Johannesburg - As explorer and adventurer Kingsley Holgate makes his way north, ending the leg of his journey in Zambia, he told The Star about his continued quest to make it to the heart of Africa.
“Bloody tsetse flies! We’re under attack from the little bastards,” said Holgate, as slapping is heard in the background. “The tsetse fly war continues!”
He paused for a moment to reassess this.
“Truth be told, tsetse flies are Africa’s best little conservationists. Without them, our parks would be filled with cattle and people.”
He described his trail into the centre of Zambia.
“Imagine crossing almost half a country through an unfenced national park larger than the Kruger, with its lifeline being the magnificent Kafue River, one of the major tributaries of the great Zambezi,” he said with awe and excitement.
Holgate and his team made their way through Kafue National Park towards the border of north-western Zambia.
“Three Landies in a row, led by ‘Indhlovukasi’, the big 130 Defender, no boom or rangers’ post as we travel from the south and we cross an imaginary line in the bush where an old yellow broken-down sign tells us we have entered Kafue National Park.”
Holgate described Kafue: “Although previously hammered by poaching, it is vast and beautiful.
“The wild animal numbers are slowly increasing,” he said.
“If the habitat can be preserved with better anti-poaching and with community buy-in, there’s always an oppor tunity to introduce more wildlife and with that will come more tourism.
“Let’s hope for the best, it’s certainly a beautiful piece of Africa.
“With one expedition Landy behind the other, we took the spinal track heading north up the west side of Itezhi Tezhi lake to set up camp at Alan and Libby’s place at Kasabushi.”
He reminisced about that campsite.
“It’s a stunning spot on the banks of the Kafue; wish we could chill out here for a day or two, but we’ve got an expedition to run with every tyre revolution taking us closer to the heart of the continent with loads of humanitarian work on the way.”
Holgate and his team finally made it to forest area where the little spring of the Zambezi River begins in north-western Zambia, close to the country’s border.
“We camped out there for the night, celebrating the end of the Zambian leg of our quest to finally reach the heart of Africa,” he said.
From here, Holgate and his team will edge along Angola into the Democratic Republic of the Congo and finally the heart of Africa in the Republic of Congo.
Holgate hopes to carry a symbolic Zulu calabash given to him at the Lesedi Cultural Village, filled with water taken from the Cradle of Humankind, and empty its contents onto the spot that “marks the beating heart of the continent”.
The Star