uncover this interesting bit of information… The Danakil, also known as the Afars, used to be in the habit of castrating and murdering intruders into their territory. A young man could only marry when he had overcome an adversary and cut off his testicles as a trophy. The early British explorer Wilfred Thesiger found himself in a few sticky situations in which he managed to preserve both his composure and his testicles and win over the Afars. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same – we’ll keep you posted.
The saltiest body on the planet
We’ve made it to Djibouti’s Lake Assal, deepest point on the continent at -155 meter below sea level, for the start of our odyssey to follow the Great African Rift Valley. With an 80 m thick salt crust in about one third of the lake and about 380 grams of salt per litre of water, Lake Assal is the saltiest body of water on the planet. Ethiopia’s Danakil, here we come.
On expedition and thinking of Durban
And so as the world’s ‘glitterati’ descend on Durban’s ‘COP’ 17 Summit on how to slow climate change and reach their agreed goal “to limit the average global temperature rise to 2°C…”, we find ourselves in Ethiopia’s Danakil, hottest place on earth!; close to drought stricken famine rid Somalia on the Horn of Africa. Let’s hope for peace and a green revolution!
Malaria is rife
Ethiopian greetings from remote Afar villages where the Awash River ends its journey. Malaria is bad here and we continue with our United Against Malaria, Rite To Sight and LifeStraw campaigns. Tough going, we travel with armed militia.
Sticky situations
Whilst going through a bit of research about our first expedition chapter, we uncover this interesting bit of information… The Danakil, also known as the Afars, used to be in the habit of castrating and murdering intruders into their territory. A young man could only marry when he had overcome an adversary and cut off his testicles as a trophy. The early British explorer Wilfred Thesiger found himself in a few sticky situations in which he managed to preserve both his composure and his testicles and win over the Afars. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same – we’ll keep you posted.
November 30, 2011
A new adventure
Last year Kingsley and his team were able to embrace their last five African countries. The journey took them to Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, The Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea, but then they got back to find that Mama Afrika was about to give birth to the newest country on earth. So they loaded up the Landies and took a rubber duck journey down the Nile from below the Murchison Falls to Juba in time for the independence celebrations in South Sudan.
Now, the latest news from modern-day adventurer Kingsley Holgate reads…
It’s time to turn that Land Rover key again and head off on another great humanitarian adventure – this time it’s to follow the entire African Rift Valley from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to the base of Gorongosa Mountain in Mozambique. It will be an exciting yearlong geographic journey with the best of wildlife, nomadic tribes, lakes, rivers, mountains and volcanoes, whilst continuing our humanitarian links of malaria prevention through the distribution of life saving mosquito nets, Rite to Sight spectacles for the poor sighted and LifeStraws for water purification.
We'll keep you posted with regular dispatches from the Great African Rift Valley.
Afrika: Dispatches From the Outside Edge
Now, the latest news from modern-day adventurer Kingsley Holgate reads…
It’s time to turn that Land Rover key again and head off on another great humanitarian adventure – this time it’s to follow the entire African Rift Valley from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to the base of Gorongosa Mountain in Mozambique. It will be an exciting yearlong geographic journey with the best of wildlife, nomadic tribes, lakes, rivers, mountains and volcanoes, whilst continuing our humanitarian links of malaria prevention through the distribution of life saving mosquito nets, Rite to Sight spectacles for the poor sighted and LifeStraws for water purification.
We'll keep you posted with regular dispatches from the Great African Rift Valley.
Afrika: Dispatches From the Outside Edge
