Oliver Keohane joins the Kingsley Holgate Foundation’s journey through Gorongosa and its greater surrounds – a story of adventure, conservation and humanitarian aid in Mozambique.
Images: Oliver Keohane
“Off goes Kingsley,” my dad would joke, every time I refuelled the family Landy for a new adventure, or packed bags for another work trip. “Who knows, maybe one day you’ll get to do a trip with them,” he would add, more seriously.
Kingsley and Ross Holgate, for the past 30 years, have travelled throughout Africa taking on immense geographic challenges and providing humanitarian aid throughout the continent. But as a reader of Getaway, I’m sure you need no introduction to the famous explorers. Their latest mission, Mozambique.
ALSO READ: Driving change with Defender and the Kingsley Holgate Foundation
“Confidential: Greater Gorongosa Expedition,” read a briefing document that arrived in my inbox from Land Rover in May. “Maybe one day” had arrived, I would be joining the Holgates and their motley crew of adventurers on a humanitarian and conservation-focused expedition to Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique.
The briefing list for the expedition was short and precise; reminders on the importance of malaria tablets, details of the connection at the small airport in Beira and the Cessna 210 Bush planes we would be chartering into the heart of Mozambique, to meet the team. After a packing list and airport details, the parting message was short but full of spirit, a foreshadowing of the colourful travellers I would come to know over the next ten days:
“A bottle or two of your favourite drink might also be encouraged for round the fire bravery. Most importantly, both a keen sense of adventure and a dash of humour – May the Zen of travel be with you, Ross.”
The expedition begins as the convoy leaves Gorongosa National Park
With a bottle of Captain Morgan and Jameson squeezed between my cargos and peaceful sleep, and a hard case full of camera gear, thanks to ORMS, I was off to Mozambique to join the latest of the Holgates’ expeditions.
“Africa’s Garden of Eden”, that’s what Gorongosa was known as at the height of its biodiversity in the 1950s and ’60s, before the Mozambican Civil War wiped the wildlife from the edge of the African Great Rift Valley. One of the most ecologically diverse areas on the continent became a feeding ground for soldiers, and by the end of the war, little remained.
In 2008, the Greg Carr Foundation formalised an agreement with the Mozambican Government which saw the birth of the Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP), aimed at restoring the park’s ecological richness and supporting the surrounding communities. Since then, Carr’s foundation has committed over 100 million US dollars, and by the end of 2024, a record high of 110,513 large animals were counted in Gorongosa National Park.
A population reborn
Driven by Land Rover Defenders and the persevering mission statement of “using adventure to improve and save lives”, this 42nd Holgate expedition joined forces with the Gorongosa Restoration Project to effect change beyond the boundaries of the park.
ALSO READ: The Pebble and the Power of Time, with Kingsley Holgate
Over ten days, our expedition team would trace the perimeter of Gorongosa National Park and beyond, delivering life-
Six Defenders, three old, three new, would drive us through sheets of rain, highways of mud and kilometres of long grass as the expedition made its way from the top of Mount Gorongosa to the banks of the Zambezi River and back down to the edge of the Great Rift Valley. The final success of the expedition hung on an old pontoon, restored to take our team of Defenders across the Urema River, to the old, bullet-pocked Hippo House, on the edge of Lake Urema, inside Gorongosa National Park.
The final crossing
The expedition team is evidently a family, but everyone has a role. If my role was to share a story of humanitarian relief and the successful restoration of one of the continent’s wildest plains, I’ve returned with that and so much more. I learned the tale of an expedition team sustained by humour and storytelling, and met individuals as storied as the vehicles that have driven them through Africa. Ten days of dirt tracking, wild camping and “round the fire bravery” deserve so much more than a page of reflection.
Luckily, we have a few.
The cover feature of the October/November issue of Getaway Magazine will detail our incredible journey around the park, the unique individuals driving change and the story of Gorongosa’s return to glory. I look forward to sharing it with you all.
EXPEDITION GEAR LIST
Thanks to ORMS’ gear rentals department, I set off on an expedition well equipped. I shot primarily with Canon’s versatile 24–105mm f/4 lens, attached to the Canon EOS R body, given most of the scenes required quick, handheld, medium-distance shooting. The 70–200mm f/2.8 Canon Sigma lens was brilliant for wildlife and distant subjects (but required an EF-RF adapter). I also had a 16–35mm Canon lens in the arsenal for a few landscape and wider-angle shots. Check out ORMS’ rental department if you’re in need of gear; the offering is extensive.
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