Kingsley Holgate Ends Chapter One of His Great African Rift Valley Expedition
In his latest Getaway blog, intrepid traveller Kinglsey Holgate says he is ending the first chapter of his Great African Rift Valley Expedition. Holgate describes his journey across the Horn of Africa and the after-effects of honey wine:
Greetings again from the Horn of Africa – the fascinating area that contains the countries of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. We’re still zigzagging down the Great African Rift Valley and feeling the pace, all of us a bit travel worn. But everybody’s strong in the knowledge that we’ve got just a short distance of this section of the Rift Valley still to complete before getting to Addis Ababa and the end of chapter one of our expedition.
Peace and Goodwill
On every expedition we carry a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill. These have been messaged by chiefs, ambassadors, government officials, governors, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and even on one occasion by a near naked Himba girl who endorsed the scroll with a simple red-ochered handprint. Today’s message is from an Afar tribe M.P. who scribbles… ‘Welcome to the land of Lucy…’ – he’s referring to the 1974 discovery of an almost complete 3.5 million years old hominid skeleton named ‘Lucy’ – the song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was playing in the archeologists’ camp shortly after the find close to where our convoy of three expedition Land Rovers now travel in a cloud of dust along the floor of the Rift Valley’s Afar triangle. It’s close to sunset but Ali our guide warns us that it’s too dangerous to camp wild in this area. ‘There’s bad blood between the Issa and the Afar – it’s about livestock, available water and grazing rights.’ We push on into the night.
Book details
- Africa: In the Footsteps of the Great Explorer by Kinglsey Holgate
EAN: 9781770071476
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- Afrika: Dispatches From the Outside Edge by Kingsley Holgate
EAN: 9781770075047
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